When you owe more on your home than it is valued at and you need to sell you run into a situation called a Short Sale. You've probably heard this term on the news or have read about it online or read it in the (gasp) newspaper. If you are in the real estate business this term has been burned into your vernacular because of the slow economy and the decline in real estate values.
Short sales can be an arduous, forest-clearing (lots of paperwork), time consuming task. The owner needs to fill out various forms, their Realtor needs to fax a ton of paperwork and makes lots of calls to the mortgage holder, and then everyone waits for a response from the bank. And waits. And waits. And waits. But maybe, this will all change shortly. The US Department of the Treasury will be announcing plans shortly that should help to speed up the short sale process by quite a bit.
Now, the details are not out yet (and when they are I will let you know) but the main thing to focus on is that the it looks like the initial response time from the mortgage holder(s) may be cut down from weeks or months to 48 hours. This is because the use of standardized forms and cash incentives to the mortgage holder will help streamline the process. This is great news for all parties involved in a real estate transaction that is subject to a short sale. A faster turnaround time, a possible allowance to help the seller move, and buyers that don't walk away from a short sale because it's taking too long to close. As more information is released on this I will pass it on to you!
