Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

Elizabeth- Very well said! AND you are right- ALL offers are to be presented -even if there is an accepted offer.

Elizabeth, great reminder on the ethics for Agents. Apparently some need to go back and read the code.

This is an excellent post Elizabeth. Though most negotiators only review one offer (highest and best) I completely agree that it is a fiduciary NECESSITY to at the least send all of the offers to purchase to the bank for initial review.

Why not submit the offer? As the seller's agent you don't care which the bank accepts, only they accept one!

Elizabeth - I'm with Gary. Why would they even do this? Ethics aside, these agents are just plain knuckleheads.

I recently had an agent tell me she was only going to submit the best offer to the bank.  Yes, it is a lot of work to handle multiple offers, but it is part of the job--a short sale is neither short nor easy!

Hi Norma: I have had banks tell me that, too, in particular, IndyMac. But it's not really my place to determine which offer is best. Is it the offer that is the highest? The offer with a preapproval letter over a prequal? The offer that closes fastest? The one with the biggest earnest money deposit? I still send them all to the bank, even to IndyMac, and I let the bank decide because it's not my decision to make.

You know what the best offer is? The one the bank will accept and it closes. LOL.

Elizabeth - this is an excellent post, and oh so true. I had one where an offer was submitted to the agent, and it was "held" for two weeks. Then miraculously, along came another higher offer . . . very frustrating.

Elizabeth,

here is what the servicers I am working with telling me about offers.

Only bring offers that the buyer and the seller have both signed,and we have a complete short sale package.

When it is deemed to be a low ball offer, counter it and don't present it to them until both the seller and the buyer have an agreed price.

Bettina

Nice blog....In my case on short sales, once the homeowner & buyer bottomline a purchase agreement,  the homeowner has the option to sign an addendum (along with the buyer's signature), giving the homeowner the right to have their home go as "Pending" or continue to show.  This is part of an addendum that our broker created.  This takes the confusion out of it for everyone and my sellers feel like they have an opinion regarding the sale of the home.  Not only that, if you have priced the home well, you will get a lot of showings and an offer pretty quickly.

"Professionally Bringing Home Buyers and Sellers Together in a Competitive Market"

Nigel, state laws do vary on this, so saying that Elizabeth is incorrect my also be...incorrect.  In NC, we have short sale addendums that specifically lay out our obligations as the agent, one of which is to submit any and all offers to the lender for approval (until they ask as us to stop).  Yes, the seller is still the owner and must sign, BUT it's the lender that has to agree to make it an actual contract.  Another point in our addendums is that we also have to continue marketing the property "for sale" (vs. pending or pending/active) until the lender formally approves an offer.

Unless your state specifically dis-allows it, as a Realtor, you're required to submit ALL offers, period.  You, as the agent, don't get to choose which ones get "in."

Finally, how does an agent determine the single, "best" offer to submit anyway?  In most cases, the highest price offer may not be the best offer, for the seller or the bank.  A lower offer that's all cash, no contingencies may prove to be the 'better' offer in the eyes of the lender.  Even an offer that is lower, but with less contingencies may be better than the highest price.  I'd much rather simply submit ALL the offers and let the seller/lender decide which one is the "best" offer.

Elizabeth- I present all offers regardless to the seller...the one behind on the payments it's the law but with that said:  The seller does in fact make the decision..and some banks have their stips in writing..I actually have a back up...and the seller who came from the financial industry refused to sign it..it has been fully disclosed to all parties attempting to buy this property and he has an attorney in place.  State of Florida.

Yes the seller is not current and the bank is about to take the property back...but they have not taken the property back..they need to just accept the shortage and give final approval!  But I do agree with you 100% all offers should be presented to the seller regardless of what our personal feelings are!  And as much as I dislike verbals..I still by law have to present them unless otherwise specified in the listing agreement.

This is definitely going to create some lawsuits. Here the seller is the owner, the one we have a fiduciary duty to, they review the contracts (if many) sign one and it gets submitted. There are some that submit only one offer, some that submit all offers, some have seller sign all offers and submit all (which is just plain scary) and then there is Countrywide for example who doesn't want to see anything except one offer. I will need contact a real estate lawyer and ask for their take. ~Rita

Elizabeth -  We have also been advised by our board attorney that we may be party to fraud by submitting a contract in "back up" position to a short sale lender, as short sale lenders don't abide by contract order required.  They would bypass a lower offer in primary position for a higher "bid" thus creating an auction.  Correctly, a primary offer is worked first, countered until null and void by a contract provision.  At that point, a back-up contract, with proper clause, becomes the primary.  The short sale lender is not the "seller".

