Tag Archives: Kansas City Short Sale Listing Agents

Interested In Buying A Kansas City Or Johnson County Kansas Short Sale Listing?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

In today’s market, many home buyers in Kansas City and Johnson County Kansas are looking for deals on Short Sales and foreclosures. For many, the term Short Sale is synonymous with bank foreclosure listings, yet that couldn’t be further from the truth. Bank foreclosures are listings that have already gone through the foreclosure process, the bank now has a clear title to sell the property and the bank is looking to get the properties off their books. But Short Sales are much different. In a Short Sale, the homeowner is upside down on their home but it has not (yet) been foreclosed on. In other words, the home seller is HOPING their lender will accept a Short Sale, so the home can be sold before it goes into the foreclosure process.


Short Sale means a short payoff of what is still owed on the home. In many cases, the seller’s lenders doesn’t even know what’s about to hit them. Though it can’t be a surprise generally speaking when a lender is notified a seller is requesting a Short Sale, the reality is that many sellers are not yet behind on their payments. So this could mean the first notification a seller’s lender gets that a loan is about to go bad is when a listing agent sends the lender a Short Sale package. A Short Sale package includes the real estate contract (with whatever buyer is trying to purchase the home) and a laundry list of other items (i.e. proof of job loss, etc) that the seller’s lender will demand if there’s any chance of the Short Sale getting through.

If you are planning to buy a home in Kansas City, Johnson County Kansas, Overland Park or the surrounding area, there’s certainly many complications that come with Short Sales that aren’t encountered when dealing with a typical re-sale transaction. There’s many additional hurdles to consider, including whether the listing agent assisting the seller knows how to properly handle a Short Sale. From my experience, most agents are not experienced in dealing with Short Sales. If they’re not, the chances of a successful Short Sale just shot down well below a coin flip. So it’s important that your Buyer’s Agent politely quiz the listing agent on their expertise with the Short Sale process.

Short Sales can take 60, 90, 120, 150 days or more to get the closing table (many never do close), so you MUST have patience AND time on your side or Short Sales are not for you. You’ll be asking a lender to accept less than what the seller owes on the home and they’ll need to study the offer, do a detailed market analysis and come to a conclusion on either accepting your Short Sale offer or choosing to take the home back by way of foreclosure.

Click here if you are a homeowner considering selling your Kansas City area home in a Short Sale.

Posted by Jason Brown

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Some Preliminary Aspects Of A Short Sale For Sellers And Buyers To Consider

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

If you’ve been following along, you know that Short Sales can be a great alternative to foreclosure for homeowners who are upside down on their homes. But Short Sales aren’t easy and if you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in a Short Sale, there are a few things to consider before starting the process. For starters, sellers will have to accept giving up information to their listing agent that they’d be able to keep confidential in a typical resale transaction.


When dealing with Short Sales, the listing agent will need to be in direct contact with the seller’s lender and will need honest, accurate information from the seller if there’s any chance of achieving a successful Short Sale. Sellers should also consider they likely won’t be able to buy a home in the next 12 to 24 months. For buyers, Short Sale listings are often in better condition than foreclosure listings. That could mean saving thousands of dollars. Generally speaking, the condition of a Short Sale property will be some where in between a typical resale property and a foreclosure property. Same goes for the typical sales prices on Short Sales.

I don’t recommend a buyer or seller attempt selling in a Short Sale if they don’t have a lot of patience. It’s not an easy process. It might be 10 times harder than a typical real estate transaction. It can take 60, 90, 120… days to get word from the seller’s lender on whether they’ll accept a Short Sale. If you’re a buyer who needs a home that can close in a predictable time frame, just go ahead and eliminate all Short Sale listings off your list.

Also consider that the lender is going to rely almost exclusively on a Broker Price Opinion (BPO)  that it will order from a third-party real estate agent. If the value indicated in that BPO or appraisal is too high, the bank is likely to say no to the Short Sale and foreclose on the property (believing they’ll net more that way than by accepting the Short Sale). Don’t forget that the seller’s lender is under absolutely no obligation to accept a Short Sale – and thus a loss – on the home.

Another critical aspect of the Short Sale process is the listing agent involved. The listing agent is certainly the most important person in the transaction. Without a solid listing agent, a good buyer’s agent will be spinning their wheels. The listing agent is the only one who can contact the seller’s lender, so it’s worth checking with a listing agent before you make an offer to be sure the agent has a clue of how the process works.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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