Where, Oh Where Have the Short Sale CLOSINGS All Gone?

Anyone else out there in real estate land who thought they would have a million dollar year this year working on short sale transactions?

OK, I was duped. I heard the rumors about the next big trend in real estate, got ready to gear up for short sales and even started to include the new laws to help push short sale offers into acceptance faster into my Escrow Coordination Secrets seminar. But it seems the "loan police" are not doing as good of a job of enforcing as I expected!

So what happened? I don't see any significant change in the average amount of time the short sale properties are pending nor a dramatic increase in closings!

According to the MLS statistics in Contra Costa, Bay East and East Bay in Northern California (I pulled and compiled the data on my own), the number one pending and sold transaction type this year (townhouse/patio homes/single family) has been (drum roll)....CONVENTIONAL SALES!  

I know there are some agents who put all their eggs in one basket betting on the short sale closings to bring in a ton of money for them this year.

But let's face it, they are a tremendous amount of work for the average agent who is not using a short sale processor, or if they have one, it's costing them money to pay for salary and yet they have not received any income from the deals!

Also, the chances of a short sale getting approval from the bank are pretty low unless you have an attorney to review the seller's situation and the offer (A good attorney can offer advice whether or not the offer is going to fly with the bank before you go through months of playing the paperwork and phone call game).

Finally, the risk of future litigation for giving bad advice to the seller is extremely high for agents. Is it worth it for you right now given the circumstances of the market?

I'm in the business of Coordinating pending sales. From a business model standpoint, I need to decide where my marketing money will get the biggest bang for the buck. But what if I get a lot of business on a product (like short sales) but no cash flow? Was this plan successful?  

I've stopped listening to the media reports and now focus on real time sales. My conclusion is I'm better off spreading my business between conventional, short sale AND REO's. If one transaction type slows down, I still have an income stream from the others.

I think we need to be realistic with this constantly changing market and keep it real by maintaining an open mind on the type of transactions you want to work on. It has to be profitable to work!

At this point in time, I really don't see myself becoming a millionaire on short sales. But that may change in another month so I'll continue to  keep my eyes open for trends.