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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A great opportunity for the smart real estate investor

By Rem

Many hear about the phrase "real estate short sale" and do not fully grasp what it means. If you read the newspapers, or turn on the TV and the odds are high that you will come across stories about declining real estate market conditions and the increasing willingness of banks and other financial institutions to consider real estate short sales as an alternative to foreclosure.

The real estate crisis throughout the country has made the prices decrease and the sell time increase. It is not unfair to label the current real estate market one that is undergoing a market meltdown in many cases, and Detroit is one of those. Declining real estate markets are the primary reason for the rise in short sale real estate opportunities.

A real estate short sale happens when a bank lets a property be sold for less than the amount owed on it. In order for this to occur, two conditions must be met. Firstly: Market values are such that the property's sale price cannot cover the outstanding mortgage balance(s). An inability to make additional payments on the property is the second requirement.

Let's look at an example property that was bought five years ago for the rate of 217,000 dollars with an adjustable rate mortgage. Let's also expect that two years after purchasing the property, the owners took an additional mortgage of 10,000 dollars which brings their debt to 227,000 dollars. Also, we have to remember that in five years, the amount of time that the mortgages have been paid off is negligible. We'll also imagine that the property value has decreased to 215,000 dollars while the mortgage interest rate has increased from seven to eleven percent. Add in the additional problem of one of the owners having lost their job, and you end up with a very likely real estate short sale scenario.

A foreclosure costs a lot of money and time delays that the bank may not want to waste, and thus, they might allow a short sale instead. It's better to accept a definite amount of money right away, so that the property can be off the bank's book, than to accept an unknown amount at a distant point in the future. This is generally how a real estate short sale works, though there are other complications that can arise from having owners and lenders not agreeing to the terms of the sale.

Admittedly, many owners may find the real estate short sale a very painful experience, but things could be much worse for them. The methods may not be flawless, but it will beat having a foreclosure on the credit report. Real estate investors should understand that the short sales give them a wonderful opportunity to purchase property.

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