Las Vegas Short Sales making Mainstream Media
Posted by Paul Francis on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 1:58am.Las Vegas Short Sales in the News
There has been a recent trend of the local media covering Las Vegas short sales in the news more often which is a wonderful thing in educating Las Vegas homeowners facing financial difficulties that they do have better options then just walking away and abandoning their homes.
There is nothing to be embarassed about when doing the right thing.
However... remember that a lot of the analysts being intereviewed in these news articles have never even listed and sold a short sale. There is a big difference between talking to a agent that actually does short sales then taking advice from analysts hearing about us doing them.
I've been catching some of these articles with some statements that probably need a little more clarification so I'll start to share them here with needed commentary.
From the Las Vegas Sun on 01/29/2010:
Short Sales Soar while Foreclosures Slacken - Interesting choice of title. A big part of why short sales are soaring could be because more information is easily available and more Las Vegas home owners are becoming educated in the process.
From the Article:
One analysts said only one in four short-sale attempts were successful in 2009.Short sales make financial sense for lenders, analysts said.
In Las Vegas, banks make $80 per square foot on foreclosures but $130 per square foot on average in short sales, said Steve Bottfeld, executive vice president of Marketing Solutions.
As for the dollar per square foot comparison.... Maybe as a whole for Las Vegas, but certainly not that much of a difference when comparing a short sale vs. a Bank Owned Home that is the same floorplan in the same neighborhood. We need to compare apples to apples here.
I've sold multiple short sales similar in price to the bank owned homes right around the corner or on the same street. After seeing hundreds of Las Vegas Short sales and Las Vegas bank owned homes in the past couple of years... Las Vegas short sales generally tend to be in better shape. Homeowners doing a short sale tend to care a little more then the home owner that is just walking away and who knows what happens to the property such as the picture to the right of the inside of a bank owned home that I saw with a client yesterday.
However... there are several buyers and their agents out there that will avoid even looking at short sales due to the time a short sale takes and the uncertainty of a short sale even being approved by the sellers lender with acceptable terms. I've taken more then enough calls off of my signs on short sales from buyers asking why their agent did not show my listing and it always ends up coming down to the agent not wanting to show short sales to begin with.
So PLEASE... if you are a buyer... do not think that you are going to be paying $50 more per square foot for a Las Vegas Short Sale. If you want to buy a Las Vegas short sale... use a Las Vegas Short Sale Agent that knows how to screen potential short sale listings to begin with. I know the lenders and how fast they work... I also know the questions to ask a listing agent to cut down on the chances of you wasting your time to begin with.
From the Article:
"Analysts said short sales will get a boost in 2010 because of a push by the federal government. The Treasury Department is offering incentives on short sales by providing a $2,500 subsidy, $1,000 to the servicer and $1,500 to the seller for moving expenses. In addition, investors can get $1,000 by allowing subordinate lenders to get $3,000 in proceeds from the sale. The program is effective April 5, but servicers can implement it earlier."
There is FAR more to the story on this then being told such as the multiple requirements for qualification in the first place which includes being good for only Primary Homes. Much, much more so don't have false expectations that this program is going to help out in Las Vegas too much like so many people did when the loan modification programs were announced in February of 2009.
Even though short sales are becoming more common in today's market... they are still rather complicated in evaluating if a homeowner will even qualify for one in the first place. Remember... according to the analyst above, only about 25% of Las Vegas short sales are succesful.
Those chances are significantly increased when you consult with an agent that actually does short sales and not learning about them from the newspaper.
If you would like to learn more to see if a short sale will work for you... simply go to my Las Vegas short sale information page and fill out your contact information at the bottom or just call me directly at 702.592.3058.
Paul Francis, CRS
Prudential Americana Group - Realtors
Las Vegas Short Sales
702.592.3058
Print
ShareBe the first to comment on this blog entry!