Seventy-seven percent of real estate professionals report that closing short sale transactions is “difficult” or “extremely difficult” — up from 70 percent in December 2010, according to a survey conducted in June by the California Association of REALTORS®. The survey gauged real estate professionals’ experience and satisfaction with lenders over transactions.
Real estate professionals also reported that lenders’ and servicers’ short-sale procedures have shown little improvement in the past six months.
“Despite promises by lenders to improve their short-sale processes, clearly, they are not doing enough,” C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce said in a statement. “Instead of helping struggling home owners who need to sell and willing home buyers who want to buy, lenders have created man-made roadblocks that have caused real estate gridlock and hindered a desperately needed housing recovery.”
The most frequent obstacles cited included slow response time by lenders to a short sale package (about 67 percent said it took more than 60 days for lenders to return a written response for approving or disapproving a short sale agreement), poor communication with lender representatives (43 percent said it took the lender more than five days to return any form of communication), and repeated requests for documentation. Plus, more than 15 percent of the real estate professionals surveyed said the lender foreclosed on the home before the short-sale transaction even could be completed.
“With short sales accounting for a fifth of all transactions in California, it’s crucial that lenders improve their short-sale process so that a meaningful recovery in the housing market and overall economy can occur,” Peerce said.
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