So what could possibly be new on the short sale front?  They still take a long time.  There are no guarantees that a short sale will be successful.  Approved short sales still require approval.  So what’s new?

First a few specifics:

Chase now has an application that is required for submission of a short sale – a checklist laying out the starting paperwork.  I discovered this last week when I was told by a Chase representative to go to http://www.chase.com/shortsale.  Here you can find some very simple answers to questions you may have, however, they are simple answers; the questions however, are generally far more complex.  For Chase, beginnings of the short sale process are unchanged – contact them after you’ve got an offer on your property.

Bank of America has instituted a policy and approach they call, the Cooperative Short Sale.  Using their Equator system, you can now begin the process of qualifying – yes qualifying – for the short sale, before you have an offer.  B of A states they want you to pre-qualify in an effort to expedite the short sale process and that by doing so you can shorten the approval time to as little as 10 days when you finally do get that offer.

So, is that true or false?  The answer is a bit of both.  In theory you can get the B of A approval quickly, however this presumes you have all the paperwork turned in, timely and updated, complete and without error – something most principles fail to do and in fact only the best short sale Realtors will help you through.  Further their policy only applies to their loans – not those of a second lien holder – duh right?  But most short sales do involve more than one loan and most of those, more than one lender.  And why can only the “best short sale Realtors” help?  Well I should say this is a trade secret, but truthfully success in short sales has almost as much to do with the people putting together the package (your Realtor), as the borrower filing for the short sale: How thorough are they, how much do they help the borrower navigate, collect and submit the paperwork.  These really are the keys to unlocking the mystery of most short sales. There’s a lot more to this short sale business, so check back to the Real Estate Conversation, as I will be spending a great deal of time in the coming weeks and months, sharing my thoughts about short sales as well as providing some tips and tricks to short sale success.  Feel free to email me any specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.