Debbie James

RUMOR: Short sales are a great deal.
FACT: Banks are NOT giving anything away.

Everyday I have buyers telling me they want a short sale because they think it's a "deal". My question to them is: "Are you willing to wait 90-120 days just to get a response from the lender, with NO guarantee the lender will even accept the offer"? From the day a short sale goes under contract to the day of closing can be 4-6 months! Is it really worth waiting 6 months - to most likely be disappointed in the long run?

Recently, I had a buyer get frustrated and did not want to extend his contract. I encouraged him to allow at least 120 days for a response from the lender, but he would only do 90. In the end, he grew weary...said he knew it would take time but didn't believe it would take this long; (even after I said it would be 4-6 months). At one point he believed the seller was taking his time so he could collect the rental income thru our peak rental season. Not so at all...on this transaction, Bank of America was the lender. Right there it tells us it's going to be at least 120 days for a response.

Banks are overwhelmed. Everyday they receive thousands of new short sale files. If a negotiator spends only 15 minutes per file, that's 4 per hour or 32 in an 8 hour day. Once they move onto the next file, yours goes to the bottom.

My experience has been that buyers grow weary and don't want to wait, even though they say otherwise. If it's really a "deal" you are looking for...compare today's prices with those of a few years ago, they are no doubt a bargain.

FACT: Sales are up month over month and year over year…for the last 14 months.
FACT: Pending sales are up 45% over this time last year.

The spreadsheet on my DebbieJames.com blog, shows YTD comparisons of active, pending, sold and expired for January – August 2008 vs. January – August 2009.

This spreadsheet tells us the following:

• Buyers are seeing the value in purchasing property, again, in Destin. How else would pending sales be up, on average, 45%??!! And look at July and August, 73.57% & 56.46% respectively!
  
• Properties that are priced for today’s market value are selling. FACT: No amount of marketing will sell an over-priced property. In the next couple of weeks, I will post September numbers.

Let’s see how they compare to the same time last year.