Are Short Sales All They're Hyped Up To Be?

For the last year or two, the big news in real estate has been "short sales". Real estate agents are told by various gurus that they need to learn the ins-n-outs of short sales if they are going to make any money in today's market. Agents are exposed to advertisements, e-mails, seminars, booklets and news articles all about the best way to make money on short sales.

I've been wondering who really benefits from all this short sale hype. I'm wondering if it is the real estate agent or the people who provide the short sale seminars, write the booklets, send out the e-mails, and generally hype short sales. After all, there are charges for all these seminars, booklets, classes and the like. Seems to me like short sale education is strictly a for-profit enterprise.

So, I've done a little research to see who really benefits from all this short sale hype. Not a lot of research, mind you, but a little.

Here's what I found out.

In October in southern Pinellas County, there were a total of 190 condo and single family sales that were distress sales, and 446 that were non-distress sales.

So far in November, and this is the 5th as I write this story, there have been 4 distress sales and 24 non-distress sales.

So, it appears that we are looking at about 1 sale in 5 (about 20%) that is a distress sale. It also indicates that we are looking at about 80% of the sales that are non-distress. My math could be a bit off here, but I think you get the picture.

Now, I think a professional real estate agent should know how to handle a short sale. But with about 80% of the business being non-short sale in nature, why would an agent want to specialize in distressed property sale? Seems to me like your chances are much better at selling a non-distressed property, doesn't it to you?

So, where should you put your time, effort and money? Seems pretty obvious to me.

-30-