I don't know.  Perhaps I should take off my rose colored glasses..or perhaps I did for a moment and it's gotten me a little distressed.  I know real estate is a business, I know we are all in it to make money regardless of the protests that we aren't and are really just good hearted people finding the joy of helping others but this is getting ridiculous.  What am I talking about?  The short sale business.  Yes, I'm bombarded by emails like the rest of you by those trying to make money off of Realtors (and new 'investors') by touting their wares of their 'secret' chests full of information on how to manage the banks, how to sell it to the customer, how to make a Fortune (generally all in caps) on short sales.  But I'm not even talking about those.  What I am talking about is how people are over-taking advantage of the situation.  Yes, some families are in trouble and NEED to do a short sale, have a legitimate need, be it because of a divorce, a job loss, a death, an illness, they were scammed or not educated or just plain got in over their heads.  I have to say though that the majority of the short sales I'm seeing are those properties that were purchased by investors.  They can afford to hang in there, make the payments but instead choose to work the system and often times scam the system to get a short sale.  Just as they were a large part of the reason that real estate went up they are a very large part of why real estate is going down.  These aren't the people the media tells 'this is the biggest decision of your life' (which by the way, I hate that phrase, it's bogus, IMO) but those people who either feel a little tug on their money belt or they are just off loading because they've already taken advantage of the tax write off and don't need it anymore. 

Why does this cause me distress?  Because it's hurting the value in my property.  It's hurting the value in my customer's properties.  It's hurting my pocketbook and those of the people who actually care about their homes and neighbor's homes.   It's hurting the industry.  It's costing everyone money...those who are trying to get legit loans and you can be damned sure that fees which are associated with all this mess and government bailouts are going to be passed right on down to everyone regardless if they are buying, selling or not. 

I know. It's a cycle. I understand it will pass.  But it's getting me annoyed that someone can come to me, own a home elsewhere, have some income coming in from the second home they purchased by renting it out to offset the cost, have over $50K in the bank plus other funds that can't be touched, have an excellent job and income and talk about doing a short sale.  After all, they can move the liquid funds that can be touched so they can't be seen, claim hardship and do a short sale.  Why not...everyone's doing it.  How do they know that?  Because Realtors are calling him and explaining to him it can be done and will help him do it.   And we wonder why things are in the crapper.  *sigh*