I’m going to do just that, SDR (call agents I know about their recent “short-sale” experiences).
As you may have noticed, I am an advocate for transparency and full disclosure in RE transactions. And CA is certainly now headed in that direction. So agents/brokers, load up your flashlights with fresh batteries, lol!
I’m curious about something, SDR. Not sure if you handle a lot of “short sales,” but I would just ask, What’s the “draw” in handling them? Do you feel like you are performing a “public service for the greater good?” Or is it just because that’s where the “need” is right now because owners with equity (read: “choices” in life) wouldn’t in their right minds try to market their properties right now? Don’t you often feel like unless you have lenders as regular clients stemming from listing REOs that you, as an agent, representing a buyer or seller in a “short sale” are just banging your head into a brick wall, due to the incompetence of servicers and other lender “contractors?” Doesn’t the utter incompetence (and corruption) inherent within the short-sale “system” make you want to dump the clients and the sale and seek an easier listing/sale to deal with to make the same amt of commission? Or even change careers? Is it difficult to obtain straightforward “traditional” listings today?
And do you really think “short-sales” are the answer to this backlog of inventory, when they often take much longer than foreclosure? Do you personally think it’s “fair” that these “primadonna” delinquent homeowner-types “who don’t want anyone walking thru” their home should be “rescued” by a buyer and “forgiven” of some of their debt, rather than just have to suck it up and get foreclosed upon? Haven’t the majority of these “deadbeat short-sale sellers” already removed all of their equity and then some?
And lastly, do you personally feel sorry for individuals who bought RE at the wrong time and thus are now “underwater,” if they never took any “cash-out” of their property? In the past, if this happened, an owner who HAD to move (mil. orders, etc) would just rent their property out at a neg cash flow and wait for a better day. What’s preventing owners from doing this today instead of trying to “short-sale,” which impacts their credit report? Do you think these “poor” owners now have the right of cramdown or “loan forgiveness” because they were compelled to “follow the herd” in 2005? How is this “herd mentality” the problem of everyone who sat out or made their mtg payments on time continuously throughout this “bubblicious” party? I have no doubt that many owners who bought 10-20 years ago and took zero cash out would like to sell but can’t even get a price today which would reimburse them for what they have invested in their properties. This is all due to artificially-low surrounding sold comps from rigged “short-sales.” (REO’s were mostly sold “at” market.)
We’ve had recessions before and unemployment was very high between 1980 to 1983 and somewhat high 1990 to 1995. Underwater homeowners who HAD to move either rented out their properties, gave a deed in lieu or were foreclosed on. End of story.
How is a “coddled adult” who is a recipient of gov’mt largesse after squeezing every last drop of equity out of their property ever going to learn life lessons about the consequences of not reading their loan docs before signing them and making bad investments if HUGE “short-sale/HAMP etc systems” are set up to “rescue” them from their ignorance and stupidity?
Yes, I’ve been “awake” and know full well first-hand how incompetent all these “short-sale/deed-in-lieu/HAMP etc players” are. Most couldn’t tunnel their way out of a brown paper bag to find their respective lavatories.
I realize these transactions where “lenders are taking it in the shorts” are the “norm” now. I just don’t believe in them. And I don’t believe its a buyer’s duty to “rescue” a “deadbeat seller” from all their past poor decisions and greed. I wouldn’t touch these listings with a ten-foot pole, nor steer any buyer towards one. Buying a principal residence is supposed to be a straightforward business deal, even joyful in the end. These problematic albatrosses should all revert back to their respective beneficiaries or get sold to deeper-pocketed investors on the steps who will ostensibly fix them up and rent them or flip them. This market is way too soft today for cash-investors to make a “killing” flipping but there is some wiggle room in there, if purchased on the steps at the right price (after bidder proper due diligence, of course). As an purchaser of a recent trustee’s deed, all you have to deal with that is “different” than all these “as-is” sales (masquerading as “open market” listings) is that the defaulting trustor or their tenants may still be occupying the property at the time your trustee’s deed is recorded. Evicting them or having them sign a rental contract if FAR easier and faster than attempting to pull teeth with a string of bumbling incompetents from here to the US east coast, IMO.
Of course, no one on this board is to blame, but we could have been SO DONE with this mess by now!
