    We get a lot of questions and inquiries about short sales. I'm going to give you my opinions and try to clear up some of the mystery and confusion surrounding them. As a visitor to the Brady Family Realty site you get our exclusive, honest, hopefully easy to understand, no bs opinions; for better or worse lol.

    First let's define a short sale. A short sale is when a home owner tries to sell their home for market value, which is less than is owed to the bank. But wait, it's not quite that simple, the home owner has to prove economic hardship also, and it can't be something such as bad stock investments. Something along the lines of a lay off, long term injury etc. is needed. As with most things in short sales there can be exceptions, but generally you must have an economic hardship, secondly more banks are requiring a monthly shortfall of income so that the mortgage can't be paid.

    When short sales became more popular it was generally lower priced homes and homeowners with little or no assets. More recently we have seen an increase in short sales in the upper price ranges for homes (and homeowners with more assets) which has resulted in banks becoming more determined to recover money owed rather than settling completely at closing and not attaching the homeowner.

    The good- you can find great deals in short sales, generally short sales sell for 21% less than market value. Sounds great! But wait, there are some pitfalls. Banks can take a long time to give you an answer on your offer. Sometimes it can be more than a year. The government is trying to make them speed up that time frame to between 30 and 60 days, but the banks have ignored the government before and may again.

    Some banks such as Bank of America have on-line portals which are supposed to give you an answer in 30 days, unfortunately based on my anecdotal evidence the answer has quite often been no. So we have the time frame working against any buyers needing to move soon.

    So who would be a short sale buyer candidate? Someone who can wait to get a great deal. That's why so many investors use them, they can wait. For first time home buyers it can be very tricky, while you are waiting to hear from the bank you are in contract with the home owner, you can't simply walk away if you get tired of waiting or find another home; unless you have a very savvy lawyer who wrote exit clauses in the contract. There are also several keys to look for that make a short sale more or less likely to be approved. It's not a good idea to use just any agent when shopping for a short sale bargain. Agents such as myself with the SFR designation have extra training in short sales so that we may better evaluate the likelihood of success. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you may have.
Thank you
Tom Brady SFR, e-PRO, SRES GREEN BPOR
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
Notary Public, Retired N.Y.P.D. Lt.
631-682-8660
Tom@BradyFamilyRealty.com
www.BradyFamilyRealty.com
"We treat you like family!"
Charles Rutenberg Realty, Inc.255 Executive Drive - Suite 104
Plainview, New York 11803

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