Southwest Florida Title Insurance & Real Estate Blog

If you deal with short sales on a regular basis sometimes you just need a good laugh.

I decided to have a little fun and create a spinoff of David Letterman’s famous Top Ten segment of Late Night and relate it to the Short Sale world and lenders.

So without further ado, here are the Top Ten Things we would like to be able to say to the Short Sale Lenders:

10. Your File is declined!

9. I can’t find you on the Letter of Authorization; please fill out a new one and allow 72 hours before you can speak on this file.

8. I need your 2 most recent bank statements, all pages for every account possible.

7. We are going to need a higher offer, but we can’t tell you how much.

6. I will give you until the end of the day to respond or I will have to close your file.

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Thank you all so much for the taking our recent survey. You have no idea how valuable your feedback is to us!

You may recall that the second question in our survey asks:

Think of the last time you went through a short sale. What was the most frustrating aspect of the process that you faced?

So far, we have received over 75 responses (woo hoo! :)) to our survey, the vast majority coming from real estate agents and our referral partners.

The common frustration expressed from you is the lack of communication between all parties involved, most notably the lender.

This is such a common frustration and most times it cripples the process and leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those involved.

As a Realtor®, you know how incredibly annoying it is when you have an eager buyer who’s ready, willing, and able to purchase a short sale, and yet she can’t because of loads of red tape that must be cleared up between the seller and his lender. UGH!

What’s even more frustrating is when you have bills to pay (just like everyone else) and you could really use the commission from this sale, and yet no matter how much effort you put in, IT JUST WON’T CLOSE! Talk about stress!

Well, at Winged Foot Title, we’ve heard your frustrations loud and clear and hopefully the advice in this article will help you with the next short sale transaction…that is, if you ever decide to be a part of one again.

Yes, short sales can be incredibly frustrating and challenging, but I enjoy orchestrating short sales for all of those same reasons.

It’s the thrill of the Chase”. 😉 (No pun intended- A little short sale humor).

So to make your next short sale as relatively painless as possible, here is what I suggest:

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Short sales have been known for taking a long time to close!

It was not uncommon in the past to see a short sale take sometimes a year to close, causing overwhelming stress to all parties, especially to the seller.

So why do short sales take so long? Most often we can blame the banks for the delay. However, that complaint does not always apply to Short Sales in 2013.

Many of the lenders and investors have updated their systems, buyers are still interested in buying, and incentives to short sell for both banks and sellers are still viable.

So the question many will ask is…

How long does a short sale take?

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We are still continuing to see low mortgage rates, increased housing prices and higher levels of consumer confidence, which are all contributing to an increase in home sales as we are moving into the spring home buying season.

According to Freddie Mac and shared in a recent article by Housing Wire, this should be the healthiest spring home buying season as home sales are expected to increase from 8% in 2012 to 10% in 2013. Housing starts are anticipated to increase to 950,000 units for 2013 up from 780,000 last year.

I also read a recent article from Zillow who also appears to support this information. The article covered 30 of the largest Metro areas stating that they all showed a gain in February. These areas all experienced both monthly and annual home value appreciation.  It was also stated that February represented the 16th straight month of home value gains since the market hit the bottom in October 2011.

The Experts Weigh in on the Current Housing Market

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It’s true.  I read a few different articles last week that state exactly that.  In the slow recovery of the housing crisis, the mortgage industry is definitely starting to see some great improvements.

Tight credit conditions that have held many potential home buyers back the last few years appear to be thawing just in time for this spring’s market (as reported by CNBC).

Typically the biggest challenge for home buyers is the down payment.  It is being said that home-buyers may now be able to qualify with lower down payments.

This is big news and a huge change from the last four years when 20 percent down payments on a loan were basically required.

I read a recent article “Will Lending Standards Ease at All in 2013?” by Miami Agent Magazine. They state that in the most recent survey of senior lending officers by Moody’s Analytics, lending standards may be easing slowly.

Though 82 percent of loans the past two years have gone to borrowers with the highest credit scores (compared to 50 percent in 2005 and 2006), the survey did show that over the past 18 months, large lenders either loosened or left intact their lending standards on prime mortgage originations.

Is Fannie Mae Easing Up Too?

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