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“As new legislation aimed at helping troubled Americans avoid foreclosures slowly takes hold, con artists are taking advantage of unsuspecting homeowners,” says Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center.

Companies like National Short Sale Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. are warning homeowners of the rise in foreclosure and loan modifications scams.

“The fraud usually comes through in the fine print,” Olsen said, “but foreclosure rescue teams and highly suspect scammers are basically taking homes through a variety of means, resulting in foreclosure and eviction.”

The message is clear: Never pay an up-front fee to complete a short sale.

"Considering that there could be more than 3 million foreclosures starts in 2009, it is safe to assume that frauds and scams will affect a large number of American homeowners," said Travis Hamel Olsen, president of the National Short Sale Center,

These incentives “will take a little bit of time” to kick in, says Matt McCabe, chief operating officer of National Short Sale Center, which serves a neutral third party between borrowers and servicers. “It will help alleviate the problem, but the scope is enormous. A lot of homeowners with non-performing loans have moved out,” he notes. Increased short sales will “reduce the sheer volume of foreclosures, and reduce blight from a neighborhood perspective,” he believes.

With the lifting of the Fed’s foreclosure moratorium, the nation is on track to experience record-setting numbers of foreclosures and bank-owned properties in the second quarter, said Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center.

Some homeowners can convince the bank to accept less than the value of the mortgage, provided they can sell the home quickly, says Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Some homeowners can convince the bank to accept less than the value of the mortgage, provided they can sell the home quickly, says Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“From our data, we are forecasting more than one million foreclosure filings in the second quarter of 2009,” says Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center.

The National Short Sale Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., predicts a "tsunami" of more than a million foreclosures during the second quarter.

“A tsunami of foreclosures and bank-owned properties are hitting the market in the second quarter,” said Matt McCabe, chief operating officer of National Short Sale Center.

Bankruptcy is not the only alternative to foreclosure. A substitute is a short sale, which occurs when a lender agrees to allow a homeowner to sell a property for less than what the owner still owes on the mortgage.

Travis Hamel Olsen, president of the National Short Sale Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., says borrowers also can use bankruptcy to discharge other debts, freeing up money for the monthly mortgage payment.

"Many times, banks are not willing to pay for improvements to a property," said Travis Olsen, head of the National Short Sale Center in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Be patient. It takes time for the seller's lender to review the buyer's offer. While many lenders are moving faster, eight to 12 weeks is not unrealistic.

"Over the past three to six months, the servicers have really become aware that short sales are the best way to reduce their losses ... when a modification is not an option," says Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center.

“Over the past three to six months, (lenders) have really become aware that short sales are (often) the best way to reduce their losses,” said Travis Hamel Olsen of the National Short Sale Center, which helps sellers and real estate agents set up such deals.

"Over the past three to six months, the servicers have really become aware that short sales are the best way to reduce their losses... when a modification is not an option," said Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center, a company that facilitates short sales nationwide on behalf of homeowners and real estate agents. The short-sale option also is less damaging to a seller's credit than a foreclosure, he said.

Scottsdale entrepreneur Travis Olsen said he believes short sales are widely underappreciated as an alternative to the high cost and heartache of foreclosure.

"We saw a 90% increase in short-sales transactions at our firm" in the past year, said Matt McCabe, vice president of the National Short Sale Center Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz., which acts as a liaison between the lender and homeowner. The firm is handling about 2,000 loans, up from 1,270 a year ago.

But you do have some options. Mr. McCabe suggests concentrating on short sales rather than foreclosures, since they usually take longer to sell—usually a month or two.

Travis Hamel Olsen, president of the National Short Sale Center, provides the following tips for homeowners considering a short sale for their “underwater” home:

"We’ll continue to see more foreclosures in 2009 if homeowners don’t educate themselves about their options to foreclosure, such as doing a short sale," said Travis Hamel Olsen, president of National Short Sale Center. "Short sales give homeowners a way to avoid foreclosure that can help save their credit from serious damage."

