Yes they do, I would never recommend a short sale to anyone, especially one like ours with 2 bank loans on it to go through the approval and agreement process with, unless they are prepared to go through a long wait and possible heartbreak.
The first, BofA, did an appraised amount back in Nov. that we agreed to and then while we were waiting for word on the second, we got a new contract from BofA stating that an investor now wanted $50,000 more, which was an amount based on an Automated Valuation Models (AVM) created online from basic info like lot size, house size, past neighborhood sales that can go back years, etc., nothing that based it on current housing market and actual condition of house, in other words, a ludicrous number! So we went ahead and ordered our appraisal through our broker and that too came back with the first original amount so we countered back and that was the week after Christmas so of course everything gets delayed due to the holidays. We finally got that back last week and they agreed again to that first original amount (what a stupid waste of time!) but the agreement had errors in it, a 2010 date and a closing date of 1/28 which is only 2 weeks away. Stupid errors that again add more delays. The listing agent has to get those fixed.
Then last Friday, we finally got the agreement from the second, also with an error (an incorrect selling price) They want 10% of the second loan amount which is almost $29,000, BofA agreed to give them only $3000 from the sale of the house which leaves $26,000 for a balance. The listing agent says the seller only has $3000 set aside for moving costs, which we don't believe, you don't live in a house for over 1 1/2 years not paying anything towards the 2 loans and not have more set aside!
So we will try get him to at least meet us part way. As much as it's totally unfair that we have to possibly pay for most of that difference despite it being the seller's defaulted loan, we like the house & location enough to pay more for it but it seriously cuts into our remodeling money and would force us to put things on the back burner. Brad has access to his pension (without paying penalties) in a year so we can wait until then to do any needed updates. So once we get all the numbers worked out with the seller, we hope to close some time in Feb., that is, if everything goes right. You never know.
We are tired of this, it's taken a lot out of us emotionally (I went through several bad weeks where I did a lot of crying when we thought the whole thing was about to collapse) and so far we just haven't seen anything else come along that felt right despite our continuing to look. I told Brad I will have no gardening money for a while and will have to grow from seeds, cuttings, buy plug plants from Mamjack's great co-ops here, trade for things and maybe even get that resale licenses I have been considering so I have access to wholesale plants & supplies, do a little side work. The bigger trees, fountain and pond will have to wait. We'll also make full use of Freecycle and Craigslist to stretch our creative ideas!
