What is going on with short sales?

With short sales, after an offer is made to the listing agent, he will bring it to the bank and hoping the bank will agree to the sale price. What is going on behind the scene in the bank? Will decisions be made by one person or a group of people? Any particular formula they look at? Or do they sit back and laugh at all the offers?
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I specialize in short sales.

1. You submit an offer to the listing agent.
2. The listing agent presents it to the seller.
3. The seller accepts the purchase offer and the listinh agent sends the short sale package to the lender.
4. The lender conducts an appraisal (aka BPO) on the property to se if it makes sense to do a short sale or continue to foreclose.
5. If the numbers look like it will work, then the lender will submit the short sale package to the investor holding the note for approval.
6. Once approved, the seller gets an approval letter from the bank and you guys open up the transactio like a retail purchase.

I wrote a blog on how to buy short sales:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1079781/...
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Many factors in the short sale process hence a reason why the majority of times a short sale fail,

First is the FMV of the home, the bank will request this from a broker if your offer is in line you have a chance

Then are there other encumbrances like liens or a second loan if so the chances of success decrease

Then you have the issue that certain lenders are requiring the seller to sign a promissory note for the difference even if legally they are not obligated i.e. non-recourse

Then if the seller has other assets like savings etc the lender will not do the deal
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They will only laugh if it's a dumb offer. There are many people that will look at it. They will crunch the numbers to find out what is better, selling at an offer price or to hang on to the property.