Archive for November, 2009

GOOD SELLING POINTS: Midwest home sales post 26 percent annual increase in October

November 30th, 2009

Home sales in the Midwest surged in October as first-time home buyers sought to beat the initial deadline for a federal tax credit and difficult market conditions last year made comparisons favorable.
The National Association of Realtors released that there were 111,000 resales in the Midwest, up 26 percent from October last year and the best showing in the country. The median sale price for the region rose 1 percent — also leading the country — to $146,600.
In Southern Indiana the home sales also rebounded, but still have a way to go, Realtors say.
“I would say we were along those same lines as the national average [in home sales],” said Pat Harrison, chairwoman of the Southern Indiana Realtors Association.
Nationally, home resales rose 21 percent from a year ago, without adjusting for seasonal factors. The median sale price fell 7 percent to $173,100, the Realtors association said.
In the area, 298 homes were sold in October, and the median sale price was lower than the national average, at $124,950.
“I think there are a lot of auction and foreclosures [sales] in that,” said Lisa Feiock, with Semonin Realtors and board chair-elect with SIRA, of the median home prices drop.
Foreclosures and short-sales have also had an impact on the amount of pending homes sales, at 458. Some of those homes were placed under contract as long ago as August and September, but it often takes longer to clear through escrow than a normal home sale, Feiock said.
The big boost to October’s sales came from the extension of the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers worth up to $8,000, economists and local real estate experts said. The tax credit originally was supposed to end this month, but Congress recently agreed to extend it to cover contracts signed by April 30, and that has local Realtors excited.
“I’m so glad they extended that $8,000 rebate,” Harrison said.
Feiock reinforced Harrison’s zeal.
“I truly feel the extension for the first time home buyers and move-up home buyers is a really good idea,” Feiock said.
However, another tax credit may also boost sales through November and December and into the first of the year, traditionally slow months for home sales, according to Feiock. It’s a federal tax credit targeted for move-up buyers of $6,500 for current homeowners that have been at their residence for at least five years and are looking for an upgrade.
“It should stimulate the whole market for move-up buyers,” Feiock said.
For those looking to cash in before the tax credits run out again in April, there are still 2,153 active listings in Southern Indiana; 2,350 residential homes have been sold for the year.
“I feel like our first quarter is going to be very good,” Feiock said.
More optimism for those looking to buy in the Midwest was the region lacked the big increases in home prices and frenzied selling seen along the coasts, so the region was expected to have an easier time recovering. But the Midwest relies heavily on manufacturing, and the unemployment rate has risen to 10 percent in October, well above the 6.6 percent of a year ago.
All 12 major Midwestern cities tracked in the Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, released Monday, also showed annual increases in sales in September, all but three by double digits. All but four showed median sale price declines.
The report analyzed sales transactions in the metropolitan statistical areas recorded by all real estate agents, regardless of company affiliation.

