Foreclosures Create Complications for Homeowners

Over 1% of all U.S. homeowners were in some stage of foreclosure during 2007. In total 405,000 homeowners lost their home in 2007 – a whopping 57% increase over 2006.  And as recently as February, one in every 557 households in the U.S. received a foreclosure notice during the month.

Is there a way out of this dilemma?   Absolutely, and it affords a tremendous opportunity for all parties – arrange a Short Sale.

During the 1990’s real estate broker Jacob Swodeck built a very successful real estate business by specializing exclusively on short sales and pre-foreclosure transactions.  Out of that experience he dedicated himself to helping thousands of real estate professionals discover how to help homeowners through one of their worst nightmares.  

 “I have a great deal of compassion for these families that find themselves in a personal crisis – staring foreclosure in the face and not knowing what to do.  They need someone to provide them with an option to foreclosure and that’s the short sale. 

Walking away from a house in distress is not always in everyone’s best interest,” says Swodeck. To assist agents Swodeck and RealtyU, the industry’s leading career development company, have joined forces to provide both the answer and an opportunity for real estate professionals that are going to move into this niche market.

This month RealtyU released the Certified Short-Sale Professional (CSP) real estate course that now enables agents to fully understand the complexities of short sales and foreclosures and to better serve their clients. The course is available online in a highly interactive course that provides not only a detailed overview of the short sale process but utilizes streaming video, power point and flash to define the strategies, tips and tools that real estate professionals electing to operate in this niche market need to succeed.

•         Learn all about the short sale process

•         Learn how your sellers will benefit

•         Learn how to tell right up front if a short sale will be successful

•         Learn the secrets of pricing for a short sale

•         Learn the secret terms in the MLS that trigger activity on a short sale listing

•         Learn the tax ramifications of short sale

By using the short sale, sellers can avoid having a ‘foreclosure’ on their credit report.  And that is often overlooked in the heat of the moment.  Most lenders tend to report ‘settled’ upon the successful closing of a short sale.  Missing 2-5 payments will impact a credit score by 30 to 60 points but a foreclosure can downgrade the report by 140 to 200 points.”

So the time has come for all real estate agents to master the art of preventing your clients going into foreclosure and how to handle a short sale on behalf of their clients. To become a Certified Short-Sale Professional visit www.CertifiedShortSaleProfessional.com and find out how.