Interesting. Our legal counsel says that we are in an "executed" position with the seller subject to lender approval. We may take back-ups...but we are executed.

Hi Elizabeth -- I 100% agree with you.  Only when people are held accountable will things begin to change.

Elizabeth: Great post... I agree.. all offers should be sent to the bank.

Elizabeth you rock. I think you should of been an attorney cause it seems like you don't take squat. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. 

Clear as mud now :)

TLW...ROAR!

Short sales are a very slippery slope and many agents are going to be in for a very rude awakening in the future if they are not very, very careful about how they are dealing with these types of tarnsactions today. 

I am in an area that has been dealing with short sales for well over 4 years now...plenty of time to get very educated very quickly on how NOT to lose your license.   I could write a book about all the pitfalls that agents handling short sales could face when the dust settles and people are clear headed enough to realize what happened. 

When handling these type of sales...be very careful, document EVERYTHING in writing....have a lawyer on retainer and be prepared for the future backlash.   Something as simple as you "The Agent" faxing over any information about the home owner to the bank...even if the homeowner asked you to...could cost you your license.  Agent Beware.

In California, we have this nifty little document called the Short Sale Addendum. I see other states use something similar.

That document allows the seller to accept more than one offer -- yes, you are reading this correctly -- because only the offer that the bank accepts is valid.

It may also blow your mind to know that sellers in California can also submit multiple counter offers to buyers, and each multiple counter can be different. Not only that, but the seller can reject or accept any of the accepted multiple counter offers. For any kind of sale. Does your head hurt yet?

Selling real estate is complicated enough, but when you toss in short sales and our California laws, no wonder agents are dropping like flies.

Elizabeth -

There are two types of Short Sale Riders here in IL.

Both allow for presentation of Back-Up Offers of course, but one allows for an automatic kick out, with right of first refusal, if another stronger, offer, acceptable to the bank, comes in.

In my experience, you CAN present a stronger offer to the bank once a Loss Mitigator is assigned to the file - with the best time for such presentation AFTER the response comes from the first offer submitted.  If you do so too early, you may force the Loss Mitigator to completely start the process from the beginning - including the BPO.

Indeed, timing is everything here!

DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO

Elizabeth, there are WHOLE offices here that are doing this. Makes me sick. They tell you that there is NO Standard for Short sales and that is how it is going to work.

I finally closed on my short sale today. I got the offer we finally closed on when another offer had already been submitted. It was 35K more for the bank. The processor would NOT let us submit it and we notified them asap. She said we were too far along in the process and they were only going to deal with it. The day we got the final approval the buyer no longer qualified.

So we then sent the other, better offer over. It was approved in 2 weeks.

I knew they would shred the files on the offer if we just told them the other buyer walked.

So ultimately they did get 35K more than but not because they wanted it.

I hate everything going on with Short sales now days from Realtors, to banks and down the line.

This really shouldn't be a hard concept to grasp, should it?  Submit all offers.  What a novel idea. :)

No ash this far north... thankfully!

Elizabeth, thank you for bringing up a very real subject that from reading comments seems to be occuring in more than one market. I would love to say that we are leading the way with an ethical, responsible and successful method of showing, selling and presenting short sales. Perhaps I will be able to report our improvement soon.  Thanks again.

I think all listing agents need to be reminded of Standards of Practice 1-6 & 1-7. It doesn't matter whether it is a short sale agent, a REO agent or any other agent. All agents must present. The seller can reject if they do not want to see anymore offers, but the offers must be presented.

Sometimes sellers tell listings agents that pre-qualification letters or proof of funds or a certain amount of earnest money must occupany offers. Then the buyer's agents writes an offer with less earnest money, or doesn't have pre-qual letters. That of course does not mean the listing agent should wait until the buyer's agent's offer is up to the seller's standards to present. It is up to the seller to reject, not up to the listing agent to hold offers.

The other thing I have heard are agents that tell another agent on the phone that there is already an offer in, or several offers in and you can hear by the way they are talking that they are discouraging offers. It is the listing agent's job to encourage all offers until closing. Back-ups are great. I have closed on back-ups before and was glad to have them.

