Comments on: Home Is Going Through A Short Sale, Who Pays For The Realtors?

By: Robert K

Robert K — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:45:23 +0000

In most cases the closing costs and realtor fees will be paid out of the agreed upon offer. This makes the bank short even more money and makes it more difficult to accept the offers. In some cases this process can take some time and banks are typically slow to respond to short sale offers…so unless you have a remarkable home I would expect this to take a long time and maybe even turn into a forclosure anyways.

By: hmitchel

hmitchel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:31:12 +0000

It sounds like you may be confusing a couple of concepts. A short sale is a regular sale that the bank authorizes for less than is owed on the mortgage. Typically the bank will pay for the realtors under those circumstances. An auction (where there would be bidders) is usually done after a property is foreclosed and realtors are not involved. However, the costs of the sale (auctioneer, publicity, etc. . .) are deducted from the sale proceeds before the amount paid is credited to the mortgage. If there is not enough money to cover the mortgage, you are still responsible for the deficiency.

By: David Z

David Z — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:06:15 +0000

The seller’s lender pays for it all. That is what you are asking for when you sell it short. That is why some lenders take so darn long to approve these. This is brutally expensive for them but less expensive than forelcosure.
Seller will get zero at closing and have no mortgage debt. But realtors and all closing costs still get paid. Seller will not have to pay anything at closing.
Short sale sellers are much more aggressive because they can drop listing price every few weeks until buyers emerge. Seller does not care because they have zero equity anyway. It is the lender taking it in the shorts.