You may have heard the term "short sale" recently and may be hearing more about them in upcoming months.  In a nutshell, it is a process whereby the lender will accept less than is owed on the mortgage and keeps the property out of foreclosure.  It is an involved and complicated process that needs to only be attempted by experienced short sale professionals.  Sellers need to be very careful and get advice on their exposure to fraud and future liability. 

Recently we spoke to a few local realtors involved in short sales the reviews were less than stellar.  Those agents experienced lengthy delays, breakdowns in communication from the lenders, and deals falling apart after long contingency periods (13 weeks and counting on one deal.)  Many times the lenders are obscure mortgage holders that purchased these mortgages on the secondary market.  Not only did it take the Seller's property out of the market for that time, but also disappointed the Buyers and prevented them from jumping on to other good buys.

We feel our efforts are better directed towards marketing those distressed properties  by offering Buyer incentives, aggressive pricing and internet marketing to those same Buyers looking for "the deals."