Just when you think the market can't possibly get crazier. It does. How many times have you convinced your buyer not to purchase a short sale? 5, 10, 30, times. The reasons:
- It takes too long for a short sale
- There are too many uncertanties
- Even if you are willing to wait the buyer may still not be able to purchase it.
So many reasons. Well now with the most recent events unfolding concerning bank owned properties, I believe instead of deterring your buyers to purchase short sales we should convincing our buyers to purchase the short sales.
As many of you heard, many of the foreclosures that were processed by law firms were either done incorrectly or fradulently. The banks now have to re-foreclose on these properties. It really has become a title mess, and could have a huge effect on buyers that purchased a bank owned property within the last few years.
How does this effect Short Sales?
Now that all these properties are going to be held up with title issues and have to go through the court system again, Short Sales become the name of the game. I believe that starting now, banks are going to be more flexible with price and terms with short sales. It makes perfect sense. Banks are paying thousands of dollars to foreclose and now re-foreclose on these properties. Banks do not want to be going through these processes so many banks have rolled out new programs including offering commissions of 7% and $5000 to the homeowner to go through with a short sale. Time frames for this program are around 2 weeks. This is just one bank offering this program that I know of, but many banks will follow suit. This is the first program that I have seen for short sales. I have seen cash for keys programs and other types, but this seems to be a great program that many real estate agents can capitalize on.
Short Sale Listings should be where many real estate agents should focus on for the next year or so. There is a lot of opportunity and only positive things coming for the last quarter of 2010 and into 2011. I cannot believe it is already close to 2011.
David Serle
Vice President/Managing Broker
RE/MAX Services
561-912-3500 Office
561-912-3502 Direct
561-756-3104 Mobile