Here are some of the highlights from the region:
• Biggest sales gain: Des Moines, Iowa, saw the number of sales jump 39 percent from a year ago. Meanwhile, median price declined about 5 percent year-over-year to $144,000.
John Knox, an agent with Iowa Realty in Ankeny, a northern suburb of Des Moines, said 37 percent of sales in his office’s pipeline are first-time home buyers looking to take advantage of the tax credit.
“Overall, our projections for 2009 were pretty dismal and it’s been an exceptional year,” Knox said. “We have historically low [interest] rates and we have great inventory and it’s at or below market price. So we kind of have a perfect wave, a perfect storm.”
• Smallest sales gain: Sales in Wichita, Kan., were the worst in the region, nudging ahead only 1 percent from a year ago. The median sales price declined 5 percent to $120,850.
The city’s aviation industry has been hit hard by the economy as orders for business jets and other aircraft have dried up, leading to large layoffs. Wichita’s unemployment rate in October was 7.9 percent, well above the 4.3 percent rate a year ago.
Rodney Blockyou, an agent with JP Weigand & Sons, said the market is in a holding pattern as potential customers and sellers get a feel for when the job losses will cease.
“They can give all the stimulus they want but if [buyers] are going to lose their job or are fearful of losing their job they’re not going to do it,” Blockyou said, referring to the first-time home buyer credit.
• Biggest price gain: Cleveland led the region with the median sale price rising 15 percent year-over-year to $117,500. Overall sales also rose, gaining almost 6 percent from October 2008.
Colleen Rock, an agent with Re/Max Crossroads, said she’s seeing some stability returning to parts of town and more interest in higher-priced homes, possibly because people are relocating to the area.
But she stopped short of saying the Cleveland market has recovered. The city’s economy is still struggling with job losses and she expects another round of foreclosures that could depress prices again.
“Without having a crystal ball, just because we’re stabilizing I can’t comfortably tell you we’re back to a normal market,” Rock said. “It might be another year.”
On a related note, the Detroit market saw its median sale price rise 6 percent to $69,000, the first year-over-year increase in more than a year. Sales, meanwhile, increased 8 percent.
• Biggest price decline: Chicago, the region’s priciest market, posted a 15 percent drop in the median sale price to $185,000. Sales, however, were brisk, rising 34 percent from a year ago.
Earl Ruthman, an agent with Coldwell Banker Leader Realty in Chicago, estimated 70 percent of his office’s sales have been with first-time home buyers, but he’s also seeing people looking to move up to the next level of housing.
At the same time, he said, cautious lenders and low appraisals are keeping prices down.
“Even if I sold a house for $250,000 and the appraisal comes out at $230,000, nine out of 10 times the sellers will have to renegotiate the price and be closer to $230,000,” he said. “The appraisals are causing a lot of this fall in prices.”
• Inventory highlight: The number of unsold homes fell in every Midwestern city last month from a year ago except Des Moines, according to the AP-Re/Max report. Indianapolis, Detroit and Cleveland again led the region, with inventory drops of more than 28 percent each. Des Moines added 24 percent its October 2008 backlog.
Housing experts say reducing the existing inventory of unsold homes is key to sustaining a resurgence in home prices.

http://www.newsandtribune.com/clarkcounty/local_story_332163847.html

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Posted in Housing Crisis

More Than 1 in 4 Homes for Sale in Price Reduction Report Have Seen Reduction

November 24th, 2009

RISMEDIA, November 21, 2009—Trulia, Inc. has announced that 25.6% of homes currently on the market in the United States as of November 1, 2009 have experienced at least one price cut during the past 12 months. More than 40% of the top 50 major metros across the U.S. are experiencing price reduction levels above 30%, significantly higher than the national average. The average discount for price-reduced homes continues to hold steady at 10% off of the original listing price.

Northeast Continues with Most Homes Reduced
The Northeast continues to see the highest level of price reductions, with 29% of current listings experiencing at least one price cut – Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire are all seeing over 30% of listings with price reductions. (Regions according to the U.S. Census Bureau)

-Northeast – 29% of listings with price reductions
-Midwest – 28% of listings with price reductions
-West – 25% of listings with price reductions
-South – 24% of listings with price reductions

“With mortgage rates still low and the expansion of the tax credit to trade-up buyers, we could see significant inventory – both new and ’shadow inventory’ – hit the market during the next four-to-six months,” said Pete Flint, Trulia co-founder and CEO. “Inventory levels this quarter are poised to be atypical of a normal real estate market, which could create tremendous pressure on sellers to price their homes competitively and move their property before the tax credit expires on April 30th.”

Cities experiencing significant increases in percentage of listings with price reductions from June 2009 to November 2009 include:

-Kansas City, MO – 59% increase in price reductions
-Colorado Springs, CO – 43% increase in price reductions
-Omaha, NE – 39% increase in price reductions
-Louisville, KY – 37% increase in price reductions
-Milwaukee, WI – 30% increase in price reductions

Cities showing signs of the highest percentage of declines for listings with price reductions from June 2009 to November 2009 include:

-Las Vegas, NV – 34% decrease in price reductions
-San Jose, CA – 25% decrease in price reductions
-San Antonio, TX – 18% decrease in price reductions
-Los Angeles, CA – 16% decrease in price reductions
-Oakland, CA – 16% decrease in price reductions

Luxury Market Still Hardest Hit
Luxury homes (those listed at two million dollars and above) continue to bear the brunt of discounts being offered with an average of 14% being slashed from the original asking price compared to the national average of 10%. Additionally, luxury homes represent less than 2% of all current listings on Trulia, but are responsible for 25% of the $28.1 billion in home price reductions.

