Those of you who have read My Blogin the past are aware that I have been away for 5 months.  This is forever in the fast moving no stop world of blogging, but it was required for the benefit of my clients.  In this time I have been very busy selling and buying real estate in Northern Va for my clients who are first time home owners, investors, home sellers, and yes selling foreclosures for the banks I work with.  The most time consuming client I work with these days are my short sale clients.

I have continued this past spring and summer working with owners who have found themselves upside down in their home.  This is a very upsetting for those owners who have to sell their homes due to job loss, divorce, transfer, medical challenges, or many other reasons.  I have been working with these clients in Prince William County and the buyers who want to purchase a short sale.  The process of getting these sales approved has not become any easier and even with some lenders like Countrywide and Citi Mortgage it has even become more difficult.  I have written posts in the past about What is a Short Sale and What Price to Offer on a Short Sale and in all of them I have stressed patience.

 The most important aspect of short sales for buyers, sellers, and agents alike has been and will continue to be patience.  Lenders, investors, loan servicing centers and banks are slow to respond, loose paperwork, disconnect calls, and plain just do not care for the plight of the individual home owner.  This puts the burden of responsibility on the home owner and Agent to be tenacious and constantly call the bank for daily updates on progress of the approval.  Sellers need to make sure they hire a local short sale expert who will work hard to get the home under contract and the deal approved by the note holder.  The seller also needs to be involved with the process by calling and sending requested paperwork, multiple times.

The home owner who wants to attempt a short sale also has to have a legitimate reason to have to sell their home. These reasons I mentioned earlier including divorce, income loss, rate adjustment, medical bills, transfer, or just can't afford the payment.  The agents who are putting short sales on the market just because the owner does not want to be upside down are hurting the rest of the market.  These short sales will not get approved and will waste the time of buyers, their agents and is leaving a bad taste for short sales.

I have closed every short sale I have put on the market up to the writing of this article. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself)  Each of them had a legitimate reason to sell and the owners were involved in the long process of getting them approved.  I have only had one that was relatively simple and that loan was serviced by Aurora Loan Servicing but the rest were very challenging and time consuming.   The longest approval process has taken me 150 days to get the property approved and settled and took a great deal of patience and hard work the owner and my part.  This deal just closed last month and if you want to see his recommendation letter just click here.

 Short Sales do close and will continue to close as long as the listing agent is tenacious and all parties are patient.

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 Joey Remondino is a full time Realtor and Broker Specializing in residential homes in Northern Virginia including Prince William, Fairfax, and FauquierCounties.  Trained and experienced expert in Relocation, Short Sales, REO's, foreclosures, investments, and any other residential real estate.  Joey can guide you through the home buying or selling process.