We are now awaiting a briefing that is supposed to be coming from the Treasury Department near the end of September, but today is the 30th and we’ve yet to hear another word. Up til now, the short sale process here in Georgia and nationwide has been a stressful roller coaster with many. Many Georgia agents will roll their eyes at the thought of attempting a short sale and some have even been known to deter buyers away from making offers.
This coming program would give banks an incentive to speed up the acceptance process, which would surely be good for Atlanta homeowners as well as homeowners nationwide. But, like we mentioned in previous posts, would this program even work? Banks who have been slammed with thousands upon thousands of requests for short sales on top of the many loan mod applications.
“We had a learning curve…Any stakeholder has a right to disapprove the sale. Realtors out there were used to regular sales. Now, all of a sudden, the servicer and Realtor have had to learn a lot,” says David Knight, Sr VP of Default Retention Operations, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, in a recent USA Today interview.
We certainly hope the program helps Georgia homeowners, but we’re not holding our breath for government programs to actually make a dent here locally. We try to stay ahead of the curve and try to beat the short sale system banks have set up, as they are a large percentage of Georgia home sales. Other Atlanta agents may avoid them all together, but signs in the market show that short sales are going to be around for many years to come. Atlanta, we’ll be here for you still.
