What Does A Lienholder Do On Multiple Offers on A Short Sale?

Yesterday I wrote about how a Realtor is required by Real Estate law to submit ALL offers into the lien holder. But what does the lien holder do with those offers? Well, unfortunately the answer is not as black and white as submitting all offers to the bank. it depends.... I have dealt with numerous banks/investors on short sales. I have had discussions with most of them when I am working a short sale as to their policy regarding a second offer coming in on the property while we are negotiating an offer on it. the answers have varied. I will say most banks want to know their is another offer on the house. They have asked me to verbally convey the terms of the offer. if the offer is financially more beneficial to them; they have countered back to the first buyer with the terms of the second offer (if the first offer terms were acceptable to begin with) and asked them to make a decision. I have had other banks (only one i have dealt with so far) tell em that submit one offer and any other offers you are to hold as backup offers and we do not want to know about them. Some banks have had me send all offers into them and when they were working out the numbers for the house they reviewed all the offers and told me this is the price we want for the house based on the offers Now, the difficult part with this part of the transaction is that the seller is technically the other party in the contract (not the bank/lien holder). Once a seller signs an offer to purchase and accepts the number subject to third party approval that is the only offer the bank can really consider. Just because I offer one number and you come behind and offer more money and better terms does not mean the bank can kick me to the curb. I still have to be offered what the bank feels is an acceptable number for them. if I refuse to accept the bank number then the seller can go back to the other buyers and present the bank offer to them and let the next in line buyer decide if they want those terms or not...and so forth down the line. So, ALL offers as I mentioned yesterday have to be presented to the bank. but the bank cannot pick and choose which offer they want to work with....However; experience has told me that they will adjust the numbers to the highest offer and maybe a little more if they feel they can get more money..... Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker www.davedicecco.com