If you have procrastinated about getting into the short sales game, it’s time to face the fact that short sales are going to remain a significant part of the real estate industry for years to come. It’s time that you take action in the form of real estate training focused on short sales.

Other experts are predicting that short sales will increase 25% this year alone. In particularly hard hit states like Nevada, short sales are up 65% for 2011. Industry predictions are that short sales will remain a significant part of the market for the next 5 to 8 years.

Currently, statistics show that only about 3% of short sales are resold within 6 months. The importance of this number is it is an indicator of short sales being rehabbed and flipped. You can expect this number to increase over the next several months as the short sale process continues to be stream lined.

The big players in the lending game have seriously ramped up their short sale efforts. A REO conference involving the major lenders was held in Fort Worth Texas two weeks ago. David Sunlin, the operations executive for short sales at Bank of America stated that BOA short sales have exceeded REO sales for the past year and a half. He also commented that the short sale department at BOA has grown from 150 to over 3,000 and that instead of each employee trying to handle thousands of short sale files, the average is now down to 75 per person. “We’re past the point where we’re bumbling around losing files,” Sunlin said. This past May alone, BOA completed more than 9,000 short sales.

Also at the conference was Justin Rand, Citigroup senior vice president of loss mitigation. In his statements, he noted that the time to complete the average short sale has gone from 120 days in 2009 down to 83 days today. He credited this to changes in the federal government’s HAFA program. He also mentioned that in some cases, documentation to qualify for a short sale can be as little as a hardship letter and a copy of a water bill.

There are good reasons the lending industry prefers short sales over foreclosures. When borrowers are no longer able to make their mortgage payments, the lender is faced with two options, foreclose or allow a short sale.

Lenders recognize that once a borrower stops making loan payments they know that eventually they will lose the house. Maintenance and upkeep stops. The property begins to seriously deteriorate.

Additionally, there are many more legal costs associated with a foreclosure than a short sale. Financially, it makes more sense for the lender to pursue a short sale. They consider it the lesser of two evils.

In general, the borrower, lender, and buyer all come out better in a short sale than with a foreclosure. Short sales have tripled in the last 8 quarters and will remain a big part of the real estate market for years to come.

I recognized the importance short sales would take in today’s real estate market long ago and have been blogging about them regularly for quite some time. If your real estate training in short sales is still lacking, I suggest you start by reading the archived blogs. If you want a more in depth education, please contact me about becoming a student.