HGTV - Short Sales Offer Solution to Foreclosure Crisis

HGTV Front Door interviewed Troy Huerta about helping other buyers and other agents increase their success rate and reduce the time it takes to close Short Sales. Here is part of the interview:

....Now, lenders should be more motivated than ever to get these deals done as part of President Obama's economic stimulus plan, the federal government will pay lenders up to $1,000 for each completed short sale or accepted deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.

In Huerta's market -- San Diego -- about 70 percent of the properties for sale are short sales, 20 percent are bank-owned or REOs, and 10 percent are traditional sales.

The failure rate for the average agent doing a short sale? A whopping 66 percent, Huerta says.

The problem? "About 80 percent never counteroffer," Huerta explains. "The bank will tell them no and the agent stops there. But that's their job to say no."

Negotiating a short sale is essentially loss mitigation, Huerta says, which is why the process can take as long as six months. But short sale experts who have extensive contacts within the mortgage industry and experience with these complex deals can get these deals done quickly. Huerta and his team, for instance, work with lenders like Countrywide and Washington Mutual and can get these deals done in 60-90 days, boasting a 90 percent success rate.....
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