Gary Keller of Keller Williams meets with short sale agents and banks to discuss 2011 changes

This is a brief overview of a meeting that was held with Gary Keller and some Keller Williams Short sale agents and bank personnel from around the country in November 2010. These are some of the highlights provided to us from one of the agents from our Keller Williams Professional Partners Surprise, AZ office that was part of the meeting. This may help you with your decision to short sale your house.

There was a lot of positive discussion from the meeting and I will tell you the banks, although slow to understand our market and see many of the bad decisions they have made to this point. Here are some key points that were discussed:

§  Many of the banks will no longer extend trustee sales over and over (we are already seeing this). Nationally this has been a bad move as the vast majority of foreclosure or trustee sale postponements have ultimately end up foreclosing anyway. Unfortunately some legitimate short sales will be lost due to this policy but ultimately the banks see this helping their overall loss and see this pushing troubled seller into starting the Short Sale process sooner.

§  Principal Reductions will not happen! Loan modifications down to 31% of the household income may happen however the terms of the loan are extended and interest will accrue thus creating even worse loan terms for most people. If you are desperate to stay in your home, this may be an avenue for you if you don’t mind the long-term drawbacks.

What does this mean to you? The biggest message here is DO NOT wait too long if you plan to Short Sale. There are many benefits in completing a Short Sale verse going to Foreclosure and the banks realize this. They also realize people are living in their home way too long without making payments and have taken advantage of the situation. Many banks and investors are pushing sellers to take immediate action if they desire to Short Sale or suffer the consequences by going to foreclosure.

 We will see the banks in 2011 being more aggressive however if you work with an experienced team, you will have options if there is enough time.

We at the Burkhardt Team would be happy to discuss these topics and more with anybody that is interested and will continue to get you current information and ideas. Please forgive us for any inaccuracies and feel free to give us topics you would like us to blog on. Special thanks to Jennifer Sanchez AZ RE agent Surprise, AZ