Are Short Sales A Waste Of Time?
July 1st, 2009 categories: Buyer Resource, Foreclosures, Seller Resource, Short Sales
We covered the basics of Short Sales in our Sonoma County Short Sales article a few months back. To summarize, a short sale occurs when the bank agrees to accept less than what they are owed in order to release you from your obligation.
We are often asked about Short Sales and the timelines involved in purchasing one. Most of these questions are rooted in the fact that people have heard some type of a horror 
story about a friend or the friend of a friend, or better yet, a sibling who has a coworker who hs a friend who tried to purchase a short sale…all with the same results; wasted time, frustration and a deal that ultimately fell through. Not all short sales have to end this way, and we can assure you Sonoma County short sales are no different than other short sales.
Our experience has been varied. Sometimes short sales go through very quickly. Other times short sales can take months and months, even with regular calls to the asset manager. The short sale process is really governed by the banks…they have all the decision making authority and thus the power.
We find the time a deal takes to get completed depends mainly on the lender who is to approve the deal, and how they are structured internally. Some lenders have separate departments for short sales and foreclosures. This is a good thing, as it allows shorts sales to have their own dedicated staff. Others, especially since we have seen Real Estate hit the bottom line of many lenders balance sheets, have a single department for short sales AND foreclosures. When this happens, the lenders must prioritize which files to work on, and in many cases, foreclosures would get the precedent. This is what we feel is the basis of most short sale horror stories, as these files receive little attention relative to those of foreclosures. Even with separate departments, in the current environment, it may be a matter of the lack of people power at some of these institutions as well.
We have covered the subject of Short Sales versus Foreclosures on the seller side, and have not really discussed it from the buyer perspective. I suppose that is what I am attempting to do here.
We do find that more buyers regularly have a more pleasant and easier buying process when purchasing Sonoma County Foreclosures as opposed to Sonoma County Short Sales.
The short sale process also comes down to the buyer, their expectations, and what they are willing to deal with in a transaction. Your perfect home may be a short sale, so you may be willing to put up with a larger potential headache. Foreclosures generally offer a quicker closing process than short sales, which may be seen as preferrable, as it alleviates some of the uncertainty of the short sale process.
Sonoma County Short Sales are worth the wait as they offer the opportunity to for buyers to purchase Real Estate at below market prices. There is an extended time line with short sales, which is discouraging to some, and may even allow others to improve their financial position and credit before locking in a loan. We believe you should consider Short Sales in your Sonoma County Real Estate search.
