A Whole Different Category in Costa Mesa Real Estate
I forgot about the other wildcard yesterday with real estate statuses when I posted trying to help someone understand what the different statuses mean from our MLS listings! It completely slipped my mind that short sales are being treated in a completely different way by most agents.
Costa Mesa Short Sale Statuses
It’s funny, but most agents don’t get the status concept on short sales. Our official MLS rules tell us that if an offer is accepted by the buyer and the seller of a short sale, we must update the status to Back-up offers. So in a typical short sale, the same principles hold true in that buyer and seller must agree on terms of contract. The one variant is that the entire offer is subject to bank approval, spelled out on every short sale that you will ever see in Costa Mesa real estate. What normally happens after the contract is accepted is that the listing agent will send the offer to the bank for their review and hopefully their approval. This is where the agent usually breaks down – the do not update the status to Back-up offers or Pending. Why? Because it is not a valid contract without the bank’s approval.
True, but….
While that much is true, the problem that most buyers’ agents and consumers face is that they think that the home is still available (without any accepted offers on it). Especially when some websites show the DOM (Days on Market) statistics for a Costa Mesa real estate home, you think (incorrectly) that there is either no interest or no offers on the home, when in fact an offer was accepted a LONG time ago – misleading, huh? The only way that you would ever know is by calling the listing agent, and guess what? That is actually what they want. They want the opportunity to talk to you so they can sell you this home or another one in Costa Mesa real estate. Does it benefit the listing agent? You bet, in a huge way.
What to do? What to do?
There is always our local board of Realtors for a complaint about something in Costa Mesa real estate, or you can always complain to the Dept. of Real Estate. It is a shame more people don’t do it, it would get the bad elements out of our business. We had too many bad things as a profession going on with the run-up of prices in the middle of the last decade.
Last thought
Before you get excited about a home that is “for sale”, be sure that your Realtor knows exactly what the status is on the home.
Costa Mesa Short Sale Statuses
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