How Long Do Short-Sales Take?

A very common question people ask me is, “How long does a short-sale take?” There is no exact answer to that question because short-sales are not a perfect science. Short-sales are like a trip to Vegas - you may come back with more money than you left with or you may come back broke, but you won’t know till the end of the trip. You won’t know when you will get the response from the bank(s) until the day you actually get one.

Average Time

The average - and I stress average time to hear back from a bank(s) on a short-sale - is 3 months. I don’t suggest using any amount of time in planning when you’ll hear back on from the bank(s), but if you really must, 3 months would be your best bet.

Fastest

The fastest response on a short-sale I’ve ever seen is 4 weeks. Unless “you’re in” a loan officer or loss mitigation officer at the bank you’re dealing with that can “fast track’ the short-sale (contact me offline for more info on this), don’t bank on this (pun intended).

Longest

There are short-sales still sitting waiting on a response from the bank(s) that went under contract over a year ago. Yup - a year ago. You REALLY have to love the house you’re buying and have all the time in the world to wait around this long.

Don’t forget settlement preparation time

Don’t forget about the time needed from short-sale approval to settlement date. Once the short-sale has been approved (not before) the buyer’s loan officer can tart finalizing the loan approval and everything that goes along with it (appraisal, title work, underwriting, etc). This takes at least 2 weeks, but more like 30 days.

To recap…the average time from ratifying a contract to settlement date is 4 months (3 months plus 30 days). The shortest is 2 months (4 weeks plus 30 days). The longest is over a year.

If you have would like more information or have specific questions regarding short-sales as a buyer or seller, click here to email me or call me at 703.582.6900.