If you look around bay area, most of the homes for sales are either short sale or bank owned homes. In just Fremont, Newark, Union City and Hayward area, you will see that 225 homes are available for sale, which is 34% of available homes and 812 homes are pending, that is 64% of current pending homes as of 10/25/09. Now, if you look at the Expired homes, there are 87 homes which haven’t sold for the last one month, which means those homeowners will face foreclosures. I believe that most of the homes could have been sold. These are the 5 common mistakes when doing short sale
1. Not hiring the right agent: This is the number 1 common mistake with seller, they don’t select the experienced short sale agent. All agents are not same, you need someone who is trained and experienced in short sale to handle the transaction smoothly and negotiate with lender. Always check with realtor whether they have any certification or training in short sale and successfully closed the short sale, not just listed the house.
2. Not submitting all the required documents: Seller needs to get all the financial documents and other documents ready to give to realtor to submit to the bank. As I mentioned earlier, agents needs to be experienced in short sale because they know what all documents required by bank and submit at the first time itself.
3. Not keeping house cleaned: You need to maintain your house and keep it cleaned, treat it as regular sale. I have seen many short sale houses where the homeowner doesn’t keep the house cleaned, just remember that buyer needs to like the house in order to sell your house faster than other houses, so that you can avoid foreclosure.
4. Not Cooperate with showing: If no one sees your house then it would be hard to sell, some homeowners wants to sell but they don’t show the house from inside, just want to see the house from outside and write offer contingent on inspection or very restricted hours to see the house. In this way, you will lose most of the buyers. I can understand that you are facing difficulties and trying to avoid foreclosure with short sale. So, in order to sell fast, my suggestion would be to cooperate with showing the inside of the house to potential buyers so that they can make decision to buy the house.
5. Not Taking action sooner: I can understand that it’s hard to make a decision on selling your house and moving to rental place or relative’s house after you bought with a good intension to live there for years. But you have to do what you have to, by taking the right action to avoid foreclosure. As soon as you realize that you are having financial difficulty then try to resolve as soon as possible by either contact lender for loan modification or rent it out if you can manage it and if nothing works out then do short sale.
I hope if any homeowner who is having financial difficulty or facing foreclosure can take action quickly by contact the lender for loan modification or contact an experienced agent for short sale so that you can avoid foreclosure.
If you are in bay area and facing foreclosure or have any questions on short sale then please contact me at 510-366-9405 and I would be glad to assist you.
Similar Posts:
- What are the Common Things in a Short Sale Process?
- Short Sale Listings Sold In The Last 30 Days
- I Have Received Notice Of Default, What Should I Do?
- 5 Top Things To Do Before You Short Sale Your House
- Who Pays My HOA In Short Sale?
