For real estate agents in the distressed property market, there has never been anything quite like these past few months. For buy-side clients, there have been record low interest rates coupled with incredible value on potential purchases. Couple that with the beginnings of a rebound in consumer confidence in the housing market, and it’s an exciting time. But it doesn’t compare to what is happening in short sales right now.
RealtyTrac recently confirmed that over 1/4th of all real estate transactions in the Q1 were short sales. For most Realtors this means that your business is a full quarter over where it would be if you weren’t doing short sales. But why is it happening? First of all, banks are now viewing short sales as the most attractive method of working through their distressed property inventory pretty much across the board. We’ve seen this evidenced in the past few months in major streamlining efforts of the short sale processes at top lenders like Bank of America and Wells Fargo as well as Freddie and Fannie getting in on the act. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has even begun to enforce more aggressive deadlines to ensure that banks keep up with the demand.
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