Short Sale Madness - are you seeing this too?

[Charlie MacPherson]

I've seen a trend with short sales over the last couple of years here in the greater Boston market.

Short sales are hard enough, but I'm seeing more and more phrases like this:  "Buyer is responsible for $5,000.00 negotiation fee which can not be financed and must be paid at closing."

I've even seen a few that state that the $5,000 fee must be paid upfront - whether the sale goes through or not!

How about you?  Are you seeing this kind of madness too?

[Charlie MacPherson]

@Ryan Murdock  I don't know the history, but I'd suspect it's people using their homes as an ATM machine.  

As values increase, keep taking more HELOCs - which they can do until something in their lives hits the fan and the owner can't keep up with the payments.