Ok I have to rant on this for a second and would love everyone's feedback on any experiences you may have or insight.

I have been doing real estate for over 10 years so have been around the block a couple times.

I am so frustrated with short sales and the banks. The banks have 30 days supposedly to respond to offers however they are also the only ones that can tell you when they have received the offer. I have done many short sales now since the market has changed and have found on every transaction so far that the banks loose the files for as long as they want. I have fax cover pages confirming that the lien holder received the offer but when I call they say “we don't have it and we don't care what proof you have".

I have now defaulted to faxing and Fed Exing files (or requesting that the escrow or negotiators do this) simultaneously from the beginning. This way I have it in writing that they received it physically and electronically and do you think this helps???? Lol no.

I know so many agents that just refuse to show or list short sales for this reason along with the fact that the banks beat up the commissions, I don't blame them and starting to feel the same myself. Short sales are a lot of work on the agent’s part and tons of stress on the buyer. I am finding the average buyer does not have the tolerance to deal with the stresses of purchasing a short sale. So as agents are we doing our clients right by not showing certain homes????

I have a deal I am working on now that has three lien holders and we wrote the offer back in January and just now getting ready to close. We had approvals back months ago but not all of them and now that so much time has gone buy all the new approvals are 35K more money because our local market has recovered some. HOW IS THIS FAIR to the clients?

I hate to say it as I am one for less regulation than more but these slimy banks are still finding ways to hurt our markets and I feel bad for the poor sellers that have to deal with the stresses of loosing a home and having to deal with uncooperative lien holders.

If anyone starts a lawsuit please let me know the banks are just in the wrong in so many ways and need to be held accountable as right now they seem to act as if they are untouchable.

There needs to be some regulation put into place on the banks that they have to within 24 hours conferm that they have gotten offers and packets. Right now they can say we have not gotten whatever you have to send until they have time to deal with it.

Banks are givin 30 days to respond to an offer turned in but there is nothing that says they got it....and try telling the banks you have 10 fax cover sheets saying it was faxed.

Every deal I have worked on in the last year has had this one problem...along with millions more.

Todd Hueffed

Have you thought about moving or investing in real estate in Washington? I have  been selling real estate for over 10 years in King and Snohomish County Washington and have never seen a better buyers market. Rates are at historical lows, and our local economy here is really pretty good and many of the large companies here are still hiring.

There is even talk about a housing shortage in the next 3 to 4 years here because our local economy has not taken the beating that most the states have but our real estate got pretty beat up because of the loss of sub prime mortgages and to be honest the media scared off many buyers. The baseline of home sales is new construction and with our market lull there has been little new construction or development of lots for new homes......so the theory is that we will see a housing shortage......and we all know what happens when supply cannot meet demand.

I also feel that our market has already seen its bottom and with the start of the new year I think we will see a surge of new buyers in the market place as almost every lender I know is getting more and more busy and not just with refinancing....

So if you have ever thought of moving to Snohomish or King County Washington or buying some rentals now just might be the time to take a look here......

If you have any relocation needs please feel free to contact myself and also click here for your free online relocation kit and I look forward to working with you soon.......

Todd Hueffed

www.ThatHomeZone.com in Partnership with Keller Williams North Seattle

425 220 2276 cell

Mail@ThatHomeZone.com

I was at the Everett court steps home auction a couple weeks ago with one of my investors for the first time ever and was amazed at all the doom and gloom that was being spoken for next year.....

I talked to many agents and others that are very familiar with the auction process there and they are all saying that we are going to see a surge of homes come on the market next year as the banks are hiding how many foreclosures they actually have until next year to make there end of the year profit and loss statements look better.......in the week before only one home was sold all the rest were postponed......and while I left early because of the weather I watched hundreds of homes pulled off the auction block the day I was there also and would doubt if anything sold that day.

So the doom and gloomers are saying that because of this we are going to see a flood of homes come on the market taking us down another at least 10% early next year.............now while I do not disagree with there forecast after seeing first hand that we are going to see a surge of home on the auction block I do disagree that its going to have a negative impact.

My reasons for saying this are that almost every lender I talk to seems to be pretty busy qualifying clients and yes fewer are getting out of financing with a loan or enough of a loan to make them real buyers I still think that we are going to see a surge of new buyers in our market......also the homes at auction are cash only .... how many buyers do you know that can drop 200 to 300K all at once.........so that leaves investors and I have some with pretty deep pockets and they are still only looking for one or two at a time.

I think there will be some great deals for investors that want to flip some homes and have the cash and know how.....but they are going to sell these at fair market value not a discounted price......and they are not all going to be turning out 10 homes a week as most of these homes are in need of much deferred maintenance that they will space them out enough.

Happily as a buyers agent I think we will see more homes that are not distressed properties and will show much better than the distressed ones...also the banks are taking months to approve the sales letting buyers remorse set in badly that I really don't see a negative impact. We as agents are also getting beat up hard on commissions here doing short sales and the homes usually show badly and are hard to pass newer appraisal standards......

So as a agent what are you more likely to show your clients .......... a home that shows badly and you know is going to take forever to close with tons of time and work put in or a nice updated listing where you do not have to involve the lienholder......

All in all I think we will see more positive than negative....

That's my two cents

Todd Hueffed

www.ThatHomeZone.com in partnership with Keller Williams North Seattle