I am curious why you feel your agent is not working in your best interest. As you most likely know I live in Scripps and am more then a little familiar with the area. One thing about short sales is that they can be really frustrating for buyers to deal with. I am not trying to defend your agent but more often then not, the buyer and his/her agent are pretty much powerless when dealing with the listing agent and his client the seller.
Here is an example… I have a buyer who submitted an all CASH offer to a property in Encinitas that is a short sale 2 weeks ago. Our offer was ABOVE list price. After a few days the listing agent got back to me and said his seller did not want to accept the offer. While the offer was about 2% higher then the offer they already had into the lender, the seller simply did not want to reset the lender from the initial offer the lender had in there. I tried to argue that our offer was better and was CASH! This was a virtual lock that the lender would take it right? Well the seller still did not budge and decided he would rather risk what he already had into the lender…
Anyways it was frustrating for all parties involved, especially my buyers who are very nice and who I have been working with for about 7 months now.
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Now one thing that you noted was that your agent had a dismal attitude about the whole process… That is not good at all. Another thing that is not uncommon on short sales is commission reductions. Looking at the process, what happens is you send an offer to the listing agent… if the seller accepts and the offer is to be sent to the lender, then the listing agent needs to get a closing statement to accompany the offer when they send it into the lender. A preliminary title report will catch other liens (most people in default also stop paying property taxes as well) so basically the lender will look at the offer, back out all liens, closing costs commissions and such, and then say okay, we will give a lien release (or liens for multiple mortgages) for $X. The lender may also cut the commission down to reach that $X…
Also remember, while your short sale offer is being considered, other offers may come in as well. Maybe the listing agent sends them in, maybe not.
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With all this said, an agent having a bad attitude is not tolerable. Have a talk with your agent and tell him how you feel. Or even go to the broker and ask for a different agent.
Dont tolerate subprime performance. No matter what this agent will make money so you shouldn’t feel like you have posted.