Every agent that writes an offer for a buyer should insist that the offer is presented.

Hi Elizabeth, I am parked ( having read all the comments ) and I am enjoying the dialog in this discussion. An interesting topic for sure. I hope to come back again and review the updates. Congratulations on the feature, it is more than worthy.

Sincerely,

William

Wow, it must have gotten off with you pretty good uh. It has one wondering if all listing agents are unethical.

Elizabeth,

What a discussion. Interestingly, Broker Bryant is using, as far as I understand, the same addendum, as I do, done by the same attorney, with whom I have worked on several deals. I remember asking the attorney about it, and he told me that it is rather standard that they present 3-4 offers to the Lender.

I am not sure why we can't have the Seller sgin several offers (as we do), because they are contingent on the third party approval.

And it does not matter for us whether the next offer is lower than the first one, we still send it in. We had 3 offers on the house, and the buyers on the first one walked away, but because we have another one, we hopefully will not have to start from scratch.

I just do not understand why we would not deal with these offers the same way all other offers are dealt with. Maybe if we did, the banks would actually step up to the plate and play by the same rules as the rest of us.

I am telling you guys, this is a cocktail of disaster.

Harrison Painter

The only way to change the way they do business is to enforce the rule and we don't who will?

Elizabeth, good post, and I believe it applies to REO listings even more.  I've seen agents who said they "submitted our offer and the bank agreed to sell to us" but then didn't send us any documents for 3 weeks, and meanwhile other offers came in higher!  I've also seen agents who said they submitted offers, when in fact, they did not.  And then of course, those who don't submit after the 1st offer.... There needs to be a clear standard of practice emphasized.

Many people are thinking that somehow submitting offers to the lender is bypassing the seller, and their rights.  Maybe I just assumed here that everybody understands that in a short sale, the seller stills owns the property and must approve ANY offers before they are submitted to the lender for approval.

That said, the question then becomes, "Do you only submit the first, or best, offer. Or do you submit all offers as they come in?"

I believe the new NC short sale addendums answer that pretty clearly here.  If you want more details, you can read it on my post, The Short on Short Sales but the short version (no pun intended) is this, after a Seller has approved an offer and it's submitted to the lender, we must continue to market the property "For Sale" until just time as the lender formally approves of the short sale price.  Further, it is written that there may be other offers that MUST be submitted to the seller and then, submitted to the lender for approval.  Technically, these "other offers" are considered 'backup offers' BUT the Lender ultimately decides which one is approved.

I have a very easy solution that would protect us all in this situation.

If the Seller agrees to a short sale, the Lender gets a "Limited Power of Attorney" to deal with any and all offers.

Guess what? No fancy addendums, no confusion, and Realtor liability with the multiple offers.......going....going.....gone!!!!!

Your thoughts?

Harrison Painter

It also helps the bank see that the offer had competition. That gives the amount validity in cases where the BPO might come in too high.

Elizabeth, let's preface this with state laws and who has fiduciary and what qualifies one to make the decision of whether to hold back an offer or not.

In CA you have fiduciary, here it is presumed we are all transaction brokers unless otherwise specified in writing. We work as transaction brokers, we do not work in a fiduciary capacity with our sellers.

That being said; we feel and through experience know that we are working to get our seller out of a foreclosure. When we get multiple offers, the seller chooses the strongest one, the one most likely to close to send to the short sale lender. We then inform the other agents who is in which place in which order. I would not send a bunch of offers to the short sale lender at one time because this gives the lender a signal that perhaps all these offers are too low.THat is a good way to kill the chances of any of the offers getting through.

The code of ethics you are quoting has nothing to do with any offers going to a lender on a short sale. The code of ethics you are quoting has to do with the seller and all offers are being presented to the seller. The seller is the homeowner not the lender. The lender is NOT a party to the contract. The lender does not sign the offer, the homeowner does. THe legally binding part of the contract is between the buyer and the seller and it is a bi lateral contract. Not A tri lateral contract. We don't even have a place on our contracts for any short sale lender to sign.

I am NOT in violation of the code of ethics or any contract law in the state of Florida by sending in one offer and putting the rest in back up position. IN fact, in our MLS, we have a special addendum with even a kick out clause, etc that stipulate the terms of back up offers.

