Here's a little bit of a confession: my career path has led me to be mostly (not entirely) a listing agent. Don't get me wrong. I'll work with buyers in a heartbeat and I enjoy working with buyers. It's just that, for whatever reason, I work mostly with sellers. Here's another part: I don't really work with short sales and REOs.
I know. I know. This niche in the market should be an integral part of my business model with so many short sales and REOs on the market. It's just that I prefer the "other niche" -- houses being sold by sellers with equity in their home.
This brings me to my current situation. I'm currently working with a buyer who was referred to me by a wonderful past client. My new buyer client is financially qualified to purchase. They are looking for houses in a price range slightly less than they're qualified for and in a price range where they will be able to make the mortgage payments over the years.
However........most of the homes in this price range are short sales with a few REOs thrown in for good measure. My clients, God bless 'em, don't have six months to wonder and worry and wait for banks to respond to an offer on a short sale. They would like to be in their new home by the end of April.
So it seems that this short sale situation -- where "third parties" take forever to approve the sale -- are really affecting buyers, too. Not everyone is out there looking for "the deal (read: steal) of the century". They're looking for a home to live in, raise their family, get to know the neighbors, etc. Just regular folks.
So as they send me MLS #s of homes the see on the 'Net that they like, I comb through them, weeding out the short sales, leaving in the true REOs and setting appointments with the hopes that they don't fall in love with a home that the listing agent "forgot" to mention was a short sale in the MLS description (this actually happened to me yesterday).
Note to banks: if you could work out a process to move these short sales through the pipe you might be pleasantly surprised how quickly your inventory would move.
Note to agents: if you have a "plain vanilla" sale that doesn't need third party approval, say it loud and say it proud. I'll be sure to bring my financially qualified buyer by to look at your house.
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