The housing crisis is affecting every socio-economic class, and it’s no different in Fort Lauderdale real estate.  In an effort to stem foreclosures, and under much pressure from U.S. lawmakers and regulators, the Hope Now coalition, backed by the Bush administration, has deemed that lenders need to accommodate borrowers interested in selling their properties for less than their outstanding mortgage balance to avoid foreclosure, a very sexy solution called short sales.

Mortgage lenders and servicers have agreed that the process of helping distressed homeowners needs to be accelerated. In most cases, that leaves two main options: Foreclosure or Short Sale.
To clear up any confusion, a foreclosure does not always elicit a deal or a steal. The reality of foreclosure costs and subsequent resale asking price is quite different. Pricing is determined by the condition of the property and recent neighborhood sales.

Agents specializing in selling foreclosures work very hard and have deep pockets to absorb the thousands that could be expended prior to bank reimbursement. The responsibilities include property maintenance, payment of outstanding utilities, cleaning, visiting the vacant property regularly, photos, notes, mountains of paperwork and prepping it for sale, all of which add up to a hefty amount of work and money.

The other option to foreclosure is a short sale.  The short sale process is basically the selling of a home at fair market value, which is below the outstanding mortgage, the lender essentially forgives the difference. In addition to avoiding foreclosure and the implications thereof, credit scores suffer less of a blow and the property remains inhabited and therefore properly maintained until resale. Whether the property is bought by an investor interested in fixing it up to sell for a profit, or a buyer looking to reside in the property, short sales is a welcomed alternative to the rising foreclosures since 2007. In the end, the goal remains to keep productive pieces of property on the market.

Tags: florida real estate, fort laudedale foreclosures, fort lauderdale short sales, south florida foreclosures, south florida short sales

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 5:20 pm and is filed under real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.