For more information, visit www.Trulia.com.

More Than 1 in 4 Homes for Sale in Price Reduction Report Have Seen Reduction | RISMedia

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Short sales on the rise in Las Vegas

November 23rd, 2009

Data show that banks may be more willing to work with homeowners

By HUBBLE SMITH
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

The mix of home sales in Las Vegas has changed.

There has been a sharp increase in short sales, an indication that banks may be more willing to work with homeowners to avoid foreclosure, real estate industry sources said.

Short sales, or homes sold for less than the mortgage balance, comprised 16 percent of October home sales, compared with 8 percent in the first quarter, Robin Camacho of Realty One Group in Las Vegas said.

Camacho said she probably has as many short sales in escrow as real estate-owned, or bank-owned, homes.

“Short sales are no longer merely a niche market — they are becoming the market,” the distressed-property expert said. “Of course, the number of pending short sales is much higher, but many of those won’t be approved. Still, that’s a substantial shift. That’s double the percentage of short sales.”

REOs still dominate the market, with 64 percent of sales, but that’s down from 81 percent earlier in the year. The median foreclosure price was $125,000. Regular third-party home sales account for 20 percent of sales, with a median price of $186,000, Camacho reported.

While short sales have become an increasingly favorable option to foreclosure, they must be approved by the lender for hardship reasons and usually take longer to complete.

Neil Schwartz, REO specialist with Coldwell Banker Premier Realty in Las Vegas, likened the short-sale process to an hourglass. At the top of the hourglass are 8,647 short sales in escrow; at the bottom are 1,579 short sales that have closed in the past three months.

“What’s keeping them from going from the top to the bottom is the banks. They control the narrowness of that hourglass,” Schwartz said. “I’m seeing some opening, but a very small percentage are getting through.”

Nevada Title Co. reported 428 short-sale closings in October and 1,261 failed closings, about a 25 percent success rate. There are 3,692 short sales on the market and 6,554 in escrow. The percent selling and market speed, or the rate of conversion of listings to closings, is inching up slowly.

The price of short-sale properties in escrow is holding steady at about $150,000, while the closing price is down $8,000 from September’s $158,000, Nevada Title reported. The median asking price is down $4,000.

Not everyone qualifies for a short sale, Schwartz said. There has to be a reason for the bank to approve the sale such as loss of job, death of a spouse or debilitating medical condition.

Banks need to streamline the process by hiring additional staff and establishing better guidelines on what they’ll accept for a short sale, he said.

Keith McIntyre was approved for a short sale of his home in Las Vegas, but backed out when he received a letter from Bank of America that included a clause for deficiency judgment on the remaining balance of about $120,000. The clause allows the bank to recoup its losses from any assets accrued by McIntyre in the next six years.

“I wasn’t big on the idea,” McIntyre said from Denver, where he now lives. “I got an approval letter from Bank of America without the deficiency clause before they took over Countrywide. I don’t know if the legal department at the bank has gotten more creative or if one bank is just doing things differently from another. It just leaves a real bad taste in your mouth.”

People looking to short-sell are “trying to do the right thing,” McIntyre said, but they’ll let their homes go to foreclosure if banks stand firm on seeking deficiency judgments, especially after taking government bailout money.

J.J. Bell of Las Vegas looked at a 6,000-square-foot home in the gated Palisades Canyon enclave of northwest Las Vegas listed for $975,000, reduced from $1.8 million in February.

“I don’t know if I’m going to make an offer,” said Bell, who’s also looking at high-end golf course properties in Eagle Hills and Tournament Hills. “You can find darned near as good a deal on the regular market. It really doesn’t matter.”

The difference between the $116,900 median price of an REO sale and the $150,000 median price of a short sale “speaks volumes” on what the banks should be doing, housing analyst Larry Murphy of Las Vegas-based SalesTraq said.

Foreclosure homes aren’t properly maintained and lose value when they sit empty, he said. Banks also incur longer holding costs when they complete the foreclosure process.

“The only way we can avoid foreclosures next year is if the banks wise up,” Murphy said. “The trend is increasing in short sales. I wouldn’t be surprised in 2010 if the percentage of short sales equals or exceeds the REO percentage because it’s the smart thing.”

