Are Colorado Springs Short Sales a Good Deal

Anyone facing foreclosure in the Colorado Springs, Woodland Park, Fountain, Monument, and Peyton areas are in for an uphill battle. Sadly, many people don’t know what to do. So, they just do nothing. Here is a shocking fact: Over 75% of homeowners just give the home back or let it go back to the bank without doing any foreclosure prevention measures. There are so many options to them and all of the options are free. Some of the homeowners are, understandably, afraid of scams. Others are led to believe they are being promised a loan modification right up until it’s too late to do a Short Sale. Another huge issue is the homeowner may pick an agent that does not know how to manage a Short Sale resulting in the home being priced too high and going into foreclosure or the agent just accepts “No” from the bank and it fails. A short sale is defined as when a homeowner facing foreclosure is requesting his lender (bank) to approve a short pay-off of his/her loans below what they owe to sell them home to a buyer instead of a foreclosure. As buyers, I want you to know Short Sales are a great deal. Banks will routinely accept as little as 88% of the lowest market value for that home. Here’s an example: I just closed a Short Sale (as the Listing Broker) where the comps were between $332,000 and $360000. The bank accepted $318500 as a sales price for a updated, pretty, 4400 square foot home in Woodmoor, a lovely Monument subdivision On that particular sale, the seller was led to believe (by checking in every week) that they were in contention for a loan modification. That seller contacted me just 36 hours before the foreclosure sale. Had they called any other agent they would have been turned away and had to foreclose. But, I know what to do. I quickly got their sale date moved (without and offer), then we put it on the market at a crazy low price of $264,900. I informed the agent community that this was a below market price and I expected the sales price to go way above list price. In 2 ½ days, we had 22 showings and 6 offers. Once the bank allowed me to upload all the necessary documents, I had full written approval for the short sale in 11 days! Best of all, the bank put it in writing that they would not ever come after the sellers for any unpaid debt. Many agents will tell you it takes “FOREVER” to get a short sale approved. It could take a long time if the seller files Bankruptcy. If they do not, however, most of our short sales have been approved in 2-4 weeks. It is our pledge to you as a buyer, that if we represent you on the purchase of a short sale, we will help the listing agent, who may not have our skills to expedite the process. It should give you some comfort to know that the banks, recently, have been adding staff to do their short sale negotiations at a much quicker pace. Why?..It is not because the banks are are generous, but because the banks know they will net more money allowing a short sale instead taking the home back in foreclosure. The best part for the seller is that many of the major banks are paying their borrowers (homeowners) as much as $20,000 to do a short sale instead of letting it foreclose. Wow! That would help so many of those folks facing foreclosure. To find out if your bank will pay you as much as $20,000 to short sale, please give us call. We’d love to help people facing foreclosure and it is not cost to them at all. Plus we’d love for Short Sales to be quick and painless for our buyers so they get a great deal as well!