Short Sale Transaction Times are about to get "Shorter"

Monday, January 26, 2009

The Mid-Florida Regional MLS has been selected by Fannie Mae to launch a Pilot Program designed to speed up short-sale transaction times. Fannie Mae has preapproved the purchase price they are willing to accept on more than 300 properties located within the MFR service area. MFR has received permission to contact the listing agents of these properties. If you are contacted by us, please respond as soon as possible as we are anticipating a good response from the buying public. Keep your eyes open to your local media as we will be conducting press releases to promote the pilot program and stimulate buying activity on these properties.

The pilot program launched in mid-December is already showing improvement to short-sale transaction times. According to Brad Monroe, with Coldwell Banker in Brandon, Florida, "I sent in an offer and got a response from a negotiator within a couple of days. Now I have a real person giving me weekly updates on the status of the offer."

Via two new fields within MLXchange, buyer's agents can search for these properties by searching for "Short Sale" or "Fannie Mae Approved Pilot" within the "Realtor Info" field.

Do you think this will really work?  How does one get one's short sale listings into such a program?  It looks like it is only if you are selected.  And what stops every agent from putting their listing in under Realtor info as a short sale if it is - even though it may not be one of these special Fannie Mae approved Pilot short sales?  Interesting concept.  I'd love to see them do this across the board.  After 3 months of waiting for a response from the bank, most of my clients in the past give up and move on to regular non-distress sale homes or onto REOs.