Banks Start to Embrace Short Sales Instead of Foreclosures

Banks Start to Embrace Short Sales
Even before the government put pressure on them to embrace short sales, more banks were starting to take their lumps, do the short-sale deals and move on.

Three years into the housing meltdown, short sales have tripled to 40,000 in the first six months of 2009, compared to the same time period a year ago, according to data from the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America Corp., and JPMorgan Chase & Co. this year have hired and trained more staff to handle short sales and also developed software for expediting them.

more: http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2009120401?OpenDocument

Expect to see more and more short sale transactions especially here in the Las Vegas market.  Buying a short sale is a viable option and worth the wait.  But remember, a short sale can take a long time to process and a buyer definitely needs to have patience with the transaction and there are no guarantees the bank will even except a short sale payoff.  It is a better option for the bank and it helps the homeowners tremendously.  A short sale payoff looks much better than a foreclosure on their credit.

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