Short Sale Purchase in Dilworth

I just got word last night that my buyer client is in first position with her offer to purchase a distressed condo that is in short sale in uptown Charlotte.  The note is held by Bank of America and the listing agent has been instructed to use BOA's equator system (electronic software used as communication between negotiator and listing agent).  Our first line of business, once we found out, was to have our closing attorney complete a preliminary HUD 1 or settlement statement showing disbursement of all funds.  The purpose of this blog entry is to share our strategy as each and every short sale is different. 
Before we placed the offer, I called the HOA to find out the status of the sellers payment history, as the seller informed the listing agent she was current.  After speaking with the HOA president of this community, I found out the seller had back fees of over $1,500 as well as an upcoming assessment amount of $3,600 that matures in May!  Do the math....thats $5,100 that my client would most likely have to pay at closing if we did not catch this on the front end of the transaction and before we submitted the prelim HUD.  This being said, I have had this happen before and managed to get the bank to pay the delinquent monies but only after we had to submit a new offer and go through the approval process again ..... this set us back about 2 weeks.  I have a gut feeling this property may have a tax lien against it as well so I have instructed (with my clients permission) the attorney to perform a full title search on the property before we submit the HUD to the bank.  Worse case scenario is that my client has to pay the attorney's office $175 for the title search if she does not close on the property.  A small price to pay in the long run to prevent any last-minute surprises!

Bryant Stadler, ePRO Realtor
http://www.bryantstadler.com/