We deal with one offer at a time for the benefit of our seller, the homeowner. We could care less what the bank gets. We are NOT working for the short sale lender in any capacity. Our listing agreement is with the seller who is the homeowner. The seller is being presented with ALL the offers and he or she chooses the best one to send to the bank. Katerina

Great information.... Thanks for sharing and I agree .....

Gotta love the effort though

We have the seller sign a short sale offer acceptance with an addendum which states this is pending lender approval.  We continue to market the property as active because it is not ratified because 3rd party approval has not been received; therefore, we can continue to send in multiple offers until the highest and best is accepted by the lender.  All parties are aware from the initial offer that this is requriing approval by lender and the listing also states that so it is no suprise to anyone involved.  We have had many offers on the table at one time to a lender and they didnt accept any of them and had we pended the property it would have lessened our chances of continuing to receive the final approved offer.  Many realtors wont show pended property in our market becaue they feel it is a waste of time so we have buyer/seller sign that the property is remaining active until accepted by the lender. 

Wow Elizabeth!  Your post certainly stirred up a hornets nest!  Obviously short sale procedures vary greatly in different locations as well as opinions on how they are handled.

It's a shame there isn't some way that an intelligent/comprehensive procedure for all to follow (lenders/sellers/buyers/agents) in handling short sales couldn't be put in place to cover what could currently be considered an emergency to all parties envolved.

There doesn't seem to be any such thing as a normal Closing time frame for these transactions which the lenders seem to drag on for months before a total comittment and possible Closing occurs!  Buyers don't understand why and their committed loan approvals expire and have to be re negotiated if the buyers are willing hang in.  Stress, stress, stress for all envolved!  Throw in a second lender on the sellers mortgage and it really gets unbelievable!  Lots of sellers have those 2nd loans that also need to be approved for the short sale.  It's a sad, sad situation for all involved.

Sue of Robin and Sue

I like what you are saying here but in my experience the banks are slow to respond to the offer. So the agent does submit it but my clients still have to wait three months for an answer. I stopped showing short sales a few months back for several reasons. I call them liar listings. I explain it all to my buyers and I let them know that if they with to buy a short sale they will have to do it through another agent. I have spent too much time not making any money representing buyers on short sales and quite a bit of time representing sellers too. I don't have a business reason for needing to show them or work with them and so far none of my clients have bailed. I do work with foreclosures and I am sympathetic to the sellers who have homes on the market that are subject to bank aproval but I can't help them.

Good point! It is good to have you to refresh our training and help us keep things going in the right direction. 

There are so many negatives to the short sale process and it seems that all we ever hear about are the do and don't for the agents -- where are the bank's rules.  Why in the world does it take them so long to decide on something so important.  That is my question.

I always send them all the offers I get but I do feel that I am contributing to the slower than mud process.

Great post!

Elizabeth - Wow !  Rock on.  Direct and to the point.  The problem with short sales is that if a new agent talks to 10 relatively inexperienced people or other agents, they will probably get 10 different variations.  I think there should be more traiing across the board to help with the process or even have mandatoroy training for those agents handling short sale listings ?

Elizabeth, I guess all states are different.  In Florida, if you get the seller to sign multiple offers, it opens up some very nasty liability issues.  We accept back up offers, disclose that they are backup offers to all parties.  Sellers sign only one contract at a time.

I am on the side that once the seller has approved the deal and the offer is sent to the bank, the agent has done their job.  The seller may select a back-up offer, but that dosn't go to the bank till the first deal falls through.

We just closed a short sale that took 7 months. We had two backups on it, and I am glad we did. The first got tired of waiting, and we moved the second contract right in. A Realtor who will not take a back up offer on short sales is more than unethical, they are moronic.

Elizabeth...

I finally finished reading the comments. Man oh Man this post is smoking! I don't mind seeing misinformation or strong opinions voiced but I gotta tell ya the second I see people start calling other Members of our Profession names it all becomes meaningless to me. Name calling is childish and lends no credibility to the post, the topic or the enlightening debates that come up. It's a shame too, it's a great topic.

TLW...ROAR!

Wow! What a conversation! 

Ultimately I think that what we need are some CLEAR CUT rules & regulations from the NAR followed by some State specific regulations on exactly how we need to process short sales.

I also think that every state should have continuing education requirements that you must meet in order to be a listing agent on short sales & REOs.  Since we don't have that yet (or any CE requirements in NJ) I have just signed up for the CDPE course and I will do my best to learn as much "good" infromation as I can so that I can best represent my client...the Seller.

