August | 2026

Welcome August

Welcome to our August edition of the Title Toolbox Newsletter! As summer winds down, many buyers and sellers are making their final moves before the new school year begins.

While inventory remains higher than a year ago, giving buyers more choices, mortgage rates continue to hover in the mid-6% range, making affordability a challenge for many households.

Home prices have softened in some markets, pending sales have shown signs of improvement, and motivated sellers are becoming increasingly important as the market continues to rebalance.

In recent newsletters, we've focused on foreclosure activity and the opportunities it creates. This month, we're turning our attention to another growing group of motivated homeowners, one that

often appears long before foreclosure begins. Read on to see how Title Toolbox can help you identify these prospects early and position yourself ahead of the competition.

We hope you're having a wonderful summer!

Finding Short Sale Opportunities Before Foreclosure

Recent housing reports show a growing number of homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth. According to Realtor.com, some markets are seeing an increase in "underwater" homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure by pursuing a short sale (Exhibit A). More>

This trend is creating renewed opportunities for real estate professionals to identify potential short sale candidates before they reach foreclosure. Homeowners with negative equity often search for solutions long before a Notice of Default (NOD) is filed. Many are motivated by financial hardship, job changes, divorce, rising insurance costs, medical expenses, or increases in adjustable-rate mortgage payments. Others need to relocate but cannot sell because the proceeds won't cover what they owe.

For these homeowners, a short sale may provide a path forward, avoiding foreclosure, reducing long-term credit damage, and allowing them to move on financially.

Exhibit A: Source- realtor.com

Short Sales Aren't Always Simple—But They Are an Option

While short sales can provide homeowners with an alternative to foreclosure, they also can come with challenges. The process requires lender approval, can take longer than a traditional sale, 

and may affect the homeowner's credit or have tax implications. However, for many financially distressed homeowners, a short sale may offer greater control, less long-term credit damage, and a 

better financial outcome than foreclosure.

To learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of short sales, Zillow provides a helpful overview. 👉 Read the full article here:

Why Prospect Short Sales Instead of Waiting for a Notice of Default or Foreclosure Filings?

By the time a Notice of Default (NOD) is recorded, many homeowners are already overwhelmed and receiving calls from investors and real estate professionals.



Potential short sale opportunities, however, can often be identified months before an NOD is filed. This gives real estate professionals the opportunity to:

• Build relationships before the competition.
• Educate homeowners about their available options.
• Connect sellers with lenders and loss mitigation resources.
• Position themselves as trusted advisors rather than last-minute solicitors.
• Help homeowners explore alternatives that may prevent foreclosure.

Finding Short Sale Opportunities With Title Toolbox

To demonstrate, we created a search in Lakeland, Polk County, Florida, one of the markets identified in recent housing reports.



Step 1: Identify Home Purchases from 2021 - 2023 (the time period that is most likely to experience negative equity)

• Create an Area Search (example uses Lakeland, Polk County, Florida)
• Get Count (Results: 72,381 properties)
• Go to the Premier Data Tab
• Select the Mortgage Info
• Go to "First Loan Date" and select "Between" January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2023
• Results: 15,910 properties were purchased in this period (Exhibit B).

Exhibit B: Source- Title Toolbox

Step 2: Find Homeowners With Negative Equity

Continue with the 15,910 properties that were purchased between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2023, in the Mortgage Info tab.

• Go to the Loan to Value Ratio (LTV) Filter
• Select "Greater Than" 100
• Get Count
• Result: 2,574 homeowners owe more than their homes are currently worth (Exhibit C).

Exhibit C: Source- Title Toolbox

Step 3: Review Additional Motivation Indicators

Rather than marketing to all 2,574 underwater homeowners, Title Toolbox lets you further prioritize prospects by layering additional motivation indicators.

Among these underwater properties:

• 626 properties are non-owner occupied.
• 356 properties are out-of-state owners.
• 68 properties have liens within the past 12 months.
• 17 properties have HOA liens within the past 12 months.
• 18 have a Notice of Default (NOD).
• 27 have filed for bankruptcy within the past 12 months.
• A closer review of the 27 bankruptcy properties revealed loan-to-value ratios ranging from 101% to 160%, confirming that many owe substantially more than their homes are currently worth (Exhibit D).

