Lenders Approving More Florida Short Sales

Right now, short sales in Southwest Florida are enjoying a huge presence mainly due to the decision of the country’s largest mortgage servicers to halt foreclosures amidst discoveries of erroneous and faulty documents.

But there are signs the logjam is clearing. Last Monday, Bank of America announced it will resume its seizure of over 100,000 homes located in 23 states in the coming week. But even if this is the case, the decision of the other giant services, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial, has already made a positive impact in several Florida counties including Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee. The housing market in these counties is currently composed of more than 50 percent distressed property sales.

The halt in foreclosures may have caused a lot of Realtors to lose sales and resulted to buyers in limbo. But for those involved in Florida short sales, things have never looked as good. Many lenders have decided to approve more short sales since there are no options left for them if they want to get rid of their ballooning inventory of distressed houses.

Before, a typical foreclosure can take as long as a year but with the way things are, closing can be done in as short as six days. Many short sale Realtors and attorneys are amazed at how fast lenders are moving. In some cases, the banks are doing the calling and asking agents to prepare a short sale proposal for homeowners in distress.

There are speculations that the foreclosure problem could take as long as six months to clear up and during that time, Florida short sales will be the preferred foreclosure alternative.

As for homeowners who thought that a foreclosure is imminent, it is the perfect time to talk to a short sale Realtor. You should take advantage of the moratorium to find a buyer, prepare all the documents needed for the short sale proposal and sit down with your lender. Such opportunity might not come again and you should definitely grab it with both hands.