Short sales are notoriously risky, unreliable and frustrating primarily because of how the banks are processing them; at a snails pace and often void of logic and reason. As Realtors in the Portland market we’ve seen more than our share of short sale transactions and we’ve seen a number of them go to foreclosure, list and sell for a price very close to a short sale offer that was on the property before it foreclosed, occasionally for more than the REO list price. This is doing a dis-service to everyone involved including the bank itself as it’s not cheap to foreclose on a home. The National Association of Realtors yesterday aired some grievances about the foreclosure, loan modification and short sale processes and have apparently been meeting with some of the largest banks to discuss these issues, like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and they have meetings scheduled with JP Morgan Chase and Citi. Read more about it here if you’re an Inman subscriber or here if you are not (yes, the latter is a blog, but it posted the article subscription free).

(more…)