Percentage of Homeowners Underwater

Nationally 23% of homeowners are underwater. For those homeowners who can no longer afford their mortgage, a short sale is often the best solution because it may have less of a negative impact upon their credit scores. Among the obvious benefits of having a higher credit score is that the homeowners would be able to qualify for another mortgage (hopefully one they can afford!) sooner.

Short sales are often a better deal for the banks as well because a bank becomes fully responsible for maintaining and selling a foreclosed property- and banks are not in the real estate business. As banks work to clear the backlog of foreclosed properties from their books, the properties sit unoccupied and slowly decay.

Unfortunately, despite the obvious benefits of short sales for both consumers and the banks, it is very difficult to get a short sale closed. The ease of the transaction depends most heavily on the lender's motivation and competence. For the buyers and the sellers of a short sale, getting the deal done can be such an impossibility that the buyers often walk away after months of trying and the sellers' homes ends up in foreclosure. And the kicker is that the property sells for far less in foreclosure than it would have as a short sale. In these instances the sellers, buyers and the banks have all lost out, not to mention the neighbors who now have an abandoned property in their neighborhood and will have their home values negatively impacted by the depressed sales prices.

Fortunately for buyers and sellers of short sales, Coldwell Banker has a fantastic short sale program. For $600, paid by the bank, not the buyer or seller, Coldwell Banker's team of short sale experts will expedite the process for you, often saving the property from falling into foreclosure. Within Coldwell Banker, 80% of short sale deals that used the program closed. Only 58% of short sale deals that did not use the program closed.

The moral of the story is that short sales are extremely tricky and sellers need an expert to handle the process for them. If you need to sell your home, let me guide you through the process.