I am in complete agreement with Susan Milner comment #60 and many other people's comments that we work for the seller, not the lender. The seller cannot sign multiple offers without creating a real mess!  If I were a buyer with a signed contract (without a SSA) I would most certainly be looking for specific performance regardless of how many other offers the seller signed.

Geez, take a few days off AR and you miss a WHOLE lot! More than anything this post demonstrates how confused our whole industry is about what the correct process is and how many conflicting, professional opinions there are on the subject.

My area is no different...

 We have a NWMLS SS addendum which allows buyer and seller to negotiate whether Seller will or will not be permitted to accept other offers. I focus on the word accept...I will present them all to the seller, but if they are in contract with a buyer which stipulates they will not accept any other offer then they can't sign it. 

So there's that addendum.

Then we have the Washington Association of Realtors Attorney telling us that we must submit all offers to the Lender.

We'll figure it out but it would be nice if everyone could get on the same page!

I am simply astounded at the amount of accusations, misstatements and misunderstandings flying around in this post. To try to clear up some confusion -- for any of you who have waded through this mess to get down this far -- here is a round-up of the facts:

• All offers must be presented to the seller by the listing agent, regardless of whether the transaction is pending, in contingent status or active, unless the seller has given written instructions otherwise.
  
• The seller does not need to sign every offer until the bank accepts an offer and the seller chooses to go forward.
• Offers do not go to the bank without being presented to the seller first.
• The short sale listing agent represents the seller.
• The seller has the right to reject lowball offers and to state such.
• Agents who refuse to present all offers are in violation of the Code of Ethics.

Now play nice. And don't get your knickers in a twist if CA short sales are handled differently than those in your state. If you don't play nice, your posts will vanish by the play-nice-police.

I am here in Sacramento also Elizabeth and our company and legal department are of the opinion, that once an offer comes in we submit to the bank, with a signed seller signature.  Due to the length of time many back out.  But the short sale addendum also says that the bank will have a final say in this transaction.  If I have 7 offers on a property why would I send all of those to the bank and get them thinking mulitple offer, when most will back out or be on to something else by the approval date anyway.  I send in the first offer and then when we get an approval from the bank, I go back to any and all buyers still interested and ask for highest and best.  Highest and best is then put ona  net sheet and the best net to the bank is our winner.  At this time the seller is made aware of which deal we are going into contract with and the bank only knows that I have the best offer presented.  I have fulfilled my fiduciary responsibility to the seller and the bnak gets more money. 

I don't agree the banks get confused with more than one offer I feel it is in the best interest of the seller to get the highest and best offer and stick to it.

Hi Gary: Another Standard of Practice says you must act fairly with all parties, so withholding information from other buyers is not being fair. But that doesn't mean you have to tell each buyer how much the other offers are. You can, of course, with your seller's permission, but that opens a whole can o' worms.

My sellers tell me whether they want to look at any offers below list price, and if they don't, we don't look at lowballs. But lowballs haven't really been the problem with short sales. The problem can be making sure you are dealing fairly and equitably with the multiple offers, as you have discovered.

Plus, half the time, the first offer goes away by the time the bank gets around to short sale approval. We let the bank pick the highest and best since the bank has the last word. I tell all the buyers to submit their highest and best. I just closed a CalVet short sale, where CalVet asked me to pick the highest and best. I suggested CalVet do it, and it did. :)

Elizabeth,

I got a feeling that for many this is a scholastic exercise. Who we deal with, who is our client, heck with the Lender.

Isn't it that in the best interests of the Seller, we need to do everything to close the short sale before the foreclosure sale. And if multiple offers allow to keep the process even when one buyer drops out, what's wrong with it.

I think we tend to forget that there is a clock ticking. And it can't care less about how right we are. Because it is theoretical, while the foreclosure is a grim reality

Elizabeth

Where do some people's head go at times?

Tom

Dear Elizabeth,

Buyers' agents have always been at the mercy of listing agents for submission of offers. We rely on the agent's ethics.

Bank owned properties open a whole new can of worms! Listing agents use different procedures and the banks can ask that no more offer be presented.

I can't see that we have any control!

Barbara

Elizabeth,

The air is much clearer now. This post was educational and included great controversy.

Well done Elizabeth,

Your post struck the nerve exposed by the extreme and unforeseen housing conditions in the country.

