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In the Las Vegas market today, business is picking up. Almost feels like old times. Bidding wars. Multiple offers. Eager buyers. The market is feeding on bank-owned properties and short sales.

It was recently reported that more than half of all of our sales are foreclosed properties and short sales. I understand this number is actually closer to 80% in the past few weeks.

I hear this comment every day.

"Aaron, why does it take so long to get my short sale offer approved by the bank? I don't get it! It's FRUSTRATING!!!"

In a normal real estate transaction, you simply need a "meeting of the minds." You get the buyer and seller to agree, you get them both to sign the contract, and 30 days or so, after a bit of hard work, the home is sold.

In a short sale, there are far more people involved. The "meeting of the minds" involves many more than two.

We are in the midst of what is probably the worst real estate crash in history. Hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and short sales are hitting the market nationwide.

Your short sale request goes through the bank's Loss Mitigation Department. It can take some time based on the volume of short sales the Loss Mitigation department is dealing with. We all know these banks are understaffed in this area and it's very difficult from a business perspective to add personnel in areas that, by their nature, are costing money to begin with.

By now, you have heard about mortgage-backed securities. Understanding a bit about it will help you understand the potential challenge of getting a short sale offer accepted.

When you got your $300,000 mortgage from ABC Bank they may have packaged it with 300 other loans into one big $100 million package and then sold it to investors. These were investors of all sizes. Maybe one investor put in $20 million, maybe another one put in $5 million, maybe another one $500,000. So let's say there are 14 investors in that $100 million package of 300 loans. They didn't invest in one loan. They invested in a package of 300. The investor who invested $5 million into a $100 million package has a 5% interest in the package. That means he is 5% invested in your $300,000 loan.

Although, one company, ABC Bank, in this example, may be servicing all of these mortgages, meaning they handle the customer service, billing, payments, collections, and such, it doesn't mean they own the mortgage and can make the decision.

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