Are you mining your current database to see if you have sold a home to an individual that has been affected by a situation that may lead to a short sale opportunity?
Are you marketing to your farm area looking to help potential sellers avoid foreclosure?
These are good questions to ask yourself, but first you must find the answer to the question - Where do you find short sale opportunities?
With unemployment still at near all-time high levels and the housing market at 2001 levels, short sale opportunities are all around us, we just need to keep a keen eye to find them. However, remember that it is not all about the money; it is about the opportunity to help someone better his or her situation, while helping with the recovery of the housing market.
Here are some situations that may lead to a short sale opportunity:
· Sellers with health issues/illness
· Death
· Mortgage or ARM rate increases
· Victims of predatory lending
· Divorce/separation
· Multiple mortgages
· Job loss/transfer
· Business failure
· Distressed Sellers - can't sell for what they owe
· Declining market
· Pre-foreclosure
New Bill Introduced to Improve the Short Sale Process.
The legislation, the "Prompt Decision for Qualification for Short Sale Act of 2011," was offered in Congress by U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Robert Andrews (D-N.J.).
"The current short sale process can be time-consuming and inefficient, and many would-be buyers end up walking away from a sale that could have saved a home owner from foreclosure," said NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I.
"Realtors® and consumers continue to raise issues about delays in the short sale process, because lenders are unable to decide whether to approve a short sale. After many months of delays, and with no response from lenders, potential buyers are losing patience and cancelling their contracts, often resulting in the property entering foreclosure. A short sale minimizes the negative impact on sellers and generally costs the lender less than a foreclosure," said Phipps.
NAR has been actively pushing the lending industry to improve the process for approving short sales, which represents about 13 percent of recent home sales according to NAR data. Phipps praised Reps. Rooney and Andrews for their efforts on the bill and urged Congress to pass the bill quickly.
"As the leading advocate for home ownership and housing issues, Realtors® want to help more home owners avoid foreclosure by facilitating a short sale when a family is absolutely unable to keep their home; however, that can only happen if lenders and servicers approve short sale offers in a reasonable amount of time," said Phipps. "Streamlining short sales transactions will reduce the amount of time it takes to sell the property, improve the likelihood that the transaction will close and reduce the overall number of foreclosures. This benefits sellers, lenders, buyers and the entire community.
