Has Fannie Mae Solved the Short Sale Maze?

As many in Portland have already experienced, buying or selling a home through the short sale process can be a bit of a maze. Although short sales are an invaluable tool for underwater home owners, many offers fall through because one or more parties can’t agree to terms in the agreement.

For home owners, the short sale process begins when the lender agrees to sell the home for less than the amount owed on the mortgage. Then the home seller can work with their short sale real estate agent to list the home and find a potential buyer. From there, sellers’ and buyers’ agents negotiate with the various lending institutions, lien holders and other parties. If the maze is negotiated skillfully, a successful short sale offer will result.

Just as in a typical home sale, successfully placing an offer does not mean the sale is completed by any means. However, as reported in DSNews.com, Fannie Mae has introduced a new registry that will help it track those offers and assist real estate agents in bringing them to closing.

Fannie Mae, which was involved in nearly 74,000 short sales in 2012, has asked real estate agents to register successful short sale offers on its website. The agent submits information about offer and the parties involved.

Filling out an online form doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the results are. With all of the relevant information about the offer at its fingertips, Fannie Mae can be much more proactive in processing the short sale.

Says Fannie Mae representative Jay Ryan:
“Our objective is to help stabilize neighborhoods by completing short sales as close to fair market value as possible. We believe this new process will help ensure all parties are in communication early on and are able to come to an agreeable and appropriate sales price.”

Will real estate pricing in Portland neighborhoods be more stable as a result of the new registration process? Nobody knows for sure, but so far, short sale real estate agents have benefited most by Fannie Mae’s “escalation tool”. It allows the buyers’ agent to flag registered short sale offers that have run into roadblocks. Once the case is escalated, Fannie Mae works with the real estate agent who registered the offer to help them address the issue – lowering the walls on the maze so that buyers, sellers and agents can see exactly what needs to be done to close the sale.

Whether you’re a homeowner selling your home with a short sale agent or you’re a buyer interested in purchasing a short sale, running the maze will be a whole lot easier – and oftentimes faster – with a Portland short sale agent who has been there before. As a Certified Short Sale Agent, I keep up with the ever-changing short sale process and ensure that buyers and sellers walk away satisfied. Don’t get lost in the maze – get professional real estate short sale representation!