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short sale: FHFA nudges Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into action on short sales - 04/23/12 09:01 AM
If there ever was a nightmare for Realtors in the last few years in the housing market it was the short sale. The psychology profession is still compiling data on how many man hours of sleep per night they lose during each short sale adventure but when the official figure comes out sometime soon it must be several. It has been that bad. The current real estate recession made the short sale famous, the talk of the micro brew pub crowd. It can take months for a real estate agent to navigate one of them through all the different-size hoops the nation’s mortgage … (14 comments)

short sale: Mortgage lenders about to face 45-day short sale approval deadline - 09/27/10 03:14 PM
The current real estate meltdown has been a true testing ground for anyone involved in its devastating turbulence. Homeowners have watched helplessly as their property values have headed south with little resistance. Home loan providers have worked under pressure for years to stay afloat in choppy waters full of creepy icebergs and many other deadly maritime hazards. Real estate agents are fighting to secure deals in a marketplace shrunk to a flat pie on life support from a full-blown strawberry cheesecake. The support industries are in it as deep as anyone else.
Something intriguing that could be rather meaningful for many … (15 comments)

short sale: Foreclosure filings decline - short sales climb - mortgage distress hangs around - 07/19/10 05:31 PM
Real estate market observers have mixed feelings about RealtyTrac's Midyear 2010 Foreclosure Report. It says that 1,654,634 homeowners were sent at least one mortgage foreclosure filing from January through June. That translates to over 3,000,000 by the end of the year and RealtyTrac forecasts that over 1 million of them will eventually become repossessions, or REOs - real estate owned. The number by itself is of course alarming, but the current six month number actually is a drop of 5% from the second half of last year. Ordinarily in any housing enterprise that would be something to feel upbeat about.
On … (4 comments)

short sale: Southern Nevada June home sales up - median price lower - 07/14/10 04:41 PM
Las Vegas homeowners and real estate observers have been looking for clear direction the local housing market could be happy about but it's refusing to cooperate. It seems to have settled on a typically erratic path that markets display when they reach the bottom on a downward cycle - or are very near it -  and just can't decide how to shake the gloominess off and embark on a climb out for better days. Last month's real estate statistics reflect that rather well.
GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, recounts for its rapt audience that 3,360 resale homes were … (6 comments)

short sale: Builders turn to green homes for competitive edge - 07/06/10 02:10 PM
The housing collapse has been particularly brutal to home builders. It's hard to market new houses regardless of the latest features when similar resale property is selling for 20-40% less. The usual incentives, like kitchen or flooring upgrades, have very little impact when the price difference reaches, say, to $50,000, and often much higher than that. The gaps are especially wide in badly-mauled cities like Las Vegas and many areas in Arizona, California and Florida. Inviting mortgage rates are available to all buyers, so no help there either.
In order to generate more interest in their products residential real estate developers … (6 comments)

short sale: Las Vegas regular home sales bring top dollar - REOs and short sales lag - 05/18/10 10:46 PM
The current real estate chaos has introduced even the timid to the exotic avenues of unloading a home. Before, the industry experts were usually the only ones well-versed on REOs and foreclosure and short sales and even auctions. This generation of mortgage borrowers and homeowners has been, whether they liked it or not, put through a crash course on various "creative" methods of selling a property. Some have been personally involved in the paperwork-laden processes when delinquency was knocking on the door, while others have followed from the sidelines through media the often hair-raising developments. It has been for everyone a unique … (8 comments)

short sale: Fannie Mae adjusts eligibility rules following pre-foreclosure action - 04/18/10 08:44 PM
The sometimes shell-shocked players in the mortgage industry are continuously scrambling to meet the exceptional challenges they face almost daily. Seemingly, not a week goes by without one of the major home loan organizations - government or private - announcing a new policy it deems necessary to better handle the real estate market's peaks and valleys. Lately it has been more valleys - the ones that ruin weekends - than the other kind.
Fannie Mae is now updating its rules on borrower eligibility after he has undergone a pre-foreclosure process, usually meaning a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, a pre-foreclosure sale or then … (4 comments)

short sale: Las Vegas existing home sales take a solid leap in March - 04/08/10 02:21 PM
Southern Nevada resales slowed down considerably over the winter months and understandably put a little scare on local real estate folks. In the fall things had moved right along, raising hopes that some kind of a housing rebound was underway, spurred on by delicious mortgage rates and shamefully low prices. Then March rolled in and decided to reverse what had been going on over the past few months.
A total of 3,175 existing homes were closed in March, a strong 32.8% increase from February and even a 6.5% improvement from the same month last year. This data was brought to the … (6 comments)

short sale: Delinquent mortgage borrowers with PMI staging fragile comeback - 04/01/10 02:12 PM
Some good news are starting to sneak into the devastated real estate market from far-off directions. They may not mean all that much in the conventional big picture that usually chews over topics like foreclosures, short sales, home price drops and mortgage lender failures. Nevertheless, many small time indicators often give hints about which way the housing market is heading. One of these gems is the private mortgage insurance, or PMI, default rate.
Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, or MICA, keeps tabs on this and just released its latest report. In short, the trade group explains that 80,758 homeowners with PMIs … (6 comments)

short sale: Short sales making a move - Henderson mortgage recipients have more options - 02/22/10 08:41 PM
Mortgage foreclosure statistics of late are showing that the persistently upward trend seems to be waning, which is good news indeed. However, it is only part of the whole real estate picture. The economy remains weak and the stubbornly high unemployment level continues to worry many housing observers, suggesting that homeowners would still be vulnerable. So, how is it that home loan foreclosures are losing steam?
The answer to that interesting question appears to be that mortgage lenders are adjusting strategy to favor short sales over mortgage foreclosures. Campbell/ Inside Mortgage Finance survey just concluded supports that theory. It says that … (11 comments)

short sale: Washington serves up a short sale initiative - 05/15/09 05:38 PM
The Obama administration came up with a new plan that is aimed at trying to breathe some more life into the morbid real estate market. It still needs quite a bit of help from wherever it can get it. This time the focus is on short sales, and why not. Anyone - real estate agents, mortgage consultants, buyers, sellers - who has been involved in one of them, has some real life horror stories to tell.
The initiative has two parts to it. One attempts to streamline the paperwork requirements for everyone, from mortgage lenders to servicers to investors to distressed … (8 comments)

short sale: Short sale can bite the borrower later on - 05/05/09 03:57 PM
They have become one way out of an untenable jam for many homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments in this tough real estate market. In a short sale a lender will allow the homeowner to sell the property for less than what the loan balance is. It often means the matter is over and done with, once the sale is closed. At least that's what the borrower is aiming at.
Mortgage lenders can go after the now former homeowner later for the unpaid portion if they choose to, as long as the loan documents and state laws support that. Frequently … (8 comments)

short sale: Lender, foreclosure and auction - 05/09/07 06:16 PM
When a mortgage loan goes delinquent, the lender has a few choices. One is to restructure it which allows the homeowner to stay in the house. Another one is to auction it off at the judgment amount, or what some call the upset price, and clean out the books that way. Judgment amount is the outstanding loan balance plus all accumulated interest and fees added up since the foreclosure process started. Still another is the short sale where a buyer negotiates with the bank to purchase the home before it goes into foreclosure. Lenders try to avoid taking possession of a home since this option usually … (9 comments)