Las Vegas Homes, Condos, Land and Commercial Real Estate Blog

First, the definition of short sale homes and condos: The home or condominium is worth less than the mortgage loan which the seller owes on the property. The bank agrees to sell the property for below the loan value, the seller agrees to end up with nothing upon the sale of the property. The bank may or may not come after the seller for deficiency judgment (this is negotiated by good short sale agents).

Above short sale definition is different from what Las Vegas real estate investors erroneously ask for, what they mean by buying short sales is getting a good discount on their investment properties and short sale homes or condos are the last thing these investors have in mind.

Many short sale homes deals in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas are not closing escrow before June-30^th, when the tax credit runs out and this is taking a toll on the Realtors who are involved. There are many pitfalls in an unapproved short sale transaction and if one arises, the closing of escrow will be delayed.  Some of these problems can be issues which a Las Vegas Realtor may have no control over or be outside of the Realtor’s duties or expertise.

This is a true story;

 When a real estate agent or Las Vegas Realtor lists a home for sale, they ask for a preliminary title that shows all the liens that affect the home such as First Trust Deed (First mortgage), second or any other liens which affect the title on the home. A Las Vegas Realtor made an offer on a home which was listed in October-2009 and reviewed the preliminary title and passed it to the buyer for approval.  Meanwhile other entities that had work done on the home became aware that the seller is in financial trouble and in order to protect themselves, put liens on the home which were recorded after the preliminary title was done. Come closing time, a significant lien shows up and screws up the deal which is NOT going to close by June-30^th, no tax credit for the buyer and the poor Realtor which is absolutely not at fault seems to have been hit by a 16 wheeler.

Other problems arise from the short sale home seller backing out of the deal in last minute since the bank rejected his proposal to forgo deficiency Judgment, forcing the seller into bankruptcy and foreclosure. Unapproved short sales are like going to Everest, STUFF happens on Everest; you don’t want to deal with it, don’t go there.

No headaches here. We discouraged our customers from making an offer on Las Vegas short sale homes or condos which are not approved short sales. When we had to make offers on short sales due to customer’s insistence, I told them to make the offer and forget that they ever made an offer on this short sale home and pursue other properties, both ended up buying bank owned home long before we heard from the bank on their short sale offers.

 We don’t do what we can’t do well and would refer these cases to agents that excel in that particular field.  I didn’t pursue listing short sale homes or condos in Las Vegas for sale due to my dislike of banks which I blame for the crash. Instead I found Las Vegas Realtors who specialize and excel in listing and selling short sales and refer those who call me to them.

At any rate, I hear that people are discussing a three month extension of tax credit for those buyers who opened escrow by May 31, 2010, however failed to close by the deadline.

I believe that the Federal Government and Congress made a big mistake by not extending the tax credit which was costing 10-15 billion dollars when they borrow 1000 billion dollars a year.  As a serious drop in the number of Las Vegas homes and condos which enter and close escrow is coming.

Related Website pages: buy Las Vegas homes for sale, sell Las Vegas, Henderson homes, Sell Las Vegas, North Las Vegas or Henderson condos

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Lastly; doing a short sale deal in Las Vegas is not easier or less complicated now than it was a year ago, however I hear that banks are trying hard to streamline the process. I will believe it when I see it.