Short Sale Process Actually Becomes Shorter!

RealtyTraq, which measures real estate activity across the country, just released a very interesting article with the latest statistics on the time it takes banks to process a short sale, and which banks have the fastest response time. Not surprisingly, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and FHA had the shortest timelines from the beginning of the process to the final closing, posting an average of 193 days in January 2012, down from 248 days on average a year ago. View the complete article here

But the most interesting part of the article was the fact that Bank of America has announced that it's new policy is to provide a decision within 20 days of a short sale offer with a completed seller package. In Las Vegas, almost 60% of short sales are serviced by Bank of America, so this is GREAT news for Las Vegas homebuyers that can't wait five or six months to find out if they can actually buy the home of their dreams.

In fact, as a matter of course, many prospective owner occupants have been instructing their real estate agents to exclude short sales from their home search because they can't wait and/or don't want the typical hassles associated with a short sale even if they could get a better price on a short sale home. This means they are not even looking at half the market inventory they could possibly buy. And especially now, with Las Vegas real estate inventory levels so low and Las Vegas back to being a seller's market, this will give buyers more choices and potentially a better bang for their buck.

For sellers too, this means less hassle and stress waiting to see if their short sale will be approved and if they will be able to take advantage of the tax benefits on deficiencies currently in place until the end of 2012. Hopefully other banks will soon follow B of A's example and set a strict policy on response time.

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