Saturday’s Arizona Republic had an article http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/11/05/20111105arizona-banks-shift-short-sales.html stating among other things that banks are more and more cooperative today when negotiating short sales.  This coincides with what we’ve experienced.  Lately when helping financially distressed owners of high rise and loft condo owners in Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale we have found many banks to be much easier to work with.

While short sales used to be a complete nightmare, now more often than not, they are just a bad dream.

What a mean by that is that short sales are still tough, especially with high rise condos which I’ll go into further later, but even with all the hoops and bizarre rules and regulations we are having great success in getting them done.  In fact in all of 2011 we only had one short sale that the bank refused to sell short!  Also, in general, it’s only taking us 45-60 days to get bank approval while it used to take a minimum of 90 days and sometimes as long as 9 months.  Although 45-60 days is still longer than a traditional sale or an REO, it’s certainly reasonable.

I stated above that high rise condos and lofts are tougher to sell short.  Here’s ONE reason why:

Even though Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe have many more high rise condos and lofts than they used to, this type of housing represents a very small percentage of the total market.  Because of this, very few real estate agents, appraisors and other professionals truly understand the product.  And let’s face it, high rise condos, row homes and brownstones are very different than a traditional single family home.  An agent who doesn’t truly understand a high rise condo or loft can not possibly do as good a job selling that property as an agent who is.  Period!  And if the agent does not truly understand the property there is no way that agent can properly communicate with the appraisor.  If you live in a high rise condo, you know that there are many more things that affect value than the square footage of the property.  High rise condo values are much more complicated and involve such things as the floor on which the condo is located, whether the condo faces west or east for example, the view in general, the number of parking spaces, the type of storage included etc…

Last year I represented a short sale in a luxury high rise building near the Biltmore.  The condo faced south and overlooked a parking lot.  The bank appraisor tried to make the case that our condo was comparable in price to condos with phenomenal views of mountains and city lights!  I presented “floor plates” of the building showing in detail where every comparable condo (comp) was located in the building and the type of views that comp had.  Ultimately the bank understood my position and agreed to the sales price of the condo.  Also, because we “hit” the value, my client, the Seller, did not have to write a check to offset the deficiency.  This was a huge success.

If I had not fully understood the building or if I did not have the resources available to properly make the argument, I believe the bank would have turned down the sale and my client would have lost the property to foreclosure.

If you have an urban property and you are considering doing a short sale… CALL US.  We not only understand the short sale process but we specialize in the marketing and sale of urban properties.  We do not charge any more commission than the agents who focus on selling suburban properties but we are a whole heck of a lot more qualified to seel urban.  For that matter, if you are selling your condo short you won’t pay the commission anyway, the bank will.  But, by hiring agents who KNOW urban, you increase your chances of successfully selling the property and avoiding foreclosure.  It doesn’t cost anything to talk to us.  Give us a call at 480-510-8755 ext. 3 and explain your situation.  We’ll give you the straight scoop whether you’re a good candidate for a short sale or not.  You’ll be glad you did.