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How long will it take for a bank to respond to a shortsale bid?

Today I bid on a short sale house. The real estate agent was taken a back that we bid so low. Please explain to me the process that will follow after we placed our bid. Approx how long will it take for the bank respond? Could the owner refuse our low offer and not even approach the bank with our offer? We placed the bid over the phone. The sellers agent said that she would take that. We are already approved for a mortgage. We are the only ones interested in this house at the moment. It has been on the market for 1.5 years.

Public Comments

1. Yes, either the owner and/or the lender may refuse. I hope you put an expiration date on your bid. Otherwise, you could be waiting months.
2. The bank owns it, so they will respond to any offer, the owner has no say at this point. Typically short sale properties are already way below market and banks will not accept anything but the sale price. Things are different now in this market though so you never know. As far as timing it could take weeks to hear from the bank.
3. A purchase offer on a short sale to the listing agent must be accompanied by a short sale addendum.Once accepted by the seller and signed it is then sent to the banks work out department with all signed disclosures,counters,and addendums.The agent that is representing the seller should check about every two weeks with the work out department.A short sale can run 3 months and many times is thrown out for various reasons.If you offer low ,and did not go with current comparables minus a little,it probably will not be accepted.Good luck though.
4. You don't bid on a Short sale, you bid in foreclosure court. In short sale the owner presents an offer of a preapproved buyer to the bank, usually the bank will take about 3 months to come back with a counter offer. remember they won't take less than 65% of the appraised value. If you are buying for investment, then you can offer wathever you think is you top price. but if you are trying to buy to live in the property, go and look for bank owned houses, any local realtor will help. usually this propesties are listed at 70% of appraised value and they decrease in price 10% every 30 days. Look for HUD homes.