FHA Short Sales must now be marketed in MLS for a minimum of 15 days per new HUD guidelines...

Effective as of October 2014, some new Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines per their Mortgagee Letter 14-15 now require agents to have a FHA short sale property listed on the Multiple Listing Service (aka, the MLS) for a minimum of 15 days before any purchase contract can be reviewed by the servicer.  This 15-day requirement starts when the property began listing on MLS at the appropriate price in relation to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) "as-is" appraised value. Keep in mind FHA short sale sellers, this is NOT the date of the listing agreement, since usually listings are entered into MLS at a later time after the listing agreement is signed and dated. My guess is that this is in response to short sale properties not being marketed open and fairly to generate the highest and best offer for the short sale...