It is amazing how a possibility of a positive outcome can summon up more energy than a negative one does for me. For a moment yesterday, I was in a space to believe that my two homes with short sale contracts were going to sell, and it totally reversed my feelings about impending bankruptcy, and therefore about my future. What contributed to this was my Broker saying she wanted to pay for an appraisal on the home we had just received a good contract on.

We proceeded with that, retained an FHA approved appraiser, and did not offer any info to him as to what the contract intended. He did the appraisal immediately, and when we received it we found it was identical to the offer we had received. The BPO, done by a Broker the bank paid last week, was over $30,000 more than the appraisal! Of course, based on the BPO, the bank would have (and may still reject) the offer on the table. But in terms of my feeling much more empowered to defend my position that I was doing everything I could to obtain a fair market offer, it definitely went much further. If in fact, the bank rejects this offer, and allows the property to drift into foreclosure, I will be able to have a record of the possibilities the bank had to avoid losing so much time and money. Also the neighborhood would have been able to recover much faster, had the bank permitted this sale, or a Deed-in-Lieu.

This mere validation of what I know to be the truth of the market here, has allowed me to go forward with a more positive feeling that the banks are working against their own interests, as well as those of the country, and certainly against the local market and buyers, sellers and Realtors, when they refuse to put a realistic price on these properties at the outset, instead of wasting everyone’s valuable time and money in a three month procrastination which results in loss all the way around.  It did, however, give my Broker and I the assurance that in the world of short sales, this investment may be well worth it if the seller will take it seriously. If not, we will know soon. Either way, I feel better!