Virginia Short Sales
With the slow housing market and rapid decline in home real estate values in recent years, there are huge numbers of short sales in Virginia. As home values decline, 23% of the current mortgages have balances due of more than what the house is worth. Many of these properties are already for sale. One in every four Virginia Homes that will come on the market will require a short sale to sell.
Nearly all Short Sale homes for sale in VA are found on the MLS. Sellers who who need third party usually need to sell quickly, and need the help of a Realtor who knows how to manage Virginia short sale transactions. Click this link to view VA homes listed as short sales.
Understanding Virginia Short Sales
A short sale by definition where the home is underwater and the homeowner owes more than the real estate is worth. Short sales typically happen among properties that are in default where the homeowners are behind on their house payments.
Because lenders do not want foreclosures, they are willing to accept less than what is actually owed to prevent the foreclosure. Foreclosures are very costly for banks. Banks must pay legal fees, and lose money for all the time when they are not receiving loan payments.
How do I buy Virginia Short Sales?
Buying short sale homes is similar to purchasing other Virginia real estate. The big variance is that short sales require substantially more patience, dubiousness, and waiting.
There are substantially more steps required with short sales When an offer is made on a Virginia Short Sale property it needs to be accepted by both the seller and all of the lien holders. Waiting for the bank approval can take months and is especially frustrating. When priced low, these properties typically get several offers, after substantial waiting for third party approval there may not be any of the potential parties who are still interested in the properties.
Short sales in Virginia are usually priced low because the seller isn’t going to net any money out of the house, and so they don’t really care VAout receiving top dollar.
In order to get banks to start looking at the short sale file, offers are typically required. For this reason listing agents often price the short sale properties below market value to get the ball rolling. To get at least some offer in on the property so they can get a loss mitigation specialist assigned to the short sale packet.
Because the process takes an unknown amount of time, it is usually not a wise to try and purchase a short sale home if you must purchase quickly. Banks generally pay no attention to dates set in purchase contract.
What VA Properties become Short Sales?
Short Sale properties in Virginia can be any type of real estate. They can be houses, ramblers, cottages, townhouses, condos, lofts, condominiums, multi family homes. They include starter homes as well as luxury homes for sale. Virginia Short Sales are found in run down neighborhoods and in gated communities and really nice areas. The type or size of the home isn’t what matters. What matters is that the people owe more on the house than it is worth. These homes for sale were usually homes that were purchased or refinanced during the housing boom.