THE SHORT SALE BUZZ

The buzz words today with real estate buyers coming to the greater Naples area seem to be ‘short sale’ or ‘foreclosure’. Everyone is looking to get in on what is perceived to be a very hot segment of the market, and in actuality, it is.

Having been on both sides of quite a few short sales and foreclosures, I can tell you that it is not easy to bring the transaction to a close. In one instance where I had the short sale listing, it took nearly five months before the lending institution made a decision about whether to take the offer and bring the transaction to a successful conclusion. The interesting thing was that the homeowner was a lawyer and knew who to deal with at her lender.

I suspect that the inherent problem is that it can take that long because the offer is passed from desk to desk of people who are totally incapable of making that final decision as to whether to take the offer or reject it. By the time it does finally get to the potential decision-maker, it can take a substantial amount of time and one of the key elements is that a buyer has been effectively taken out the market with no guarantee that he or she will eventually get the property.

With regard to foreclosures, my belief is that the average buyers do not stand a chance of going up against all the professional groups that show up on the courthouse steps and should a buyer happen to win that property, they most likely paid too much money for it anyway.

I’m coaching buyers to totally avoid looking and bidding on short sales and foreclosures. There is so much value in our market now that a buyer can find something to fit their needs without having to go through all the confusion messing with short sales.