California Assn. of Realtors Supports Steamlining the Short Sale Process

The following is an email sent out today from the California Association of Realtors regarding Short Sales:

“As you may know, C.A.R. has been working on numerous efforts to address your concerns about the difficulty of working with short sales.

To that end, I want to give you advance notice of perhaps one of our most visible activities to date, and one that may be a first in C.A.R.’s 100-plus-year history.

Tomorrow, C.A.R. is placing an open letter advertisement in California’s seven largest daily newspapers, calling on lenders and industry regulators to streamline and improve the short sale process. C.A.R. is taking a leadership role in this effort by getting this letter published and pointing out lenders’ and servicers’ unworkable short sale processes. We’re also appealing to various constituencies, such as regulators, elected officials, nonprofits, business organizations, companies, and individuals to join us so that more families are able to arrange a short sale, rather than lose their homes.

In the letter, I write, “With the number of homeowners who owe more than their mortgage is worth hovering at 30 percent, experts predict there will be many more foreclosures in 2011 and 2012. Unless we take immediate, aggressive action to assist these homeowners, any meaningful recovery in the housing market and overall economy will continue to be delayed.”

The open letter will appear in a full-page advertisement in tomorrow’s Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, San Diego Union-Tribune, Bakersfield Californian, and Fresno Bee. If you live in one of those areas, I hope you can pick up a copy of one of those newspapers tomorrow and read the open letter. If not, we’ll be sure to post it on car.org.

Help us spread the word further by leveraging your relationships with your local paper and asking them to publish it. Or post it on your website, if you have one, to reach your clients and other consumers.

Sincerely,

Beth L. Peerce
2011 President
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS ®

All real estate agents in California should actively support our Association in their efforts to streamline the short sale process.