Suntrust Short Sale

In case you were wondering, our offer did get accepted on the Suntrust short sale as well. Actually, we really haven't wrapped all that up yet. The timelines on that property haven't been up to my standards either. Seriously, what is it with people dragging their feet? Apparently no one is in any great hurry to close real estate transactions. I would think we were back in 2004 when everyone had so much business it was like the all day buffet. They would load up their plates, leave half uneaten and throw away the remainder. I feel like the tossed out stuff.



Anyway- so we viewed the home on I think September 10th. We wrote an offer immediately (standing in the driveway) and were hopeful we would hear something definitive and quickly at that. The following day we were told the realtor had received our offer but would be waiting to meet with the homeowners until the weekend. No problem- we figured we could hold out for another day or two.



The sellers realtor came back on Monday and asked us for our highest and best offer. Huh? We offered almost 26k above your asking price? So we decided to go aggressive. We wrote that our highest and best would be $1000 above any other highest and best offer- including our own original offer. Apparently there was someone that just threw a ridiculously high number out there hoping that the sellers would take the bait- knowing that if the appraised value did not come in it would be renegotiated downward later anyway.



Lucky for us- the seller's realtor wasn't a total ego. He did tell them that he didn't feel the higher offer was realistic and that ours had clearly been the most serious one from the beginning. Plus I think it helped that we had toured the home while the seller was there. They have two small children that are almost the exact same ages as our kids.



But after hearing on Wednesday night that our offer was accepted we really haven't seen much movement. That was Wednesday the 16th. Today is Wednesday the 23rd. We just barely received the seller's signed counter offer two days ago and we still have not yet received all the seller disclosures that we were supposed to receive as part of the contract.



So in essence, we have lost nearly two weeks already just going back and forth on the original offer! I am definitely hoping that the seller's realtor (who incidentally is negotiating the short sale for them and NOT utilizing a 3rd party processing company) really is on his game and this is not indicative of the timelines we will see on this property.



Actually, I think it has been somewhat good that they have been dragging their feet on the property that goes to the Suntrust short sale. We actually had told our realtor when writing the second contract that we would not tie up the first home if we did not intend to follow through on it. We were prepared to notify the seller of the Countrywide/BofA short sale that we were cancelling escrow. It just so happened that the day after we were just about to withdraw our offer on that home we got the update that indicated the BPO might be coming in soon so we figured if we were this close we would hold out.



Right now we aren't thinking we have much hope on the original property that started this whole short sale blog. We feel that BofA is going to either deny our offer because it will be too low compared to their BPO or we will counter back to our highest and best and it still will not be high enough. I say- it's been nice to dream about that home. But I'm not going to put myself under water to take on a second mortgage - especially when we already own a home in the area that is upside down. Instead- if they do not accept our offer, or even our highest and best- then we are going to pass and know that we gave it our all. We are going to make the conservative choice and proceed with the 2nd contract we have out there- as the home is less expensive, needs less work done to make it our own, and will cost less for us to maintain in the long run. It's a tough call though- both homes have features we absolutely love. If we had the cash we would buy them both. I don't know what we would do with them, but we would buy them.

Well, if we could get a flippin' short sale approval from their banks that is.