Short Sales Program to Speed up Las Vegas Short Sales?
Posted by Paul Francis on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 7:44am.New Government Program to Speed up Short Sale Approvals?
The new HAFA program is due to be in effect starting 04/05/2010 as reported in the latest Wall St. Journal entry.
New Government Program for Short Sales
I want to point something out in this article with this quote:
"For homeowners considering a short sale, Ms. Bovard says it's important they speak to their trusted advisers, including their attorney and tax accountant, as well as a real-estate agent who has a short-sale designation."
Some of the top Las Vegas short sales real estate agents do not have a short sale designation. Why is this?
They started working and doing short sales long before Short Sale Designations were even created.
They have been doing short sales long before Short Sale designations were even the flavor of the month or possible for instructors to sell something that somebody would pay for. What does it take to earn a Short Sale Designation? Approximately 16 hours of classroom experience and no experience or actual short sales closed. I know several real estate agents that are very, very proficient in short sales with plenty of experience closing them that have NO short sale designations.
Using a Las Vegas Real Estate Agent with a short sale designation is far better then using a Las Vegas real estate agent with absolutely no short sale experience and no formal classroom training.
HOWEVER... Do not automatically think that just because somebody has one of these designations makes them an expert at doing short sales and it does not automatically mean they have any actual experience working with the various lenders and know what to expect.
I do not want to discourage any hope but for TRUE short sales agents that know what is really going on... the promises that this new program are going to change everything should be treated with extreme caution in creating some false hope. Much like the loan modification program that was cheered on in February of 2009 where I specifically said it would help very little for Las Vegas Home owners.
Quote from the 02/19/2009 Blog Article I wrote concerning the original Help for Homeowners Program:
What will this do for Las Vegas Real Estate? Not much in my opinion. Las Vegas Real Estate has already taken a major hit in home values from the peak… I’m certainly not saying that Las Vegas real estate is going to continue a downward out of control spiral because Las Vegas home values are much closer to recovering and stabilizing then many, many real estate markets in the United States due to being far along in the correction process. That factor along with a couple of other details of the plan including:
- Lenders are not Required to Modify loans under the Plan
- Investment and Vacation Homes do not Qualify
- The Loan to Value ratios
- Lenders are not required to participate
The questions of whether the Government should get involved with tampering with the real estate market to begin with can certainly be debated since previous involvement is why we saw home values skyrocket to unaffordable prices to begin with.
What About Homeowners who Need Out?
As a Las Vegas short sales specialist that helps homeowners who need to get out of their Las Vegas home due to loss of income, a job relocation or other qualifying hardship, I do not see any new hope or help here to address this situation. These are the people who do not just walk away from their Las Vegas home to let it go to foreclosure which costs the lenders even more money in the long run and for that reason, it’s kind of disappointing that lenders will not have any incentives to help speed up the process and get their act together and closing these faster.
In my opinion, that’s what we really need for Las Vegas Real Estate… Some heat on lenders to speed up the short sale process and keep these homes from going to foreclosure in the first place for people who can’t stay.
I think it was safe to say that I was Completely right. Not only for Las Vegas, but the majority of the United States. It only took a year for my questions about Short Sales to be addressed which is better then never but it's a little late all things considering.
You can read the new 43 page HAFA program here and I will go over it in more detail shortly and specifically point out some issues as to why this MAY not help anything for Las Vegas Home Sellers who need to do a short sale. There are some specific qualifying guidelines that need to be highlighted as to why this new program is not the end all solution.
I certainly do not want to discourage any help when it comes to short sales because we certainly need it.
HOWEVER... I have seen several very positive statements out there that are just echoes of a promotional campaign that appear to come from people who have not actually read over the 43 page set of guidelines.
In the coming days I'll point out some specific criteria that will help you spot signs if somebody knows what they are talking about to begin with when it comes to short sales.
Paul Francis,CRS
Prudential Americana Group - Realtors®
Las Vegas Real Estate
702.592.3058
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