gobanana516 asked:


The owners accepted my offer and signed my contract, but the contract has to be approved by the bank. It takes up to 5 days for them to approve. My questions is–what happens if other offers come in before the bank approves? Can the owner take another offer even though they already signed mine?
Our offer was for the asking price.

There’s a good chance there will be other offers, since the price is really low and there was already another offer when we made ours. The house has only been on the market for 9 days.
One more question: what exactly does the bank have to approve?

Gaylord

10 Responses to “I just made an offer on a home in short sale (about to go to foreclosure)?”

1. Leroy W on March 28th, 2009 11:17 am

   if its approved their supposed to honor yours

2. Scott on March 31st, 2009 5:50 am

   It depends on the contract.

   The bank WANTS to do the loan, so I’m sure they’ll push it along as quickly as possible.

   If your contract doesn’t have any “out” for the owner to accept another offer, you could sue them if they fail to sell you the property.

   In other words, you’re probably safe.

   Congratulations on your pending purchase!

3. json t on March 31st, 2009 7:03 pm

   In the UK if an other offer comes before yours is approved the owner of the house can take up the other offer. If that happens you lose money (solicitors fees, survey fees, and other legal fees)
   Pray that no offer comes until the bank has approves yours

4. Sue on March 31st, 2009 9:54 pm

   Once they have accepted your offer, they cannot accept another higher bid.

   However, they can ‘hold’ other offers pending your approval. If, and only if, you don’t get approved, can they move on to the next bidder. I think legally they can’t reject yours simply because a new one came along, as long as you meet the original approval requirements.

   They can’t ‘accept’ more than one offer at a time.

5. Tasha on April 1st, 2009 6:27 pm

   Foreclosure, laws are different in each state. I will attempt to answer based on IL foreclosure, if the owner still owns the property and the owner accepted your offer with a signature, then you might be the only offer presented to the lender. The owner can take back up offers(just in case you do not close)but your contract who have to be cancelled in order to accept another offer.

6. ME on April 2nd, 2009 9:51 pm

   No other wise they will be breaking a contract. They are tied into your offer for 17 days. Make sure you do all that you need to do to close the sale. (appraisal, home inspection, termite inspection, escrow papers etc.)

7. muru on April 3rd, 2009 4:22 pm

   the seller can’t sell it to other buyer if u have done a sales and purchase agreement…..

8. novastarbanker on April 6th, 2009 2:29 am

   The bank has to approve the lesser payment being made on the home. The seller can entertain any offer they want, even after you go into contract, so be careful, and make sure you have an attorney looking out for any money you spend. If the seller chooses to accept another offer after you go into contract then you are able to get money back for any expenses incurred. Good Luck!!

9. sportychick14 on April 9th, 2009 12:27 am

   The bank always checks 3 things-your credit history, your down payment & your affordability. Usually with a foreclosure, what you see is what you get, so beware. As far as accepting any other offers, if you’ve signed a contract, than that contract is binding between you & the home owner until finalized by the bank. One note though, if the original home owner comes back & pays his/her arrears on the home, they legally can take back their home & you get your down payment back.

10. slguldi on April 12th, 2009 1:37 am

    A short sale is a sale where the back has agreed to allow the owner to sell the house for less than they owe on it, rather than the bank take it in forclosure. The offer should not be binding yet, as short sales are “subject to 3rd party approval” (meaning the bank). What the bank is looking at is basically if your offer is an acceptable loss to them. That being said with a short sale they bank has to approve the list price so if you wrote for list and do not have a lot of contingencies then you should be fine. As far as other offers, until your is approved by the bank it is not a contract, so theoretically someone could write a better offer and get the house, and you would simply be back where you were before you wrote the offer because it never was a contract. In my experience though most people try to get a better deal than a short sale already is. It is out of your hands at this point, but you are most likely fine having written full price.