John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... The lion’s share of Realtor’s Bobby Burnett’s business is now short sales.
As I reported in an earlier blog, Burnett, principal of Keller Williams Realty – DTC, applauds new government rules designed to speed and streamline the short-sale process, in which lenders accept less than the mortgage amount in a sale.
“I think this can be a great new law, once it goes into effect,” he told me. “Right now, buyers are trying to buy these homes and the poor seller’s don’t know what their fate is. It is all very frustrating.”
Burnett, who estimates he has completed about 400 short sales, sees short sales all across the map.
“Literally, we have them from below $100,000 to well over $1 million,” Burnett said. ‘They are all across the board and it is affecting every inch of the market. It is affecting every economic situation, every neighborhood. It is accounting for a huge percentage of our marketplace, and it is only going to get bigger.”
He told me there is a common thread running through every short sales: “They are all gut-wrenching.
“People need help. I could tell you story after story.”
He said it used to be people with bad loans that found themselves no longer being able afford their mortgages. Few of them have qualified for loan modifications, he said.
Now, more and more people are losing their jobs, making it impossible to keep current on their mortgages, he said.
“I have a fellow right now that I’m trying to get his home sold,” Burnett said. “His loan amount is way higher than what his house is worth. He’s gone through this whole process of trying to get his loan modified. He lost his job and got way behind on his payments. If he could get his loan modified, he’s finally in a position where he could start making payments again.”
Unfortunately, after six months of dealing with his loan servicer, he was told that he didn’t qualify for a loan modification, Burnett said. Instead, the lender has begun foreclosure proceedings against him, so Burnett is trying to do a short sale instead, although he’s not sure there is enough time. Also, the banks do not have enough staff to handle all of the distressed properties in their portfolios, he said, which further slows the process.
“It is really a tough situation out there, and I do think that these new short-sale guidelines could be a salvation for our market,” Burnett said. “They could make short sales almost like regular sales and that would be an awesome things.
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
very glad to hear some consistancy and standard rules for short sales!
These new rules are not supposed to take effect until April 2010. WHY? Start today.
These banks need to ramp up their staff and get them properly trained. Hire some of the folks that are unemployed. Currently, if you are an active Realtor in the Denver market, there is hardly any way to avoid the short sale market. I have never seen such incompetence as in the big bank sector. Think Bank of America, CITI, Wells. A few months ago I was speaking with a short sale negoitator at Bank of America. In the backgound there was the noise of laughter and chatter. The negotiator had forgotten to mute her phone. "What is going on there?" I asked. "Oh", she said, "it's bosses day." People are suffering and BoA is celebrating bosses day. Very few, outside of the agents trying to help these poor people, understand what is happening to good folks on Main Street. Every one of these large banking institutions should be dismantled and broken down into much smaller companies. The large salaries and bonuses taken away until the performance improves.
You are right Bonnie. I think the Banks are not ready for this now and will need time to hire and train. They should have been doing this all along, instead of takinf 2-6 months. One mitigator today works on about 200 files each. This makes it very frustrating for everyone involved.
Bobby Burnett
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In todays market there is no reason for anyone to go through foreclosure. There are alternatives. There is also many scams out there to take advantage of people trying to do the right thing. Getting with a Certified Distressed Property Expert can help you. I have that designation and others do also. We will get through this mess.
My company buys pre-forclosed homes and does all the negotiating in 49 states. Since we pay cash it goes faster.We don't buy them ALL obviously, but we do look at them and try to negotiate a good deal. This also takes large amounts of time off the realtors shoulders. AND there is obviously zero negotiation fee. We give the realtor both sides of the transaction, a 1% relist fee and the chance to make another 3% to resell. If your interested I can send you info and you can check yourself on our BBB stats.
We also do loan resolution( not to be mistaken with modifications) we actually send out demand letters and will sue the banks into helping the client, if we can find something wrong with the loan (4 out of 5 have some sort of violation weather it be TIL, RESPA, recording etc.)