Short Sales in Palm Beach County not handled well

As a real estate professional I find it very upsetting to find distressed owners in desperate need of help, getting little if any from their real estate agent. It unfortunate that so many of these distress owners have little or no idea how to traverse the complicated maze one needs to when dealing with a Short Sale workout. What's even worse is that their real estate agent who they are depending on for this help and guidance in most cases will provide neither.

Distressed owners looking to do a Short Sale workout with their lender need more then just finding a buyer for their home. While this is an important piece of the Short Sale work out puzzle, believe it or not it isn't the most critical piece of the puzzle.  I say this because unless the owner and lender can work out all the many other important details of the Short Sale and do it in the shortest period of time either the buyer will get frustrated and cancel the contract or the owner will end up in foreclosure canceling out the Short Sale contract. This happens because the lender will pursue both (Short Sale and Foreclosure) simultaneously to insure either way they will get this matter resolved without concern for what best for the owner.  

OK then so what does a distressed owner need to do to dramatically increase their chances they will resolve their differences with their lender.

First they must acknowledge their in trouble and need help. Second they need to find a professional Realtor who has the knowledge as well as access to the resources needed for a successful and expeditious Short Sale workout.  Realtors need to do more then just list a Short Sale home for sale, though this is where most agents stop, leaving the owner to deal directly with their lender which often ends very badly for the owner.

A professional Realtor will take the time needed to properly evaluate and determine if the owner will meet the lenders heart ship requirements for short sale consideration. Once that is established the Realtor would then get its support team in place to help with processing the owners work out package as well as monitor and assist the owner through what is actually a seven stage process that can take up to four months to complete.

Sadly, the failure of many distress owners to secure a Short sale workout from their lender is evident in Palm Beach County as our foreclosures are up 20% year to date. Also Per Realty Trac as of the end of January this year there was approximately 30,000 foreclosures pending in Palm Beach County. While foreclosure is the last and worst option for both distressed owner and lender, it is much worse for the owner then the lender. 

So the take away is that distressed owners need to find a professional Realtor like myself who has both the knowledge and support team needed to insure that they secure a Short Sale workout with their lender and not end up in Foreclosure.  

Peter ReJune

Realtor Broker Associate

Keller Williams Palm Beach

561-793-2493

Palm Beach Home sales exploding

The residential Palm Beach real estate market is BACK. Although the national home real sale statistics had shown for many months that the nations real estate market in general was on the mend with many areas posting year or year double digits price gains, the same could not be said about Palm Beach. However now the Palm Beach residential real estate market can boast the same excellent results as well.

When you compare this years first four months Palm Beach residential sales with last year you can see a definite positive strong trend in place.  Compared to last year this time, there has been a 37% increase in homes under contract, a 40% increase in homes sold, the listing price to sales price ratio is up 4%, and the average sales price is up a whopping 20%. So the metrics for Palm Beach residential resales is looking very good, with the only negatives being a shortage of resale inventory, with active listings down 17% and new listing down by 13%. However this is precisely when a negative is actually a positive for sellers because when supply is down, with buyer demand remaining constant or improving, home prices rise and the market begins to turn. This is exactly what is going on right now in Palm Beach. Its a phenomenon we haven't seen in this market for many years, buyers competing for a limited supply of quality homes. Can somebody say " sellers market"