David Brownell of Keller Williams Realty said private sellers are having more success negotiating short sales with their mortgage lenders.

One of the statistics that caught his attention in September was the 117 percent increase in short sale closings from a year ago. Second was the declining inventory. His figures show single-family home inventory falling from 21,349 in October 2008 to 10,956 in October of this year — a drop of 49 percent.

He’s seeing such things as “reverse foreclosures” whereby banks are undoing a recent foreclosure, putting the previous loan back in place and working out terms with the homeowners in an effort to seek alternative solutions to foreclosure.

California-based real estate consultant John Burns said he expects to see an increase in short sales with the Treasury department’s recently announced $2,500 subsidy — $1,000 to the servicer and $1,500 to the seller — to encourage short sales as a way to clear excess inventory.

The fees are designed to help compensate the loan servicer for the extra effort and to give the seller incentive to cooperate and leave the home in good condition.

“Short sales have developed a bad reputation as frustrated buyers have had limited success,” Burns said. “We’ll see if the Treasury can change this, but we are skeptical.”

Banks and real estate agents must figure out how to work together, Burns said. Banks have been slow to approve the sale, particularly when the high bid is below the last appraisal on file. Realtors typically don’t want to deal with the extra work involved in a short sale. Buyers don’t want to deal with the bank’s bureaucracy, which can take four to five months for a short sale.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.

October market report

	FORECLOSURE	SHORT SALE	STANDARD
Supply	1,698	3,692	3,089
Closed	2,139	428	585
Failed	244	1,261	719
In escrow	3,920	6,554	1,272
Percent selling	90	25	45
Median ask price	$135,000	$145,000	$369,000
Median close price	$123,000	$150,000	$195,000
SOURCE: Nevada Title Co.

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Posted in Housing Crisis, Short Sale News

Interview with Erik by NASSPRO at NAR

November 20th, 2009

Steve Hawks and Kendall Trotter of NASSPRO talk to Erik Lovell, president of Short Sale Commander at the NAR convention in San Diego.

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U.S. Mortgage Delinquencies Reach a Record High

November 20th, 2009

By DAVID STREITFELD

Published: November 19, 2009

The economy and the stock market may be recovering from their swoon, but more homeowners than ever are having trouble making their monthly mortgage payments, according to figures released Thursday.

Nearly one in 10 homeowners with mortgages was at least one payment behind in the third quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in its survey. That translates into about five million households.

The delinquency figure, and a corresponding rise in the number of those losing their homes to foreclosure, was expected to be bad. Nevertheless, the figures underlined the level of stress on a large segment of the country, a situation that could snuff out the modest recovery in home prices over the last few months and impede any economic rebound.

Unless foreclosure modification efforts begin succeeding on a permanent basis — which many analysts say they think is unlikely — millions more foreclosed homes will come to market.

“I’ve been pretty bearish on this big ugly pig stuck in the python and this cements my view that home prices are going back down,” said the housing consultant Ivy Zelman.

The overall third-quarter delinquency rate is the highest since the association began keeping records in 1972. It is up from about one in 14 mortgage holders in the third quarter of 2008.

The combined percentage of those in foreclosure as well as delinquent homeowners is 14.41 percent, or about one in seven mortgage holders. Mortgages with problems are concentrated in four states: California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. One in four people with mortgages in Florida is behind in payments.

Some of the delinquent homeowners are scrambling and will eventually catch up on their payments. But many others will slide into foreclosure. The percentage of loans in foreclosure on Sept. 30 was 4.47 percent, up from 2.97 percent last year.

In the first stage of the housing collapse, defaults and foreclosures were driven by subprime loans. These loans had low introductory rates that quickly moved to a level that was beyond the borrower’s ability to pay, even if the homeowner was still employed.

As the subprime tide recedes, high-quality prime loans with fixed rates make up the largest share of new foreclosures. A third of the new foreclosures begun in the third quarter were this type of loan, traditionally considered the safest. But without jobs, borrowers usually cannot pay their mortgages.

“Clearly the results are being driven by changes in employment,” Jay Brinkmann, the association’s chief economist, said in a conference call with reporters.

In previous recessions, homeowners who lost their jobs could sell the house and move somewhere with better prospects, or at least a cheaper cost of living. This time around, many of the unemployed are finding that the value of their property is less than they owe. They are stuck.

