Are Short Sales Getting Easier?

First, just a refresher - what is a short sale? Again the only thing "short" is the payoff on the loan. You may not know that in some cases clients who are completely current successfully short sale, usually because they must move for job or family reasons and their home is underwater. In these cases there is minimal impact to credit.

There is a new type of short sale which is a pre-approved short sale. In these cases both the owner and the price are pre-approved by the bank before the property hits the market. These are almost guaranteed to close successfully and are a welcome change.

In Laguna Niguel at this moment there are 72 active listings under $750K and only 11 of them are short sales. There are 198 listings in backup or pending status under $750k right now and 125 of those are short sales. This shows the pain of previous short sales. There are only 5 bank-owned properties in escrow now under $750K. This is crazy: there is ONLY ONE bank-owned ACTIVE listing currently on the market under $750K in Laguna Niguel. Some experts believe we will see more foreclosures and short sales after the election. One particular bank will routinely foreclose if the short sale is not closed a full two weeks before the trustee sale date.

The real estate market is changing every day. I have to constantly check inventory and stay on top of every price range. I "feel the pain" of first-time buyers wanting to get in on the great interest rates. (I discussed the reasons for low inventory in last week's blog.)

Obviously there is more information than ever online and available free to the public, which makes some buyers believe they do not need a professional Realtor® to help them. The opposite is true. Much of what they are seeing on real estate sites is outdated or misleading.

As always there are real estate myths and speculations. Don't believe them all. Seek someone to help that is in the trenches every day. Hopefully the inventory will improve before the rates go back up.