Short sales and foreclosures remain a large part of the local market and while it may be easy for some to say, “Just don’t work distressed sales if you don’t want the hassle,” FAAR members know that it isn’t that easy. FAAR recognizes that the issues facing agents when dealing with short sales are serious and affect our members’ profitability and success. So what are NAR, VAR, and FAAR doing to help? The REALTOR® organization is fighting for its membership at all levels, with ongoing advocacy and education efforts.
NAR has taken a strong leadership role on distressed sales as this is a national issue that impacts REALTORS® and homeowners nationwide. While government programs have been established to try to ease the pain of short sales, REALTORS® know that many challenges still exist with the short sale processes at the nation’s largest banks. Banks have struggled to keep pace with rapidly increasing numbers of distressed sales and the complexity of such transactions. NAR leadership recognizes the challenges REALTORS® are facing and have had many face-to-face meetings with the large lenders to convey REALTORS’® concerns and work towards solutions. In November of 2010, NAR met with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and CitiMortgage to initiate ongoing discussions about origination and servicing issues. To read the complete report about these meetings, Click here.
In addition, NAR has set up an entire portion of their website dedicated to information about short sales. There is a Field Guide to Short Sales which includes a compilation of articles, documents, and other resources about short sales, copies of the testimony that NAR has given on Capitol Hill, and letters NAR has sent to federal agencies. NAR also has a specially designated mailbox for REALTORS® to submit their stories and concerns regarding the federal HAFA process. NAR uses these real-life examples in its ongoing discussions with the U.S. Treasury Department and lending institutions. If you would like to send your comments directly to NAR, email: HAFA@realtors.org.
Finally, NAR established the Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource Certification. This intense course was designed to give agents the tools necessary to navigate complex short sales and foreclosure transactions. Since 2009, FAAR has held 15 SFR classes and 27 individual short sales classes, providing education and the tools to short sales success to nearly 400 REALTORS® throughout the area.
VAR has also been working hard at the state level to deal with short sales. The Short Sales and Loss Migration Center located on the VAR site, includes a wealth of information about short sales. You can find everything from short sale addendums to webcasts about best practices to consumer resources for your clients. VAR member brokers also have access to the Legal Hotline which regularly handles specific questions about short sales transactions. Agents need to request that their broker contact the Legal Hotline directly, but many questions are answered in the hotline’s archives, so check there for instant access to a wealth of information.
At a local level, FAAR has held numerous short sales classes as detailed above. In addition, FAAR meets regularly with U.S. Congressman Rob Wittman and the Virginia state delegation to discuss challenges that our members are seeing in the marketplace. FAAR leadership is always looking for individual stories to share with legislators so that they truly understand the scope of the problem. If you have any specific stories that you would like to have shared with our area legislators, please email a brief summary to FAAR GAD, Kim McClellan, at kmcclellan@faarmembers.com. FAAR will package those testimonials without specific names and send a package to Congressman Wittman, Senator Warner, Senator Webb, and our Virginia General Assembly delegation so that they are all aware of what challenges their constituents are facing with respect to short sales and foreclosures.
FAAR has also joined a regional effort to address short sales. FAAR partnered with associations from Prince William, Northern Virginia, Dulles, Greater Piedmont, and Blue Ridge to establish the Ethics Dialogue Group. The group brought together representatives from each Association to discuss the ethical problems that resulted from the short sales environment. They reviewed situations that possibly violated articles of the Code of Ethics and developed a dedicated website, www.ethicsdialoguegroup.com, as a resource to assist members of the six Associations. FAAR member Matthew Rathbun authored a Short Sales Guide, which details the entire process of working a short sale and includes a comprehensive appendix with many additional resources.
All levels of the REALTOR® organization are working on ways to improve distressed sales and we recognize that there are no easy answers. Homeowners are facing unprecedented declines in housing value often coupled with long-term job loss, while agents are negotiating transactions for months only to have them fall apart at the last minute. Banks are struggling with training and retaining enough staff to work through the backlog of short sales and foreclosures while trying to comply with often cumbersome government regulations. NAR, VAR, and FAAR will continue to provide education for our members on these complex topics while also advocating for positive changes to the process that will help heal our fragile real estate market.
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great insight..thank you! I like to look at the positive end of all things!
Thanks Matthew for showing us all the ways our Trade Assoications are helping us is so many ways. There is still much to do but together we can change things.
Actually, I believe that Kim put all this together. She did a great job of summarizing a tremendous amount of effort from the National, State and local information. There are a lot of resources out there, but unfortunately not all agents familiarize themselves with them.
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