“There will be a lot more distressed supply entering the market, and it will move up the food chain to middle- and higher-price homes,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist for MFR Inc.

Many analysts say they believe that foreclosures, instead of peaking with the unemployment rate as they traditionally do, will most likely be a lagging indicator in this recession. The mortgage bankers expect foreclosures to peak in 2011, well after unemployment is expected to have begun falling.

There was one sliver of good news in the survey: the percentage of loans in the very first stage of default — no more than 30 days past due — was down slightly from the second quarter. If that number continues to decline, at least the ranks of the defaulted will have peaked.

“It’s arguably a positive, but it doesn’t undermine the fact that there are still five or six million foreclosures in process,” Ms. Zelman said.

The number of loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration that are at least one month past due rose to 14.4 percent in the third quarter, from 12.9 percent last year. An additional 3.3 percent of F.H.A. loans are in foreclosure.

The mortgage group’s survey noted, however, that the F.H.A. was issuing so many loans — about a million in the last year — that it had the effect of masking the percentage of problem loans at the agency. Most loans enter default when they are older than a year.

When the association removed the new loans from its calculations, the percentage of F.H.A. mortgages entering foreclosure was 30 percent higher.

The association’s survey is based on a sample of more than 44 million mortgage loans serviced by mortgage companies, commercial and savings banks, credit unions and others. About 52 million homes have mortgages. There are 124 million year-round housing units in the country, according to the Census Bureau.

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Posted in Housing Crisis, loan modification, real estate short sales

Second Lein Holders Gaining Ground in Short Sales

November 19th, 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A new report from Zillow.com says that banks are facing more obstacles to making short sales, Diana Olick of CNBC reported. While the percentage of borrowers who are underwater on their mortgages declined in the third quarter, to 21 percent from 23 percent, the abundance of negative home equity, coupled with the growing number of homeowners who have taken on second mortgages, has made it harder for banks to complete short sales, the report says. Tim Wilson, president of Long & Foster Companies real estate group, the largest real estate company in the mid-Atlantic, said that the short sale situation has grown so complicated that his firm has designated a specific team just to handle short sales.

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Posted in Housing Crisis, Short Sale News, real estate short sales

Americans More Unhappy With Feds’ Housing Fixes

November 18th, 2009

by: Chris Palmeri

Trillions spent on propping up banks, buying mortgages, tax credits and new programs designed to lower payments and prevent foreclosures. And yet a new survey from Move Inc., the parent of Realtor.com, says Americans are growing increasingly dissatisfied with how Washington is handling the housing mess.

The October 2009 survey found that the federal government’s approval rating by consumers on housing issues has slipped since March 2009. By a six-percent margin, Americans said they don’t think the government is doing enough to stabilize the housing market (48.2% compared to 42.2% five months ago). According to the survey, consumers still want low interest rates (31.4%) and action by the government to help homeowners prevent foreclosures (28.5%), the same two top priorities expressed by survey respondents in March.

The survey found that public participation in the programs to prevent foreclosures is much lower than anticipated. In March 2009, several days after the details of the Making Home Affordable program were announced; Move’s survey found that 17.6 percent of those interviewed said they intended to participate in the Administration’s program. Now only 8.8 percent said they actually did participate.
The number of consumers interested in investing in real estate has doubled since March. One out of eight (12.1%) homebuyers today plan to purchase a home as an investment property, compared to 5.6 percent seven months ago.

Fear of foreclosure is fading. In March 52.5 percent of all survey respondents said they were concerned that they or someone they know may face foreclosure in the next 6 to 12 months. That number dipped slightly to 45.1 percent in October.

The survey of 1,000 people was conducted the third week of October.

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Posted in Economic Crisis, Housing Crisis

We are back from NAR!

November 18th, 2009

We are back from a successful NAR. We’ll be spending the next few days following up with everyone that we net there and working on some exciting new features that are coming next week. More on that to come, I promise.

In the meantime, what was the #1 thing you took away from NAR? Go ahead and share, the comments are open.

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Real Estate Outlook: Moving Towards Recovery

November 17th, 2009

by Kenneth R. Harney

The huge impact of the federal home buyer tax credit program, which is now set to continue and even expand through next spring, dominates the housing resale numbers this week.

Sales of existing houses during the third quarter jumped by 11.4 percent over second quarter sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.

And the increase in sales came in pretty much every part of the country — in 45 states along with the District of Columbia.

Check out some of these extraordinary increases — all tied in part to home buyers rushing to complete purchase transactions before the tax credit’s original expiration date of November 30th, plus mortgages at rock bottom five percent rates or less.

In North Dakota, sales were up 42.4 percent, Rhode Island 27 percent, Pennsylvania 26 percent.

In some hard hit local markets, sales gains were almost off the charts. In Orlando, they were up 80 percent for the quarter. In Las Vegas sales were 30 percent higher this year over last.

So do you think things are stirring out there? You bet they are, and economists haven’t yet even begun to assess the potential effects on future sales flowing from the brand new $6,500 tax credit for “repeat” buyers.

That means people who’ve owned their house for a consecutive five of the previous eight years, and now want to downsize, move up or just move to a different location.

That credit, which took effect November 6th, will be available for home purchase contracts signed by April 30th of next year and closed by June 30th.

Of course, not all of the developments underway in the economy right now are favorable to housing and real estate.

Start with the unemployment rate, which just jumped to 10.2 percent, the highest in decades. Most economists agree that the true jobless rate, factoring in people who’ve stopped looking for jobs and those working part time, takes the effective unemployment rate nationally closer to 18 percent.

That’s a major negative for home buying prospects.

And the flip side of record housing sales numbers can’t be ignored either: Prices are still way down from year ago levels in many areas — and they’re down 11 percent during the third quarter compared with 2008.

So that’s all pretty sobering.

Nonetheless the fact is that the only way we’re going to move towards full recovery is by selling a lot of houses, at very attractive prices and low interest rates.

That’s happening right now in a big way — and it looks like it should continue well into the spring.

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20091117_realestateoutlook.htm

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Buyer Reps: Helping Everyone Win in a Short Sale

November 16th, 2009

By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

There’s a temptation among buyers hoping to land a good deal with a short sale to avoid committing themselves with money and effort until the seller’s lender gives its OK, but that’s a sure-fire way to ensure the deal won’t close, short-sales trainer Lynn Madison said Sunday at the 2009 REALTORS® Conference & Expo.

Lenders are too backlogged and have too much to lose to consider offers whose buyers haven’t provided earnest money, had an inspection conducted, or applied for financing, said Madison, who help devise and also teaches classes for NAR’s new Short Sales and Foreclosures Certification Program (SFR).

Doing all of these things—along with submitting a reasonable offer—can improve your client’s chances greatly. This is not the time to low-ball on a property whose value has already deeply plunged, she said.

FHA pre-foreclosure guidelines, which provide a widely used model even in the conventional market, directs servicers to consider offers starting at 88 percent of value and then to work down from there. Coming in with an offer at 50 percent of value just won’t fly, she said.

Also, when you’re helping buyers, make sure everything is OK on the seller side. It’s appropriate to verify with the listing agent if the seller really has a hardship and the agent has appropriately submitted a short sale package with the lender. If either of these isn’t true, you’re wasting your buyer’s time because the chance of getting the deal to closing is nil.

On hardship, it’s not enough for sellers to say the value of their property has plunged. That alone does not constitute a hardship. There has to be other issues at play: the sellers lost a job or took a pay cut, they have to move, they face big medical bills, and so on.

If your buyer client agrees to make a reasonable offer and shows a commitment with earnest money, a home inspection, and so on, then it’s reasonable to ask the seller to agree, as part of the purchase contract, to hold off considering additional offers for a period of time. Lenders have shown a willingness to accept this type of restriction if they see that the buyer offer is indeed reasonable and the buyer’s committed, she said.

The advantage of including such a restriction is that it helps attract good buyers. Without any promise from the seller to take the property off the market while the lender considers the deal, another buyer can come in with a higher offer at the last minute and run away with the deal. No buyer wants to make an investment of time and money only to become “road kill” at the eleventh hour, she says.

Buyers with good offers deserve reasonable protection from that happening—and lenders are recognizing that such protection leads to better offers over the long-term, she said.

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Posted in Short Sale News, real estate short sales

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