Short Sale Comments
The short sales are increasing as the A-paper people are now realizing just how bad this economy is and the damage to the value of their property. Even if they haven't lost their job(s) and can afford to keep it, some homeowners are now choosing to short sale rather than pay a couple of hundred thousand in mortgage, more than the property is worth.
Lower-priced properties such as foreclosed homes and some short sales are receiving most of the attention and multiple offers are common on the best-priced properties. It is actually difficult to win the deal when you represent a buyer seeking the most attractive deal for a specific type of home in a specific region of town. For those low-priced homes, it is like a seller's market. At the same time, there seems to be almost a separate market for the traditional sales and higher-priced short sales. In this "parallel" market, the time on the market is long and is not yet decreasing. It is a buyer's market with small number of buyers. In the same neighborhood, one similar home may receive multiple offers while the other one is not even being shown. Buyers are almost without exception seeking great deals."
"Some homeowners attempting a short sale are not motivated to perform necessary actions such as making acurate financial disclosures, writing a hardship letter, keeping the house in presentable condition for showings, contributing to closing expenses, and/or signing deficiency notes. In some cases these individual exit the short sale process and decide to wait for foreclosure.
If you are not one of the homeowners willing to work as hard as your realtor and your lender, you may want to opt for foreclosure.