Short sales tend to take a long time
BY MARY SHANKLIN
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Published: November 7, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. — For buyers, it’s a way to get a bargain.
For upside-down homeowners, it’s a way to avoid foreclosure.
But for pretty much everyone involved, it’s not a way to buy a house quickly.
Short sales are anything but short.
Buyers and sellers often get so fed up with the protracted process that it’s not unusual for the deals to simply die.
"If I had an option, I would never do a short sale,” said real estate agent
Maria Van Warner who works for
Fannie Hillman and Associates.
Short sales — when houses sell for less than the mortgages owed on them — and foreclosures rise during tough housing markets.
In the spectrum of home sales, the deals fall somewhere between a regular transaction and a full on foreclosure.
Sellers faced with foreclosure may opt for a short sale because it does not mar their credit as much as if the bank were to take over the house. Getting banks to approve a sale for less than the mortgage amount is what takes time. Once a buyer signs a contract, foreclosure sales take five weeks to complete, traditional home sales take seven weeks, and short sales take more than 10 weeks.
For sellers, the process can be a tortured farewell to a devalued home.
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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