Can anyone actually guarantee my short sale will get approved?
No. No agent, company, or consultant can guarantee that a lender will approve a short sale, since that decision belongs to the lender and sometimes an investor or insurer. A guarantee of approval is a sign the person making it either doesn’t understand the process or isn’t being honest.
Confidence and competence are valuable in an agent. A guarantee of a specific outcome, on the other hand, is a claim no honest, experienced professional in this space would actually make, because the final decision simply doesn’t belong to them.
Where the real decision-making authority sits
Short sale approval rests with the lender’s loss mitigation department and, on many loans, an investor or government insurer with its own separate guidelines. The agent submitting the file controls the quality of the package, the accuracy of the valuation support, and the persistence of the follow-up, but none of that amounts to control over the final decision, which is made by people the agent doesn’t work for and can’t direct.
What an experienced agent can actually promise
A properly prepared package, accurate comparable sales data supporting the proposed price, complete and consistent hardship documentation, and consistent follow-up through the review process. Those things meaningfully improve the odds of a smooth approval, but they’re not the same as a guarantee, and a professional who actually understands the process knows the difference.
Why a false guarantee hurts the seller specifically
A seller who’s been told approval is guaranteed sometimes makes other decisions, like committing to a moving date or another housing arrangement, based on that false certainty. When the lender then counters, delays, or rejects the file, which can happen even on a well-prepared submission, that seller is caught off guard in a way that an honest conversation about realistic odds would have prevented.
If something about an offer or letter doesn’t feel right, call or text Michele Lee Scherger at 561-309-2950 for a free, no-obligation second opinion before you sign or pay anything.