The Las Vegas Real Estate Market today has 23,330 available homes and condominiums as of April 16, 2008. Of those, 5,208 are active short sales and 2,022 are active REO’s. There are 1,316 short sales in contingent/pending status. There are 1,454 REO’s in contingent/pending status.
Contingent status indicate that an offer has been accepted contingent on the terms of the contract. Pending status indicates that the sale is ready to close pending the closing date. The trend is indicating that only 35% of the short sales will successfully close escrow. 99% of the pending REO’s will successfully close escrow.
The low percentage of closings of short sales is due in large to the anxious selling agent who indicates a contingent sale before the bank approves the contract. This misguided action renders the percentage useless for statistical purposes. But reading between the lines we see a solvable problem and intend to submit our solution to those who are assigned to process the short sales.
Our mission is to get the lending cycle moving again. We believe that we can make a difference in the process and increase the percentage of short sales that successfully close escrow. Not only will this expedite the now slow short sale process for the buyer and the seller, but the financial institution will lose less money.
The financial institutions lose up to 15% less if they close the short sale, versus foreclosing and reselling the property as an REO. Based on our stats, over 2700 buyers have made offers on short sales and foreclosures. Remember in December we only had between 800 and 900 sales. The buyers have entered the market. We will keep you updated on our progress to expedite the short sale process and increase the percentage of successful closings.
