Buying a Pre-Foreclosure Home? Be Prepared to Wait
Most of us level-headed people would think that a bank, faced with the possibility of a Trustee Sale or foreclosure and all the costs association with one, would be anxious to unload one of these homes with a ready and willing buyer. Why? Several reasons: huge costs associated with advertising and administrating the Trustee Sale or foreclosure, a chance that the Trustee Sale will not bring a high enough offer and the lender will have to buy the home, and the ability to get a buyer sooner, rather than 3-4 months the lender must wait before a Trustee Sale or foreclosure can be conducted.
However, lenders must not be prepared to handle the high number of pre-foreclosure offers they are receiving. When a distressed homeowner tries to sell a home for less than he owes, the bank must agree to receive less for that property in a sale. The term for this unfortunate event is known as a “short sale,” a term which reminds me of the youthful prank of “short-sheeting”, which has the same emotional affect on the kid that got short-sheeted as it does the bank who gets “short-saled,” which undoubtedly is some kind of “make-it-go-away” kind of reaction.