Experts Advocate Stabilizing Neighborhoods with Short Sales

Foreclosures are going to go up before they go down,” according to Craig Nickerson, president of the National Community Stabilization Trust.

Nickerson says estimates put foreclosure tallies at 850,000 this year, as high as 1.5 million in 2013, and then back to the levels we’re at today by 2015.

With all these distressed properties potentially making their way to an already stressed marketplace, Nickerson, along with a panel of industry professionals at the inaugural MPact Conference advocated for bulk short sales.

Tyler Smith, VP of Wells Fargo’s REO disposition team, noted that managing investor participation with communities’ neighborhood stabilization efforts “can sometimes be a conflict of interest.”

According to Jerome Devadoss, manager of alternative dispositions for Fannie Mae’s REO sales operation, it’s important to engage community-minded investors to work alongside local nonprofits toward neighborhood stabilization, whether it’s through short sales or any other loss mitigation strategy.

Jim O’Donnell, manager of the West Coast REO Revitalization Program at Chase, says his company is exploring ways to facilitate short sales to nonprofit organizations. Chase is looking to make short sales and distressed portfolios part of its “First Look” program.

Short sales are increasingly making their way into the conversation as a practicable solution to support neighborhood stabilization.