From HW:

In the housing industry where foreclosed homes are creating a sizable inventory backlog, professionals are continually looking for ways to condense processing timelines.

But if a mortgage servicer says his or her company can complete a short sale in 30 days, are they being over ambitious?

Eric Friedman, president of PREO, doesn’t think so. His 10-month-old company boasts the ability to accomplish this task. Through PREO.com, Friedman says he lines up banks, investors, servicers, realtors and buyers in a seamless process to transact a short sale in as little time as 30 days.

Transacting a short sale is defined as the time between submitting the complete package to the servicer and closing the actual deal — a notoriously lengthy process.

PREO removes price negotiation, notably the most time-consuming aspect of a short sale, from the process all together by first getting in contact with the banks. As Friedman and his team work to clear title on junior and first liens, banks review a property and calculate the ideal price. PREO takes that value and submits it with all the other paperwork to the mortgage servicer, who then contacts the realtor with the bank’s asking price.

“When you push out price the bank is willing take for a property, it takes out ambiguity in negotiation,” Friedman told HousingWire. “The starting point is clarity in price — assessing what does the bank want for this home, not what the borrower wants for this home.”

PREO closes all short sales through Albertelli Law based in Tampa, Fla. James Albertelli is founder and chief executive officer of PREO.

Of the couple hundred short sales the company has completed since its inception, 32% have closed in the 30 day target, Friedman said. These short sales have predominantly occurred in Florida and California, PREO’s targeted markets.

When building PREO, the founding principles were to bring price clarity to market, make short sales a positive experience for realtors and process deals where the buyer is likely to walk, all within a manageable timeline.

“We had no idea what that timeline would like at first, but it ended up being between 30 and 45 days,” Friedman said. “This is actually working today.”