I am often asked by clients if they will get the tax credit since they have not closed escrow and it’s April 30th. You have until June 30th to close escrow in order to get the tax credit. Today, April 30th, you must be “in contract” to be eligible for the tax credit. If you happened to opt for a short sale, and the seller has accepted your offer, you are “in contract”. However, the lien holder must agree to the sale and the deal must close by June 30th, 2010. Since it is very likely that most home buyers will need at least 30 days to get their loan from lien holder approval, you will want an answer from the lien holder by May 30, 2010.
The average lien holder acceptance time seems to be about 4 months, so if you just put in an offer on a short sale in the last month, it is going to be very difficult to meet the June 30th deadline for closing. It’s possible to meet it, but the process is not controlled or influenced in any way by buyers/seller or their real estate agents. The process is primarily controledby the banks, the banks asset managers, and the investors(the people/organizations who are losing a lot of money) They just are not rushing to take a loss. Even worse, the average is four months–I have one contract that has been in escrow since August 2009, and we are still waiting for lien holder approval from Bank of America–the bank with the reputation of being way above average on short sale approvals. And, I have had others that have only take about 10 weeks total to close.
How is your short sale moving along?
