Short sale obligations

[Kama Ward]

I currently have the capacity to do one or two deals at a time. For various reasons, I won't be ready to expand that for about a year. I'd like to offer on short sales, but I'm wondering about my obligations.

1. If I make an offer, what are my legal obligations- if I offer and they accept months later- is it a legal contract just like a regular offer? Or if they accept- is there some step where I need to reaffirm?

2. What are my "reputational"/moral obligations- What if I make an offer and then they accept months later and I cannot perform? Each large bank gives all their short sales to one attorney and re agent. I'd hate to get a bad rep.

[Monica Breckenridge]

You are in a legal contract as soon as its signed and accepted by all parties. We have a short sale addendum to the contract in my state and the buyer and seller have the option to cancel the contract before short sale approval. If you want to cancel after short sale acceptance you will need to have outs in the contract.

Reputation and moral- I would not write an offer on a house if you can't perform. Yes you can loose your reputation among the realtors. Also the seller risks loosing their house to foreclosure. They are relying on you to purchase the house. The seller has usually one chance and you might ruin that for them. By the time the bank counters the bank may have been postponing the foreclosure. The second you say no they can foreclose not giving the seller enough time to find another buyer.