Trent's Blog

I have to say that I didn't expect this short sale market to be going strong almost 4 years into it.  I had hoped for a quick dip and a nice bounce back on to the road of a steady appreciating market. Alas, here we are in 2011 and the market for short sales actually looks like it will be stronger...

Well, the difference between release of lien and release of liability in CA is 4 years of looking over your shoulder, if you are a seller in a short sale. ...I am still amazed that 3-4 years into this market (depending on your market, short sales may have been more predominant for more or less t...

Here is the continuation of my previous post on HAFA and what my prediction for 2011 is based on these NEW changes: WARNING, if you don't understand short sales, this may be of little interest to you... but here is why HAFA will not affect more than 20% (probably much less) of all short sales in ...

If you haven't heard yet, the Treasury has 'revised' the HAFA guidelines and those revisions go into effect 2/1/11.  Why are they revising their guidelines?  HAFA hasn't been working too well:   Here are the main changes to the HAFA program: 1. Mortgage payment no longer must be more than 31% of ...

Obviously, HAFA hasn't been such a 'game changer' as my team had predicted over a year ago.  Unfortunately, something happened to my 'HAFA prediction' that I posted in April 2010... (luckily it was re-posted here so I could copy and paste it below) so I am posting it again below.  If you want my ...

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about SB 931 and how it makes it so short sales are considered as part of the 'one actoin rule' [As found in California Civil Code of Procedures section 726(a)]. After posting a video a few weeks ago on the topic, I got a ton of questions about how the law applies ...

Senate Bill 931 went into affect this week... but so many agents are still unclear as to how it changes the way short sales are handled in California. In order to understand what SB 931 does for short sales, we need to look at WHY this law was written and what laws currently exist regarding home...

Wouldn't you know it... Short Sales, even with an offer 15% below the banks 'BPO' value, will still net them MUCH more than a foreclosure/REO. This is a screen shot from a spreadsheet that was 'accidently' sent to one of my SSG agents by a bank negotiator from a top 10 lender... for the sake of n...

Wow! I was shocked and amazed (ok, not really) to hear that only 661 HAFA short sales had been approved from April-December 2010.  Our SSG members alone closed more short sales, just in December, than were closed through HAFA in 2010.  That's sad... for homeowners and the failed government progr...

Don't read this blog post without being totally skeptical of what I am about to share.  You have to be in this day and age... I know I am.  If you really want to learn from someone, find out what they are actually doing to be successful.  If they aren't doing what they are teaching, RUN.My pet pe...