Uniform Process for Short Sales Will Help Struggling Homeowners

Many of our potential buyers want to do about the process of purchasing a short sale property. Short sales homes can be great investments but the process of buying a short sale can test the patience of even the most patient of buyers. When a buyer wants to make an offer on a short sale home, we submit the offer and we wait, and we wait, and we wait for an answer from the bank as to whether our offer will or even can be accepted. Sometimes after waiting for a couple of months, the buyers still are not able to purchase this home because the bank will not allow the short sale. The National Association of Realtor put out a press release on 5/14/09 regarding the government intervention to streamline this process to not only help buyers that want to purchase these homes but also to aid sellers who need to sell their homes this way.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS
The Voice For Real Estate®
500 New Jersey Avenue, NWWashington DC 20001

WASHINGTON (May 14, 2008) – Help is on the way for many homeowners who are facing foreclosure, thanks to new details under the Making Home Affordable Program announced today by the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Making Home Affordable Program is designed to help homeowners obtain modifications to their loan so they can afford to stay in their home. Where a modification is not possible, new incentives encourage the “quick private sale or voluntary transfer of property, which will save homeowners money and protect their financial future,” according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The National Association of Realtors® expects that a uniform process for handling short sales and financial incentives will facilitate this process.

“NAR is pleased that the government is stepping in to help prevent foreclosures by streamlining the short-sale and deeds-in-lieu process,” said NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. “NAR has been calling for uniform short sales procedures and other initiatives that will help today’s homeowners in challenging economy.”

Short sales occur when a bank agrees to let homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage to sell their home for less than they owe on their mortgage. Visit http://www.treasury.gov/ for detailed information on the program changes.

“Many families are finding themselves with a mortgage that is higher than their current home value, and they are struggling,” said McMillan. “As Secretary Geithner noted, and as NAR has been advocating for many months, stemming the foreclosure crisis and stabilizing the housing market are critical to our economic recovery.”“We have heard from Realtors® that the extensive delay in the short sale process had caused many buyers to go elsewhere and have left many would-be sellers with no option but foreclosure. We are all pleased that the government has stepped in to help homeowners and those wishing to buy a home,” McMillan said.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS
For Further Information Contact:
Mary Trupo, 202/383-1007mailto:202/383-1007mtrupo@realtors.org

Information about NAR is available at www.realtor.org. This and other news releases are posted in the Web site’s “News Media” section in the NAR Media Center.

REALTOR® is a registered collective membership mark which may be used only by real estate professionals who are members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORSÒ and subscribe to its strict Code of Ethics. Not all real estate agents are REALTORSÒ. All REALTORSÒ are members of NAR



Contact us to learn more short sale properties:
Dana M. Garrett - 937-645-6545 - Dana.Garrett@RealLiving.com
Nanie Ingram – 937-645-6542 – Nanie.Ingram@RealLiving.com