What is the Problem With 2014 Sacramento Short Sales?

The problems with Sacramento short sales in years past used to lie with the banks and the buyers, but those days are long gone. Buyers and short sale banks are not the source of our misery today. Most of the buyers who enter an agreement to buy a short sale are willing to wait it out and realize there are a few fees the bank might not authorize such as pest and home warranties and 100% of the escrow fee. They possess realistic expectations. The banks have invested money and effort into establishing entire short sale departments that mostly did not exist from 2006 to 2008. They’ve put systems and procedures in place, and are constantly tweaking their efficiency and effectiveness.

There are some banks that face little struggles now and then such as the Chase HELOC departments in Equator and the banks that try to satisfy regulations and cope with the fallout from the National Mortgage Settlement, yet cause months of delays due to ineptness, but for the most part, you can’t really blame the banks anymore when a short sale takes forever. OK, you can blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but even those guys are shaping up their systems. Rarely a day goes by when I don’t receive a timely email from somebody at Fannie Mae to say by golly they have received the BPO, and they’re still working on a pre-approved value. It’s better than a poke in the eye with a stick, even if it’s sorta meaningless after 2 weeks.

I’m not getting a lot of pushback and attitude from buyers either because they are educated now. They do their own homework online, they talk to their buyer’s agent, and they’re prepared to wait for short sale approval. They realize that when they go into an escrow in which the Best Sacramento Short Sale Agent is negotiating, that escrow is likely to close. I cannot remember the last short sale that did not close, and I’ve closed hundreds of them — more than any other real estate agent in a 7-county area since 2006.

The problems I’m seeing today do not stem from buyers nor the short sale banks. Nope. They cannot shoulder the blame anymore in today’s Sacramento short sale world. Instead, the problems tend to stem from the sellers themselves. There’s not always a full proof way to figure out which sellers deserve help and which don’t really give a crap. So, try not to blame the agent if the short sale goes south because the sellers messed it up. Most of the short sale agents I know are professionals who care deeply about their sellers and sometimes can inadvertently overlook their shortcomings.

Short sale agents need to be more vigilant, especially since short sales make up such a small portion of our market (about 10%) — short sales now appeal to smaller pools of buyers and will take longer to sell. Fact, Jack. My advice to fellow Sacramento short sale agents is try to make certain the effort you expend is for a seller who is willing to cooperate and see it through to the end. Otherwise, cut the losers loose. You owe it your own sanity, and you owe it to the buyers. You may represent the seller, but you still owe honesty and good faith dealings to the buyers.