Our current laws, ethics and office practices haven't caught up to the reality of the short sale tsunami. We basicaly have outdated laws and practices that are in conflict with the practical reality of the short sale epidemic. 

I'm only sure of this - the financially devastated seller and the overworked / under paid loss mitigator don't give a hoot about the Realtor's code of ethics - they just want to get the deal done.

As Realtors, we need to figure out how to get the deal done and cover our rears from legal action - that's where your attorney earns her retainer.

Unbelievable amount of traffic on this topic.  We have handled only short sale listings for the last 4 years and get more than frustrated by agents that are handling multiple offers WRONG. 

WRONG - is sending all offer to the lender without the SELLER asking you to do so!  The lender is not a party to the transaction. Only their approval is necessary to close.  The Seller should be presented all offers and they can choose which ones to forward.  From their it simply ethical and necessary to be sure that all parties are notified of any all actions. Agents need to fully disclose, openly communicate, and never lie!!!! Those are our ethical responsibilities!  After that we have certain legal responsiblities to be sure everything is stipulated, disclosed, written or approved by an attorney to protect all parties!

In all this discussion - I have not yet seen anyone worried about the Seller's time-line and the fact that the national stats on short sales is that only 2 out 10 close.  Why do so few close?  Well, one of the reasons is buyers bail or don't perform and lenders reject offers.  So,if you don't have back-up offers to roll to then the foreclosure clock can strike twelve before another offer comes in. The Seller should retain the right to continue marketing the property while the lender reviews whatever offer the Seller chose to accept and send. 

Here is how we handle the process to answer all ethical and legal questions:

1) All offers are presented to the Seller.

2)  If the Seller chooses to accept an offer, we generally include stipulations that the offer is not 'binding' until bank approval is received and notice is provided to all parties.  It is then presented to the lien holder with a complete short sale package.

3) We have all parties to that transaction agree to and acknowledge that the Seller is retaining the right to market the property as an active listing for back-up offers and that they MAY choose to forward any back-up offers received to the lien holder.  We further stipulate that should the Seller choose to forward any other offers received that they will provide notice to the parties of the first accepted offer and (without contract shopping) give them an opportunity to present their highest and best.   [Essentially a mutliple offer situation]

4)  We tell every buyer's agent that calls on one of our short sale listings whether or not an offer has been presented  to the lien holder and that any offer their buyer may want to present will be given to the Seller - and that the Seller will choose if it will be forwarded to the lien holder for review.

5) If a Seller chooses to forward another offer to the lien holder - they either must send it unaccepted and provide notice to the parties of the accepted contract already in play that they have done so (that multiple offer situation thing), OR they must formally terminate the first contract (which was not binding until lien holder approval) accept the new one and send it to the lien holder. 

6) If a Seller does not choose to forward an offer to the lien holder - immediate notice is provided to the buyer's agent.  If the buyer wants their offer to be a back-up - we let them know where in line the offer is and give them proper expectations.  Generally we have good success keeping buyer's vested in-case the first does not work out. 

7)  All short sale listings remain active in our MLS until binding agreement which we have our seller's demand a special stip that makes binding agreement not until lien holder approval is received. 

KEEP IN MIND - That most lien holders DO NOT want random amounts of paperwork thrown at them.  Only until you are one-on-one with a specific loss mitigator assigned is it a good idea to keep sending in multiple offers.  So, if you have a Seller who does request that another offer be presented for review be careful how you send it in or you could bog down the process.

Going to write a whole article or two on this - it is worth more exploration.  Please add my blog to your list - more coming soon!

Amy Ransdell; The Southeastern Group; Atlanta's Short Sale Solution; www.managemyshortsale.com/home ;  www.shortsalecoachingmonthly.com

I have not read all the comments, but don't the standards you mention refer to the seller, not the lender? Don't we have a fiduciary obligation to our seller to do what we think is best which may be, in some cases, to only submit one offer to the bank? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this because I've called CAR Legal and few times, and they have a lot to say on the matter. Thanks. Great post!

Came back to read more comments. Lots of discussion going on here. It would be more than helpful if there direct national or state guidelines, rules etc and education as was stated above for short sales, there are way too many ways of handling shorts sales right now. Trouble ahead. ~Rita

Of course all ofrfers should be submitted to the bank. The short sale situation is crazy I think.  I stay away from them,

Portsmouth NH Real Estate