This short sale situation I've blogged about earlier is starting to take its toll. As a reminder, I'm representing a newlywed couple who put in an offer to purchase a short sale property in Maple Grove at the end of March and we are still waiting for an official response from the bank. My buyers are depending on me and I feel like I am failing them. Its been 4 months of waiting and waiting. I've been communicating w/the listing agent (John) a few times a week -- for the first couple of months, he was having difficulties even getting a hold of someone at the bank to find out what the status was on our offer. How long would it be until they would even look at it? We knew there were piles of offers on different properties they had to go through first; banks have been so overwhelmed with homes being foreclosed on that its ridiculous. Many of my co-workers have clients who have been waiting 6-12 mos. for a response from the bank on their offers. I tried my best to prepare my buyers for a long wait, but they never imagined it would be this way. They are watching the prime home buying season fly by; all the opportunities they are missing out on if this house in Maple Grove doesn't work out. But, they've invested 4 mos. of waiting, so I'm sure its hard to back out now after all this time. I have been trying to relay to John that I am hoping he can get more aggressive w/the bank and push them to get this done and I know John is afraid of pushing them too hard and sabotaging the deal. I'm afraid of pushing John too hard and sabotaging the deal, but I'm also afraid that my buyers feel I am not being agressive enough with John and therefore, John is not being agressive enough w/the banks and the banks are dragging their feet and need someone to push them. And I'm sure by now, my buyers wish they could just call the bank themselves and get this whole thing in gear. I think if they tried to do that, they would get a clearer understanding of how difficult this whole situation is on the opposite end. All in all, I feel terribly out of control in this situation and feel pretty down today. I'm sure my buyers think I suck and don't have a enough of a spine to make John get this deal done and wish they had someone else representing them. But I honestly don't know what to do to make the bank give us an answer.