I had the privilege of participating on an exciting panel on the future of short sales at the REOMAC semi-annual conference in Palm Springs this week. REOMAC is the non-profit trade organization for REO industry participants – realtors, servicers, lenders, asset managers and other service providers –who focus on the (tough) job of helping Banks manage and sell properties they have acquired through the foreclosure process.

The panel included 2 experienced industry leading REO brokers Patrick Bartolic and Earl Gervais, Ron Garber from Short Sale Plan, Todd Wilson from Prospect Mortgage and myself, was moderated by Art Acosta (another top REO agent and REO industry leader), and was a big success. The room – which was packed with 500+ of the (real estate) professionals most familiar with the emotional and practical human toll of foreclosures – was inspired by the vision of the panel and hungry for a foreclosure alternative that works!

While the panelists started by lauding the efforts of the Obama administration to try to help as many people as possible retain ownership of their homes via loan modifications that reduce their monthly housing costs significantly, they also acknowledged the practical reality on the ground: that many if not most families in trouble have experienced a significant reduction in their income and are unlikely to be able to continue to afford the homes they once thought they could.

The focus of the panel was on this segment of consumers who don’t qualify for or fail a loan modification and the solution presented was systematic, lender offered short sales. Such short sales are very different from the typical borrower-requested short sale seen in the market today, and most everyone in the room agreed this systematic emerging solution should be THE preferred alternative for troubled borrowers living in homes they cannot continue to afford.

As an ardent advocate for systematic short sales (As previously discussed on this very blog, I believe this program is THE missing loss mitigation and foreclosure prevention initiative in our current national approach to the housing crisis), I admit I was pleased to see how unanimously the room agreed this solution is necessary and likely inevitable.

There just aren’t a lot of practical housing crisis solutions available that can simultaneously benefit consumers, the US housing market, investors and servicers, and which don’t come with a heavy taxpayer price tag….except systematic short sales!

Systematic short sales like the ones described by the panel (i.e., those offered to all owner occupied borrowers who fail to qualify for or succeed at a loan modification right when the loan modification decision is made) reduce the emotional and credit impact for borrowers by preventing foreclosure while providing the borrower significant (non-taxpayer funded) financial assistance to help move to rental housing. By accelerating the timing of asset sale in a declining home price environment in a manner that is amicable for the borrower, such short sales help stabilize the housing market faster and at higher levels than foreclosures would. And finally, systematic short sales significantly reduce investor losses and servicer advances…..positively affecting a key pain point in the housing and financial markets today.

So why isn’t this ‘no-brainer’ solution already widespread in the industry? The panel discussed two key reasons. One, this is the first time in the nation’s history that circumstances (including tax law) have collided to make this a no-brainer solution for all involved including the consumer (e.g., prior to some 2007 amendments to tax law, consumers owed taxes on any deficiency forgiven by the lender in a short sale). Second, practically speaking servicers just aren’t set up (yet) to execute on this key opportunity from an organizational, process/techology, and policy/guideline standpoint.

So what’s next? It seemed pretty clear to all in the room that systematic short sales are the right answer. Key panel members – including me – stated they considered this a big policy and business opportunity and were working to help key servicers develop and implement systems, policies and procedures to implement this alternative. So stay tuned for more on that front.

The bottom-line for now, though, is good news in my view. Key REO industry leaders believe it is just a matter of time before systematic, lender offered short sales become a viable foreclosure alternative for borrowers in trouble who currently have no option but foreclosure…..and the REO realtors who deal with foreclosures every day are standing first in line hungry for this solution.

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