Been really busy the past few months so posting has been at a minimum. That said a few things I have noticed that are real estate related that may be of interest.

– Wachovia. I have a client and we submitted an offer on a short sale where wachovia is the lender. I prepped my client for the long haul. The listing agent said she expected an answer in a few months but said wachovia has this fast track program and someone told her it would be a matter of weeks. Sure enough we got approval on our offer in 3 weeks! I have not worked with wachovia before, perhaps sdr has but that was a very pleasant surprise. I have other short sale offers in for clients where we have been waiting over 5 months.
So if you are a buyer and you see a short sale and wachovia is the lender, it may happen quick. At least it did for this one sale.

– North Island CU. Someone else I know is selling short and North Island CU is the second. The first will be covered by the sale but the second will be short about 25k. The op manager said they will have an answer in 5 days. That I will have to see to believe but since it is all local it would not surprise me.

– Auctions. Times are freeking ridiculous at the auctions. The inventory is horrible, much much worse then at this time last year. Way more postponements and outright cancellations now. The bottom line is loan mods, short sales, and bankruptcy proceedings and absolutely slowing down the inventory getting into the hands of investors. Similarly with the bump in market performance, opening bids are not nearly as competitive as they used to be. Our own activity has slowed down because we are still trying to be prudent and not get caught up. Most homes now are going in lower end zips because margins are decent but they are grinder so we steer clear.

– Overall market. A few things I notice…. first off CV is still going off. We listed a place there and we priced it competitively and got alot of action on it. Other areas in the I15 corridor as still humming as well. I do see inventory piling up a little bit as people are coming out with pricing that is simply to high. At least those homes are now sitting instead of getting scooped up. It is not a lack of buyers that is driving the inventory up, it is simply sellers getting greedy or trying to get out of distress and hoping not to short sell. It is an interesting equilibrium we are approaching and it will be interesting to see which way it will tilt.

That is it for now, hope all is well.