Imagine the elimination of Short Sales
When you do something long enough, learning the in’s and out’s, don’t you expect a process to become easier, more efficient and beneficial for all parties concerned? Then why do Short Sales seem to be not following along this path? Short sales nationwide and here in South Florida have been around heavily for 5 years now. We’ve seen some improvements, yet there is no consistency.
Why do businesses fail, like a Restaurant, for example, who serves up a good meal one time and then a disaster the next time? This is how a business will be on the fast track towards operating on low profits without ever becoming profitable. Who can run a business without be profitable? We know that a restaurant isn’t going to get bailed out either when they continually run in the red, they’ll close their front doors, as there is nobody there to bail them out. With each Short Sale that you take on in trying to save a distressed Seller from foreclosure, you hold your breath and wonder what this one will be like; will it go smoothly without a hitch to gain approval or will there be the same old common Short Sale issues that we see time and time again? With the inability of Short Sales to run smoothly and add to that an economy that is petering along, I wonder if we’ll ever get to a point of no longer seeing 25% of our housing inventory being Short Sales but, I can imagine it, if I choose to.
Now a recent HUD guideline that is to take effect right around the corner in October, is indicating that you can only have a Real Estate Agent and/or its Brokerage representing one of the parties. Which means, I as a South Florida Short Sale Real Estate Agent, cannot represent both the Seller and the Buyer, which I have done. Nor can another Short Sale Real Estate Agent from my office represent one of the parties. In fact, I’m getting ready to close on a Short Sale next week where I’m representing the Seller and an Agent from my office is representing the Buyer. If this was happening later and was a FHA HUD property, then this would not be allowed. Meaning, the Buyer who wanted to buy my Seller’s home could not buy it because the Agent that was representing him was with my same Brokerage. So essentially, the Seller is being told who can buy their home and the Buyer is being told whose home they can buy. Really? You’re kidding me, right? No, I’m not, as this is what will happen if this new requirement doesn’t get eliminated before its set to take effect.
There are so many adverse outcomes that can come out of this. However, as the Short Sale poem below goes, I can imagine no more Short Sales, can’t I?
Find out more about the new FHA HUD Ruling below: