What a difference 1670 days makes…

Short Sale Evolution… or Revolution?  It’s been almost 5 years since I negotiated my first short sale… What a difference 1670 days makes…

I just went to the Bank of America Short Sale Forum and as I was sitting in the meeting I realized that Realtors are no longer the enemy.    The banking industry may finally get it… or they were forced to get it.  We were never working against them; we were working for the mutual interest of their customer. 

I am not naive to think they came up with this on their own… The Robo Signing Lawsuit helped a lot and government programs like HAFA , Harp, and Harp 2 helped a little… Without the combined effort Banks were not convinced to act responsibly … they were convinced they could foreclose their way out of this mess …  And I understand their small thinking, because most housing downturns were Regional …The problem, which they created, was a National problem and required a different perspective.   Government intervention made them look at more of a “3” prong approach… 1-work with people that want to stay, 2-Short Sell the folks who have a qualified hardship, and 3-foreclose on the rest. 

 5 years ago, they were looking at all sellers as trying to “beat” the system… worried about the few that were gaming the system (strategic short sellers) and lumping the rest of the Short Sellers with real Hardships to dye on the vine.

Anyway, I was encouraged that we may have a plan for the next 3-5 years as we complete the wind down these short sales… I even came back and renovated my short sale page… http://www.realliving.com/Tony-Marino-Real-Estate-Agent/pages/distress-394505... it looks pretty good. 

Back to the BOA meeting …Great information… Easily could be a required class for all Realtors.  Short Selling 101!  What I took away from the meeting… (1) Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork… 70% of all short sale delays are paperwork related… (2)  Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase are just a mouth piece for the investor…  “Debt Settlement”, required paperwork, price evaluation, and any other issues you may have had trying to close the deal, all needs to be comply with the investor's  “Drink of Choice” . (nice customer term from the meeting)

And finally, I like everyone else,  have to perform my quadrennial “code of ethics training”… 2 pieces of that training was so relevant to this short sale environment… Article 11, Standard 2 and 3…  And Article 1… (you may want to scan those before taking on your next short sale listing)