What is a Las Vegas Short Sale?

It certainly does not mean it’s a short transaction! A Short sale in Las Vegas is when a homeowner owes more on the Mortgage then the home is worth in today’s current market and needs to sell. Generally this process takes much longer then a normal sale and does require patience and Experience.

Obviously, with the recent price declines in Las Vegas hovering around a 20% decline in comparison to the same month a year ago, the use of low to no down payment loans and many new Las Vegas homes that were priced too high to begin with, there are obviously a lot of Las Vegas home sellers that now owe more then their home is worth.

Before the slow down, these were not common for Las Vegas real estate agents to do. I think the last one we did before the real estate boom was in 2002 and for the ones we did before that, the asset managers working for the banks did not have stacks and stacks of files in front of them to approve. (In other words, they don’t have the time to be patient and teach somebody new to this right now.)

Short sales are certainly much more complicated then a normal sale due to the fact we are also dealing with another party — the bank that holds the mortgage and has to approve the sale. They are going to be the ones taking the loss and have to approve the final sale and hardship. (Sales price)

Without getting technical, it is an area of expertise and not for any real estate agent. You have to have systems in place, be highly detailed, prepare to be on the phone a lot and know how to get the decisions made in a timely manner. (A solo real estate agent is going to have an extremely difficult time doing all of this and Properly Marketing the property to sell.)

There is certainly a process that must be followed and it took a little tweaking but it appears we may now have a system down where the asset managers are actually giving approvals on the short sale packages before an offer is even written on the home. This certainly speeds up the process, something sorely needed right now and here are some numbers to prove this:

Out of the 21,130 Properties available for sale on the Las Vegas MLS today (Condos, Single Family Homes and Town Homes in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas):

  • 5,294 of them are classified as Short Sales (25% of the total inventory) available for sale.

There are currently 1,738 properties classified as Short sales that are currently Pending/Contingent (In contract) out of a total of 6,281 properties currently in escrow in Las Vegas. (In escrow = Pending/Contingent.)

  • That equates to 28% of all the deals currently being worked on.

Now, here is the staggering number that shows just how many Las Vegas short sales actually close escrow.

  • For April of 2008, 145 properties classified as Short Sales closed escrow (actually sold) in April.
  • Our Las Vegas Bank Owned Properties Report on 4/23/08 showed 5,246 Las Vegas short sales available for sale.

As you can tell by the ratio of how many Las Vegas Short Sales actually have a successful close of escrow compared to how many are available and how many are in escrow, it’s not a guaranteed process. (Anybody claiming contrary does not have true experience in Las Vegas short sales!)

If you would like more information about selling a Las Vegas Home that fits the short sale criteria, please contact us using the information below. There is no one size fits all solution - Different banks have different criteria and Las Vegas short sales have to be evaluated on a case by case scenario.

Paul Francis, CRS
Michelle Francis, Broker-Salesperson, CRS,GRI
Coldwell Banker Premier
Las Vegas Short Sales
702.592.3058