Joshua Jarvis - Georgia Realtor's Blog

In the world of Short Sales not everything is as it seems.  You might have an agent that has no idea what they are doing or you might have a pro that is keeping things from you, you could have a bank change their policy, fire someone or completely do a 180 on you at any time, and you might even have prices that go up and down for no apparent reason.

On average, our short sale process in Georgia is taking 5 months.  The fastes we've seen one move from meet (sit down with the seller) to closing has been 90 days.  That one we had help from the seller who had an early start.

If it takes us just 5 months to negotiate for a potential successful closing then the days on market are going to be at least 150 days!  

So the next time you call me and say, "Gee, this short sale has been on the market for a while..."  you should change that to... "how many offers do you have by now?"

See, it's not the days on market that is important to a short sale.  It's the number of offers and the progress I make with the bank.  I usually need 5 offers to sell one short sale, since the process takes so long.

My homes may sit there for 6 months, but we always have mutliple offers!

After a lot of searching for short sale information I did not find ONE place for agents and servicers to go to get accurate up to date information.

Built on the NING platform, shortsalepros was created with the only goal of providing information for agents and servicers.

Come on and join us and contribute to the knowledgebase!

I'm pleased to be hosting a call with the number 1 real estate agent in the world for 2007 about how to grow your million dollar network!

Chad will go in depth on how to be a more effective networker, how to improve our attitude aptitude and talk about running an efficient business.

The call is a free conference dial in call.  There will be a unique opportunity to network after the interview.

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I was prompted to write about the best deal in town after a trulia question where the buyer stated that Auctions where the best deal. In some cases they be, but here's my brief break down on them.

• You've got REAL foreclosure auctions held at the county courthouse steps, which require cash (cashier's check) to make the bid.
  WHY? - Can sometimes find a gem of a deal. The bank likely knows less than you and the other liens will "drop" off. 
  WHY NOT? - CASH! You often can't inspect the inside.  It's more common to see Foreclosed properties that go back to the bank appear on the market for less then the foreclosure auction start bid
• AUCTIONS by Third Party Companies - These are held at various tent events or sometimes at the property.  Often these auctions are bulk buyers who bought as part of a hedge fund.  They usually get these for around .20 on the dollar.  They then mark them up to .50 on the dollar and sell them. 
  WHY? - Could be a great find.  No cash required.  Bypass somewhat cumbersome foreclosure and short sale process.  Flexible terms sometimes.
  WHY NOT? - Not always market ready.  Sometimes overpriced.  Often over-hyped.  Sometimes hard to find - not enough inventory.
  

Other options for the "BEST DEAL"

• Post Foreclosure- Foreclosures - What people generally mean when they say they will buy a foreclosure.  They can be HUD homes, bank owned, REO, Freddie mac and Fannie Mae.  They all have little wrinkles.
  WHY? - Flexible financing for the most part, very traditional (now) - plenty to choose from and more every day. 
• Short Sale - Pre-foreclosures - These are often the BEST DEALS hands down that I have ever heard of.
  WHY? - Growing and plenty of inventory.  Often the bank will give you a better deal than lose a ton of money on the foreclosure process. 
  WHY NOT? - Long tedious negotiation process with the bank.

This video does an outstanding job of explaining the "HOWS" and "WHYS" of where we are in this credit crisis.  It becomes easy to see why there are so many short sales in atlanta.

Short Sales is the buzz word of 2009, but what is a short sale really?

Short Sale is simply when the bank agrees to accept less payment then what they are owed by the borrower.

Example:  John owes $250,000 on his 4 bedroom home.  The comparables suggest that he cannot sell it for more than $225,000.  The bank agrees to accept $225,000.

There are some things that come into play, particular the hardship of the owner.  So that begs the next question:  What is a Hardship?

A hardship would be anything that has caused the borrower not to be able to make the payments.

This could be anything from divorce or job loss to the rate adjusting.  It could also be that the borrower moved up into a larger home (or downsized) but never sold their old home.  Each case is dfferent. Here is a list of the top 10 Hardships.

The next question that comes up is Why would you short sale?  Why not try to do a Loan Modification or just let the bank have it back?

The "SHORT" answer is that Shorting a home affects the overall credit of a borrower less than foreclosure both in length of term (2 yrs vs 5yrs) and overall magnitude (although industry experts have differring opinions on how much).

Lastly, there are all sorts of information that is being given out about Short Sales.  Check the people out.  How many have they really closed?  Fannie Mae has some tips about the scams.

The key is, NEVER PAY ANYONE UPFRONT UNLESS YOU KNOW THE PERSON.

You might think that Hamilton Mill would be a great place to find a deal.  Surely with over 2,000 homes there might be some pretty great steals in there.   
If you thought that, you'd be right.

However, it goes to illustrate the paradox that is the Atlanta Buyer's Market.  There are great deals to be had, to be sure.  They move quickly and you've got to jump when you see them.

Of course everyone knows by now that Short Sales are by far the best deal out there, they just require patience.

So you might ask, how many short sales are in Hamilton Mill - an area that based on the demographics should have very many -  ... drumroll ... .4.

That's right only 4 Short Sale Listings. Of course, it may be that someone is in a short sale situation and doesn't know it and it might be that their agent doesn't know what they are doing, but I only see 4 short sales for sale in Hamilton Mill. 

If you have questions about short sales please contact us.