More short sales being closed on--now some lenders offer seller incentives

More short sales are being sold as lenders are getting more flexible than before. And some banks are allowing financial incentive to owners for choosing short sales when loan modification fail.  The interesting thing is that although a few owners are even getting cash to complete the short sale, the financial incentives  are random and infrequent.

Here are some of the lenders offering selling incentives for short sales as reported by USA TODAY:

• JPMorgan Chase went national with short-sale incentive offers last year, paying up to $35,000 in some cases.

• Bank of America is testing incentives from $5,000 to $25,000 in Florida to see if they should be expanded to more states. The Florida program began fall of 2011

• Wells Fargo’s incentive offers range from less than $3,000 to $20,000.

Short sales can save lenders money compared with the expenses involved in completing foreclosures. In states like Florida where foreclosures go through the courts, 50 percent of loans in foreclosure are more than two years past due.

In Orlando real estate, there were more short sales completed in 2011 than the year prior. Last  year, there were 6,981 single family homes sold as short sales in the Orlando Real Estate market.