National Short Sale Center ... reported last month that 2008 short sales reached a record in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada.

"In today's market, that's just way too long to wait for an approval," said Travis Olsen, president of the Scottsdale-based National Short Sale Center. "Anything to get these homes sold would be welcome."

According to Travis Hamel Olsen of the National Short Sale Center (NSSC), the number of homeowners opting for short sales is increasing.

More homeowners are choosing short sales rather than let their homes fall into foreclosure, according to the National Short Sale Center (NSSC), an Ariz.-based company that assists in short-selling properties.

National Short Sale Center acts as a neutral third party between homeowners and mortgage servicers to arrange short sales.

This year, foreclosures or short sales accounted for about 40 percent of the nation's home sales.

Travis Hamel Olsen and some partners opened the NSSC a few years ago. He says the short sale is a "win-win" situation. The bank ends up losing less money than if it ended up taking back the property and the homeowner's credit is not damaged as much as from a foreclosure.

Loan servicers are finding solutions to those problems, bringing in companies to outsource short sales, said Travis Hamel Olsen, president of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based National Short Sales Center. He's currently processing 2,000 short sale loans, primarily in Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida.

"Do your research and make sure you walk into a property with equity already in it," he said. "REOs and short sales are the best deals in the marketplace."

"Short sales were very rare back a couple, three years ago," said Zandi, "and now they're increasingly common."

The National Short Sale Center was able to get the lender's ear and work out a deal so the company would accept a short sale buyer, and let Bruce off the hook.

The most severe drops in home values are in parts of California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and other areas where speculation pushed prices up and builders far overestimated demand.

Short sales also get short-circuited because many banks are unfamiliar with the process, says Travis Hamel Olsen, president of the National Short Sale Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Unfortunately, many of them were slow to react at the beginning of the short sale trend.”

There are two basic criteria homeowners should meet to know if a short sale is right for them. 

McCabe and Olsen's company helps financially strapped homeowners negotiate these sales by working with real-estate agents to market their properties and with mortgage lenders on negotiating a deal.

Foreclosed homes that lie vacant and rundown need their lawns mowed and their yards cleaned up. Cities say taxpayers shouldn't have to bear that burden.

As values tumble and more foreclosures loom, homeowners get chance to sell out for less than the amount of their mortgages.

The National Short Sale Center, which helps short buyers negotiate with banks, says three-quarters of its short offers are approved now, up from maybe half six months ago.

With the collapse of the housing boom, the government is considering proposals to rescue the nearly 8.8 million homeowners, or 10.3 percent of the total, who are underwater.

Thanks to recently passed federal legislation, getting out from under mortgages with a short sale is a bit less painful in the troubled real-estate market.

Your adjustable rate mortgage has reset and you can't afford the higher monthly payments. In a sluggish real estate market, the property isn't worth the same as the day you bought it. What's next?

Omaha real estate professionals are seeing an increase in the number of short sales -- transactions in which homeowners sell their houses for less than they owe on their mortgages as a way to prevent foreclosures.

Just in the past six months, business at the National Short Sale Center has shot up 350 percent, said its president, Travis Olsen.

With the inventory of resale homes in the Phoenix market hovering near record-high levels, some desperate sellers are turning to the "short sale" to stave off foreclosure.

"It's not something that's taught in real estate school," Cline said. "Once Travis (Olsen) explained the steps to me, I thought it was a great idea. I've completed four short sales with the National Short Sale Center. They have a much better chance of getting a deal done."  

Adam and Sunny Gardner bought a house in Nevada two years ago. They would like
to move, but with prices falling, they probably can’t.

Home prices declined from a year earlier in about half of all metropolitan areas in the fourth quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported.

When property owners owe lenders more than the property is worth, short sales can be a reasonable solution to taking the property back through foreclosure.