How To Deal With Real Estate Agents Who Are Short Sale “Specialists”
As a short sale investor, you may find that there are times when you find a good short sale deal with the help of a real estate agent. Many times, the agent in question will bill him or herself as a “short sale expert,” which may be a title that helps attract listings and implies a familiarity with the short sale process.
Short Sale Leads In Surprising Places
There is certainly no shortage of potential short sale transactions in the current housing market. In fact, according to some estimates, about 1 in every 4 homes for sale is up for short sale. That’s 25% of the market! However, with the advent of government programs designed to help homeowners get short sales done in a smooth and efficient manner by working closely with their banks, the short sale process is, for many investors who relied on creativity to get their deals done and sold off to other buyers, becoming more complicated rather than less so.
Short Sale Pitfalls When Dealing With Rental Properties
As a short sale investor, you will often deal with landlords are facing foreclosure on rental properties. These short sale deals can be very attractive to traditional short sale negotiators who may have been “locked out” of many deals because of homeowner participation in federal short sale programs. On the other hand, there are some complications that can occur with rental properties that may not be an issue with first or even second homes that are owned and inhabited by the property owner.
Short Sale Disclosures: Critically Important Tools For Protection
Short sales will be important to the recovery of the housing market. With so many homes in foreclosure, banks and homeowners alike are relying on the short sale process to prevent the foreclosure tide from swamping the market and the lenders themselves. However, as short sales are increasingly regulated and the target of more and more media focus, it becomes increasingly important for short sale negotiators to apply stringent rules for full disclosure to their short sale transactions.