Foreclosure and Short Sale Information for the
North Atlanta Real Estate Market
Foreclosure
Once a home goes into foreclosure, the bank will attempt to sell the property at auction on the court house steps for cash. Most homes do not sell and go back to the bank. The bank then assigns a local real estate agent to the property to list it for sale. There is a lapse in time between when the bank tries to sell on the court house steps and when it officially gets listed for sale. Sometimes it can take months before the property actually gets listed in the local multiple listing service for sale.
When the foreclosure (bank owned) home is listed with a local North Atlanta Real Estate Agent, we will all have access to the listing information. At that point, we can help with showing you the home and making an offer. Most banks will take 1-2 business days to respond to an offer. Occassionally, it will take longer. We should be able to have you under contract/sale pending within week of the offer and negotiations. After that, the lender will need appx 30 days to complete the loan for you. You generally have 7 to 10 days to get all inspections done once you are under contract. This is not true with court huse sales. Those are cash sales and purchased as is. With a listed property, the sale is allowed to be pending financing, meaning you can get a mortgage on the home. The sale is generally as is, but there are occassions where we can get the bank to do necessary repairs prior to close. With The Sherry & Maria Team’s help – we can help make this an easy process for you.
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As of today, there is a huge difference between how a foreclosure and short sale transactions are handled. It’s important to understand the difference so you can focus on the best type of distressed property to meet your needs and most importantly – your timing. Our team has extensive knowledge working with distressed properties. |
Short Sale
The owners of the property are the ones selling the property, with permission from the bank to take a short-fall on the difference of what the buyer offers on the home and what is actually owned on the mortgage. The property never goes back to the bank’s possession; however, anything in the purchase and sale agreement has to be approved by the bank’s short sale department.
Presently, this is a very lengthy process. It can take over 30 days to receive a response to your initial offer. Once the bank responds, you can either accept the response or counter. Sometimes we find that the bank actually counters a higher price than where the property was listed for sale. (Since the property is not bank owned, the listing agent has not been notified by the bank on what price they are willing to sell the home for so sometimes the listing agent prices the home too low to begin with). If you counter the bank’s response, it can take another week or even month to hear back from the bank. From start to finish, trying to purchase a short sale can take several months. You must be able to wait patiently. There is no way to expedite a short sale transaction at this current time.
North Atlanta Foreclosure Home Search
North Atlanta Short Sale Home Search
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