Why would a lender favor a loan modification as opposed to a short sale?
Asking buyers to wait 30-90 days to get bank approval is a deal-killer – they don’t want to wait, or if they do wait for a while, it’s inevitable that they’ll either see better deals and/or get talked out of buying altogether. The buyers, and buyers’ agents, are already sick of short sales. The listing agents leave them in the MLS as active listings after the seller has signed a deal, so you don’t know if they’re available for sale, or not. If it is for sale, the buyers don’t know what price will work – did the listing agent put an artificially-low list price on it to generate more action, and can he close the deal at that price? Can I offer less? The buyers’ agents don’t want to show them either – they want a clean chance at getting paid, and spending time trying to hold together a short sale is nerve-racking. The agents know the deal could fall apart any minute by problems on either side, and then to face the threat of having their commission cut by the bank at the end, is unattracti
