Short Sales

As of today, the condominium for sale at 19380 Wolf Rd. is the lowest priced Mokena condo for sale available!  This is an approved short sale and approval time is running out.  The prior buyer walked.

Special circumstances

This is the Wolf Point condominum complex in Mokena.  I've been told that a prior management company didn't handle the finances very well.  When work was needed on all of the buildings, which included new roofs, a special assessment was required for all owners of approximately $8,000.  This assessment was broken up into small payments by adding $100.00 to the monthly assessments.  Some of this has been paid off but a future buyer would need to pay the remaining balance.

As of today I have a HUD that shows what a buyer would

As a member of Short Sale Superstars I have been made aware that Fannie Mae is not being realistic about list and sale prices of their short sale properties. I was the listing agent for an Orland Hills short sale home that we listed at fair market value according to recent comparable listings.  We received a contract and the response was a price that never would have appraised.  There was no chance at selling it short.

There are no guarantees with short sales but it seems like Fannie Mae would rather foreclose with their unrealistic counter-offers. They are countering above BPO's they are receiving. Most of the buyers I work with are not interested in looking at short sales because they don't have time to wait months just for bank approval. For those

I just read an article in Inman News about a report put out by Altos Research.  Altos Research is a real estate data company and their prediction is that we should hit bottom in real estate pricing in 2011.

They feel we'll see our normal surge in the upcoming Spring selling season, but it won't mean prices will necessarily escalate.  In most areas in the southwest suburbs, prices have been declining since 2005.  The spike in sales that usually occurs during our best months do not necessarily bring about price increases, just a clearing of inventory.

We will still have a glut of foreclosures and short sales

In my opinion, until the amount of distressed properties slows down there is going to be more inventory than available buyers.  Distressed

SHORT SALES AND SELLERS - AN EXPLANATION

Why would a seller want to do a short sale?  If they have attempted to get a loan modification (which rarely goes through), and want to hopefully be able to buy another home as soon as possible (could be as soon as two years after the short sale is closed) depending on down payment, attempting a short sale would probably be the way to go.  However, here is my disclaimer:  a seller needs to speak to their attorney and possibly a CPA to see what the best thing is for them to do.

OK, disclaimer aside, a seller does have other options.  If a seller cannot afford their current mortgage and cannot sell their property to cover the current mortgage balance along with closing costs and would not be able to rent out

I still meet buyers that don't really know what a short sale is.  A short sale listing is a property the seller is trying to sell for less than what is owed on the mortgage.  A short sale can actually take a very long time, the "short" is referring to the fact that there will be less money to the mortgage provider than what is owed, not the length of time from contract acceptance to closing.  Short sales are available in every town and every price range.

Data suggests that only about 50% of short sale offers ever make it to closing.  Agents, buyers and sellers don't understand why a mortgage provider would rather foreclose than sell short, especially when it seems like most closed short sales sell for higher prices than foreclosures.  Not to mention

Have we hit the bottom of low home price values?  The optimists keep saying we should see an improvement at the end of 2011 and into 2012.  They might be somewhat correct, let's face it, they're talking a year down the road.

Today's low interest rates are tempting

Others are saying that the current low interest rates are another government ploy to keep buyers in the market.  And they might be correct, depending on how low prices drop in the future.  At today's current rates, you'd be better off with 4.5% interest rates vs. a 10% reduction at 6% based on an average home price of around $300,000.

How low will prices go?

No one can say for sure, but some are predicting closer to 20% vs. 10%.  There are several reasons stated:

• interest rates

I am seeing such great deals lately that I'm actually considering selling my home.  When we purchased our home we thought it was big enough.  But after living in it we discovered we could have used a little more space.

We should not lose money on our home, although when figuring in the work we've done on it (remodeling bathrooms, putting in hardwood floors and some new windows), we'll be lucky to break even.  But we don't care.

The math is in our favor.  Even if we don't see good appreciation on our home (that we purchased in 2003 - just before prices started to skyrocket) we will more than make up for it with our next purchase.  In fact, I've seen foreclosed properties that are larger than our home going for less money, just because it's a

So many buyers call me asking me for a list of foreclosure property or ask about short sales thinking they’re going to get a real deal.  I try to explain to them how it 
works and the fact that no one is guaranteed a “deal” when purchasing one of these properties.  In fact, I’ve seen many foreclosed and short sale properties where the bank won’t budge on price and the prices are simply too high for the condition of the property.  On the foreclosed property I handled in Country Club Hills, the mortgage holder was ready to reduce price right when we got an offer.  That fact made the lower offer more acceptable to the bank since they were thinking of reducing.

Banks don’t always understand the current market – or maybe they don’t care 

I recently showed

So many buyers call me asking me for a list of foreclosure property or ask about short sales thinking they're going to get a real deal.  I try to explain to them how it works and the fact that no one is guaranteed a "deal" when purchasing one of these properties.  In fact, I've seen many foreclosed and short sale properties where the bank won't budge on price and the prices are simply too high for the condition of the property.  On the foreclosed property I handled in Country Club Hills, the mortgage holder was ready to reduce price right when we got an offer.  That fact made the lower offer more acceptable to the bank since they were thinking of reducing.

Banks don't always understand the current market - or maybe they don't care 

I recently showed

I am seeing more and more short sale listings as 2008 continues on it's slow course in real estate sales.  These listings are competing with the many other real estate listings that are being sold by home owners that want or need to move.  In some cases short sale prices and foreclosures are now being used as comparables by appraisers.  I've been on both ends of short sales.  I had a short sale listing and have presented buyer offers to several short sale listings.

I will talk about my short sale listing that was a condominium for sale in Chicago.  This unit was owned by an out-of-state seller that had only seen the condo once.  It was a family investment and a divorce caused the need to sell.  This condo was a conversion in an original Chicago mansion