I learned an interesting fact the other day from a Countywide Loss Mitigation Negotiator. These are the people that we work with when we are negotiating a short sale.
This individual said that Countrywide has over 28,000 short sales in process, but only closes about 7% of these. Wow!! You know what that means? Only a couple thousand of this short sales will get approved. What happens to the other 26,000 houses?? Probably foreclosure. And that is only one lender, although one of the largest.
So you see, we have a ways to go with this real estate market. I expect to see a huge jump in foreclosures over the next 6 to 12 months. Inventory is going to dramatically rise causing even further price devaluation.
The great news is that this creates a tremendous amount of opportunity. If done right, you can set yourself for life over the next three years with some really smart buys. Get ready from some SUPER deals. I am already seeing them on the market.
I just helped a client put a three year old loft under contract for $285,000. This was a loft that sold two years ago for $470,000. The bank (ASC) has already approved the short sale and we should be closing escrow in a total of 17 days. Needless to say, my client is ecstatic.
Best,
Mark Shandrow
Keller Williams Realty
