I have noticed that short sales have become easier and quicker during the past year.  Short sale closings topped foreclosure closings by a healthy margin, and short sales have dominated our local Nevada County and Placer County real estate markets for the same period.  Several legislations have provided “incentives” for lenders to approve short sales more efficiently.  Here’s the latest, reposted from Century 21 sources:

“The new requirements for short sales  include the following standards for the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers (Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo):

• Mortgage servicers are required to give a decision to a borrower within 30 days of receiving a completed short sale request package.
• The servicers’ internal groups must review all short sale requests in the first two months of the quarter.
• And if a servicer takes longer than 30 days on more than 10% of the requests, the firm is considered in “potential violation.”
• The settlement also requires a servicer to notify a borrower within 30 days if any documents are missing from the request package.
• Servicers will also be required to notify a borrower if there is a deficiency payment needed before the short sale is approved, including an approximate amount.If more than 5% of all short sales approved in a given quarter did not include this disclosure, the bank would be in violation.”

Documents pertaining to the Mortgage Servicing Settlement are available on the U.S. Department of Justice Web site as well as the National Mortgage Settlement Web site.

My buyer clients just saved more than $100,000 buying “short,” based on sales price vs. independent 3rd party appraisal of the home’s value.  You read that right . . . $100,000.