Exhibit D: Source- Title Toolbox

Worth a Local Search

While high short sale activity may be concentrated in certain markets, it's worth running the same search in your own farm area.



For example, a local search of Riverside County, Riverside, California, identified 24,387 properties purchased during the same time period (January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023). Of those, 656 currently have loan-to-value ratios greater than 100%, a targeted group worth monitoring for life events and other indicators of motivation that could signal a future opportunity.

Final Takeaway

Foreclosures may generate headlines, but short sale opportunities often begin much earlier.

By using data to identify underwater homeowners, you can focus your prospecting on those who may benefit from your expertise, positioning yourself ahead of agents waiting for foreclosure filings.

The earlier you identify potential sellers, the greater your opportunity to build trust, provide valuable guidance, and help homeowners explore alternatives before foreclosure becomes a reality.

With Title Toolbox, the opportunity isn't just finding more leads; it's finding them before everyone else.

With a few clicks, Title Toolbox makes it extremely easy to share your data and research with your clients and prospects.

If you need assistance with Title Toolbox to help expedite your marketing efforts, please contact ttbhelp@benutech.com for questions and Jim DuBois at jdubois@benutech.com for one-on-one training.

July News Highlights and Life Event Trends

National:

• Born to Run: Baby Boomers are Dominating Today’s Market. According to the 2026 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, buyers aged 61 to 79 remain the largest generational force in home buying, accounting for 42% of buyers (unchanged from last year) and an impressive 55% of sellers. (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS) More>

Mortgage:

• Mortgage Rates Hit Highest Level in Nearly a Year. Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed the average interest rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.58% this week, up from 6.55% last week. (MSN) More>

Rent:

• Despite Slightly Higher Costs, it's Still a Renter's Market in Much of the Country. For most of the past year, life has been good for renters. A flood of new apartments pushed vacancies up and handed the advantage to tenants, with property managers dangling free months and waived fees just to fill units. Last month, Zillow called it a moment: a rare stretch when a typical household could afford most of what was listed. (ZILLOW) More>

Trending:

• Moving Around: Record Number of People Seek to Move Elsewhere. A record number of people want to move to another part of the country, according to a new report from Redfin, and many of them are targeting the Sun Belt. (MORTGAGEPOINT) More>

• Foreclosures Hit 7-Year High as Pandemic Relief Ends—Here’s Where Default Discounts are Easiest to Get. Driven up by the ongoing affordability crisis, the national foreclosure rate reached its highest level in nearly seven years, with a handful of smaller markets, concentrated mostly in the South and Midwest, now claiming the greatest share of default listings in the U.S. (REALTOR.COM) More>

• Boomers Hold $93 Trillion in Assets—but Their Heirs may get Less Than Half. Baby boomers hold roughly $93 trillion in assets, but only $36 trillion could reach Gen X and millennial heirs over the next 20 years, according to new data. (REALTOR.COM) More>

• Wall Street is Selling More Rental Homes, as Buying ban Takes Effect. Newly enacted housing legislation that bans institutional investors from purchasing single-family rental homes has those same investors putting up more “for sale” signs. (CNBC) More>

• Vacation Homes Selling Faster Than a Year Ago as Luxury Market Prices Cool. On a national scale, the entry threshold for luxury properties decreased to $1,277,907 in June, reflecting a 1.7% decline compared to the previous year and marking the 27th consecutive month of annual decreases. (MORTGAGEPOINT) More>

• Better Weather is the Top Reason Americans are Planning Out-of-State Moves, Outranking Affordability. More than one in five (22%) U.S. residents planning an out-of-state move said better weather is motivating their relocation, making it the most commonly cited reason among 29 options included in a recent Redfin survey. (REDFIN) More>

• 15% Fewer Canadians are Searching for Homes in the U.S. Than Last Year. Over the last two years, Canadian searches for U.S. homes have dropped roughly 37%, after posting a 25.7% year-over-year decline in June 2025. (REDFIN) More>

Please forward this to your clients so they can get the latest Title Toolbox Tips and Training.

If you have feedback or questions, please contact ttbhelp@benutech.com

Some material contained here may not apply to your company.

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