Short Sales and Foreclosures in Charlottesville

Part 2 of at least 5- see bottom for links to each post in the series.

I believe that 2010 is going to bring more foreclosures and short sales in the Charlottesville market. How many? I have no idea, and if I told you, I’d be lying.

As of this writing, short sales and foreclosures are not yet considered “the market” when appraisers are doing their analyses, but I as a Realtor representing buyers and sellers am absolutely considering short sales and foreclosures when advising my clients.

When advising buyers looking at short sales, the number one thing I tell them is that short sales may very well take longer to close than a “traditional” sale.

When advising sellers who may be considering short sales, we will have a long and in-depth conversation (or two or three) about the considerations, ramifications and things that they and I need to do in order to effectively conclude a short sale transaction.

Short Sales:

11 Short Sale Frequently Asked Questions (archived: 2010)

7) What are considered acceptable hardships by the servicers/lenders? Hardships generally fall into 5 categories. Let’s call them the 5 D’s:

• Death of a borrower
• Dying-Sickness of a borrower affecting their ability to earn and pay their debt
• Destitute-an involuntary loss of income

• Divorce- in this case, when one of the occupants leave and it affects the income of the house it can be deemed an acceptable hardship.
• “Disasters“ in the case of natural disasters

Short Sale Help – HAFA (no longer available) -essentially the new regulations are supposed to help streamline and speed up the short sale process. Time will tell.

Short sale/HAFA PDF (no longer available)

Short Sale basics – from NAR

On November 30, 2009, the Treasury Department released guidelines and forms for its new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA), part of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).HAFA provides incentives in connection with a short sale or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure (DIL) used to avoid foreclosure on a loan eligible for modification under the HAMP program. HAFA applies only to loans not owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which will issue their own versions of HAFA in coming weeks.

Foreclosures in Charlottesville:

Two properties with $100k price reductions

A quick look at some of the foreclosures in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area shows that there are foreclosures ranging from $25,913 to $1,010,000. (more trustee sales notices get posted (archived: 2010) every day)

These are some of the foreclosures in Charlottesville and Albemarle that are listed in the Charlottesville MLS: Update 19 February 2022: bad link

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Part 1- Quick Update on the Charlottesville Real Estate Market
Part 2 – Short sales and Foreclosures in Charlottesville
Part 3 – Homebuyer tax credit in 2010 – Who’s Eligible?
Part 4 – Strategic Defaults in Charlottesville – What will 2010 look like?
Part 5 – Green building trends in Charlottesville

Podcast of the full hour show and transcript.