We placed an offer on a short sale property, waited a month and a half for a sign PA from the seller, becasue we did not think things were moving forward. Agent told us we were the only offer. We checked county records to see if the proporty was in default/foreclosure, and could find nothing to indicate it was. We told the listing agent we want out unless we recievce a signed PA, agent then sent us our PA with the sellers signature in the form of a stamp - the wifes signature appeared real - but the intitals next to the stamped signature were not hers, we asked for proof that this was valid - agent did not provide. So we asked for proof that this proporty was in default (via a bank statement or some form of verifialble documents) , we also told them we do not consider the stamped PA a valid document. They came back with a second PA - this time there was a signature - yet is was copied and pasted (same signature) on each page of the PA, and one spot was even missing. The agent said the property is 8 months in default but that they had no documentation to share - that we could get on a call with the agent and the bank but that was all. When we told them the second set of PA doc were also not accepatable becasue of the cut and pasted signature - they said nothing! We are going to cancel the PA - however in order to do that we need a signature from the seller (& his wife) on the PA cancelation - how would we know if the PA cancallation signaure is real?  How can we protect ourseveles here? And how can a realtor get away with passing off fake signature documents?  We can't tell if the seller is bad here too?  But something is going on and its not right, can realtors pass off fake documents like these PA's and get away with it? WHo do we report this to?  We have wasted a month and a hlf on this deal - I don't want any money but I do not want this realtor to pull this stuff on other people - and I want to make sure we recieved a leigitmate PA cancelation signature - what can we do to make sure we are okay here - thank you! State is Minnesota is where this happened by the way.

You could contact the broker, local realtor association or the licensing agency in Minnesota for real estate agents to lodge a complaint.  A bogus signature isn't acceptable.  Sometimes it takes months to get a response from a bank on a short sale.  Many banks are overwhelmed with the volume of repos and short sales.  I tell anyone thinking about making offers on these types of properties to be prepared for a long wait and an uncertain outcome.