Thoughts from Jenny

    Yesterday I spoke briefly about what a short sale means, and how a seller may qualify for one.

    Today I want to discuss how offers are to handled:

If the property is listed, and there are no current contracts in place, but there are multiple offers coming in at one time;

    1.  The seller can only sign one as the "primary" and the others as back up contracts (those back ups would be in numerical order of preference, and of of them would e subject to the seller being released from the "primary" contract, as well as previous offers signed by the seller). 

    i.e.:  If there were 5 contracts at one time, the seller will most likely choose 1 to work with.  They would sign that contract (which is now ratified).  They would/could sign the remaining 4 contracts as "back up contract #1"; "back up contract #2", etc.  All of which would be subject to the release of previous offers.

    2.  Any contract(s) the seller ratifies are then submitted to the lender for their approval.

In short sale situations the lender is NOT a party to the contract. The seller(s) and purchaser(s) are the parties to the contract. Lender approval is just a
“contingency” just like a home inspection

We will discuss short sales more later.