RealTown's RealTalk

"And I believe lastly, your state rules as well as I believe federal require that all offers be presented to the seller and if they want to go for it or not. You as Buyers agent have a right to present (not negotiate) your offer to the Seller in person and only the Seller can reject this request. If you do not get the satisfaction you believe is due, talk to your broker. You may have the right to go directly to the Seller."

The seller of a short sale is the record owner of the property. The first offer that comes in (or all, if there a multiple offers) ARE presented to the seller. The seller chooses ONE offer to be the prime offer, and this offer is sent to the bank. If there were other offers, they are accepted in positions as 1st, 2nd, etc. back up offer.

The last thing these banks want is 10 offers coming in for THEM to choose from. WE are the agent for the seller. The lender simply has to accept, reject or counter the ACCEPTANCE of the short sale request. For instance, yesterday, I had a COUNTER offer from the lender on a prime offer request. I presented this counter to the agent for the buyer. He will present it to the buyer, who will counter, accept, or reject the offer. Whatever the buyer decides (unless rejected), will be sent back to the bank for review. If the buyer just rejects the offer, I go to the back ups in order of their acceptance, with the terms that are acceptable to the bank. If one of them agrees to the terms, IT is moved to prime position. If both want to make counter offers to the bank,THE BEST OFFER is accepted by the seller and sent to the bank.

I don't' believe that agents are REFUSING to present your offer to the lender. They MUST present your offer to the seller, who responds to the offer. Then the agent and the seller decide if they do, or don't send the offer to the bank for review. If they already have an offer in, EVEN IF IT IS A LOWER OFFER, they will NOT send it to the bank, but make it a back-up offer, which only goes to the bank if the prime contract falls through.