About One of the problems with short sales is the amount of time they take to complete, often as much as 4 to 6 months, or more. The typical retail buyer is not willing nor able to wait around that long and the buyer then walks away from the transaction.
Short sales approval typically take 60-90 days \ after the buyer and seller have signed their contract and all the corresponding paperwork has been submitted to the bank. Closing then takes another 30 days or so. Most buyers don’t want to stick around for 120 days with the uncertainty that they don’t know if the bank will even agree to the short sale or if the terms of the agreement will be acceptable to the seller.The biggest challenge with short sales is to keep buyers interested in the property long enough to see the entire transaction through to the end.
Bank of America recently notified real estate agents that they can now substitute a new buyer without having to initiate a new short sale. This is in the case of the original buyer walking away from the deal. For home buyers and sellers reading this who may not be involved every day in dealing with short sales, this really big change in the real estate market.
This development should help to speed up short sales, if for no other reason that they no longer need to start over.
Read the B of A document: http://sdshortsaleexperts.com/virtualoffice_files//bank-of-america-back-up-offer.pdf