I had the pleasure of attending a great class on short sales and foreclosures yesterday, presented by Jeff Yonamine of Foreclosure Resources that was hosted by the good folks at Finacial Title. I’m still digesting a lot of the good information we received, but meantime here are some tidbits:

• The number of foreclosures in the US increased 68% in November 2006 from November 2005.
• Jeff expects prices to continue to decline for the next few years, given the historical long term pattern of real estate prices (approximately fifteen years from peak to peak, or from trough to trough, if you prefer).
• Mortages are most likely to default in the Bay Area counties of Marin, San Francisco, and Santa Clara, and less likely to defaut in the Greater Sacramento area and other “low priced” areas of California (yes, I know saying “low priced” and California in the same sentence is oxymoronic, but at least I’m no longer vanilla moronic).
• If you’re an investor looking to buy a foreclosure property, the California Association of Realtors® was good enough to include a new form that allows us to work with you to help you locate a property. (We still can’t represent you as an agent on the transaction, however). By the way, if you’re looking to buy a foreclosure to live in, that’s no problem — we can represent you on such a purchase just as we always could. (Actually the class was a bit unclear — possibly incorrect — on the latter point, so I’m taking my stand from my reading of the California Equity Purchaser Law, but I should probably run it by the California Association of Realtors® legal hotline folks to make sure the law hasn’t changed. I love calling them, which is the definition of a real estate geek, besides wearing lockbox key pocket protectors.)
• For those of you who’ve been through a short sale and experienced all the fun we have with these, Jeff presented the case for feeling a little less spiteful toward the lender rep, noting that in some cases he’s seen one person with a case load of up to 350 active short sales going at the same time.

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