Pretty straight forward. I was just curious as to what percentage of individuals in pre-foreclosure qualify as good short sale canditates?
I was reading a book about investing in the pre-foreclosure market and the author wrote that you will be lucky to find that even 5% of homeowners facing foreclosure qualify for a short sale. This just doesnt seem right to me.
I have actually yet to have a bank tell me they wont do one. The only time it has not worked out is when CitiMortgage didnt want to accept 1K from first…instead they wanted 50% of the balance which was like 22K…obviously the first laughed…actually so did I! Then for the next 3 weeks I tried to get a hold of the negotiator for the 2nd and she never once…not once returned a phone call or answered my call…even when the customer service rep told me she was there, then they would pick back up and tell me she is busy now!!!
The book you were reading must be pre-short sale epidemic. I’d say it’s more like 98% . It’s an epidemic right now so the lenders are looking at everyone and considering all cases.
I did have a few that I did not work on because I felt the case was not strong enough and one homeowner inparticular out right told me that they fell behind because they wanted to live closer to town. Since the house was upside down 150k what else was he supposed to do. (he says) When I looked at his financials, they weren’t strong enough either. He net’d 5k a month, very little bills (he wasn’t negative each month even with his mortgage payment) and he had 10k in his bank account - as far as I was concerened, there was no good reason to be behind. He complained that he did have a hardship and I should work with him, but I just wasn’t dealing with it. Anyhow, most cases can be considered worthly. It just comes down to numbers really.
Any idea how long this “epidemic” will continue?
I believe some markets are stronger than others so I can’t say for your market (not sure where you are) my market, Phoenix it will take I think at least up to 2 more years to clear. By the time all the foreclosure go down, we will be inundated with REO’s which will still bring our markets down and until the lenders start lending again, who knows what will happen. Right now, I’d say about 80% of our market is short sales maybe more. For instance, I did a comparative market analysis on a property - 10 out of 15 properties were short sales, three were REO’s and 2 were people who had just enough equity. Plus properties are staying on the market for 160 days plus on average. I say a few at 550 days :flush which is a big duh to me buy hey. It’s really really bad.