Bank Responds With Counter Offer

The bank has had the documents for about a week and in a very quick turn of events, it has countered the offer that was submitted when this short sale was initiated.

The counter offer shortened the time to close escrow from 30 days to 17 and increased the price by $200,000. Of course, this price is too high for our buyer so it's time to counter the counter offer.

We have countered the offer back to the original offered price and have increased the days to close escrow back to something that is slightly less than 30 days. The lender has been notified to begin to prepare the loan paperwork.

At this point, we just have to wait for the bank to respond to our counter offer before we can move ahead.

In most short sales, a broker price opinion, or BPO—a tool used by lenders and mortgage companies to value properties in situations where they believe the expense and delay of an appraisal is not necessary—would take place.

The BPO would be accompanied by an appraisal before the bank would counter. There is a previous BPO and appraisal on file so the bank has not required those to take place. This is saving all of us a lot of time.

Lindsay and Mark now have to wait to find out if they will be moving out of their home at the end of the month. And, of course, the buyer and the lender will be frantically working to make this loan happen in less time than they would like.

Cassie Maas is a Realtor with Alain Pinel Realtors, Saratoga and is an experienced short-sale agent. She is distressed property certified, a C.A.R. director and is currently the chair of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors Los Gatos/Saratoga District. She also handles regular transactions. Reach her at 408-472-7988.