I’m still on my Short Sale Soap Box

Then there's the short sale BPO (Broker Price Opinion) process. The banks are of the belief that an out-of-area real estate agent who is willing to consume hours of their time to drive 60 miles to take photos, develop a market analysis that declares market value and turn their report around in 24 hours for 50 bucks is a better choice than hiring a certified appraiser BECAUSE IT'S CHEAPER THAN ORDERING AN APPRAISAL.

I’ve made it a point to show up for every BPO on my short sales to provide the BPO agent with good comparables, a summary narrative analysis, and a live commentary of the known matters that affect value of the subject property. In many case...

Welcome to a World of suffering and punishment. That’s the current state of the real estate industry as it relates to short sales – it’s hell out there! In most US cities, “traditional” real estate is all but extinct. The number of short sales and bank-owned/REO listings rose over 10 percent on the Westside of Los Angeles last month alone. More an more homeowners are experiencing some form of financial hardship – job loss, loss of income, divorce, medical problems, adjustable mortgages.

Never ever before in the entire history of real estate have we encountered such uncertainty and such challenges. Homeowners are losing their homes at record pace and we’ve recently witnessed the fall of s...

Just on November 30th, 2009, the Treasury Dept. released the forms and guidelines for the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Althernatives Program (HAFA). This program is expected to be a huge leap forward to help homeowners who are unable to retain their home under the Home Affordable Program (HAMP).

HAFA was created to streamline and simplify the use of short sales and deeds-in-liu of foreclosure by tweaking the process that the banks currently employ.

Just to highlight HAFA...

- It is designed to complement HAMP by providing althernatives for homeowners who qualify for HAMP, but are still unable to keep their home. Why is this important? Well, almost 65% of the loan modifications compl...