Short sales are quickly becoming one of the main options investors have when buying a property in the Greater Phoenix and Scottsdale real estate market. In response, the Urban Team has launched a short sale specific web site. We'll tell you a bit more about that in a minute. Let's take a look at short sales first.
Some ask why short sales are becoming more prevalent when they have a reputation for being difficult to buy or sell. In the Valley of the Sun, the answer is pretty simple.
According to the Attorney General's office, 82% of Maricopa country homeowners with mortgages are upside down. If you are upside down on your mortgage, you have few options to sell your home. You can find a cash buyer who doesn't mind overpaying a lot (good luck with that one), you can sell your home and pay off the balance due on your mortgage (provided you have a lot of cash lying around) or you can do a short sale.
The good news is that short sales are getting easier to buy and sell. Many of the lenders have their act together and actually make decisions in under 60 days. What a concept! In addition, new short sale guidelines are coming down the pike from Treasury that sound pretty good and will help the process immeasurably. We'll let you know when and what they do.
I just pulled some stats on the active listings in a few parts of towns and the data is pretty clear that short sales are on the rise. A couple months ago short sales comprised about 10% of the listings in Phoenix; Today the number is 31%. If we look at the NW Valley we see even higher numbers with short sales coming in at 35% of the active listings. Conversely, bank owned homes in the NW valley are way down with only 16% of the listings being REO properties.
If you would like to learn more about short sales, the process and such, we have created a site just for you. Shot-Sale-Phoenix.com has lots of current information including: FAQ's, what goes into a short sale package, negotiating short sales, buyer questions as we ll as answers to those selling by short sale.
If there are areas of interest or questions not covered on the site, please let us know and we'll go hunting and foraging for the info.
Best to you on this beautiful November day.
Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777
