Foreclosure.com today announced that it has enhanced its industry-leading real estate agent training curriculum, which is administered through Agent University, adding the Certified Short Sale Agent (CSSA) program to its growing list of education offerings.

Short sale transactions will comprise a significant amount of business for real estate agents for the next three to five years. The sheer volume of defaults today is just too much for loss mitigation departments everywhere to handle efficiently without outside assistance.

Additionally, with new guidelines like HAFA emerging, banks, servicers and investors are looking to short sales as a viable foreclosure alternative.

Success in short sale transactions requires a high degree of expertise to complete successfully — CSSA training provides professionals with the tools and resources to capitalize on this market trend and make short sales a profitable part of their business.

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Foreclosure.com Director of Education, Linda Yates, will be featured on a panel of knowledgeable experts at the ERA® ‘Saving the Dream of Homeownership’ Seminar, which is scheduled for the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010.

Yates and the other presenters will address the needs, questions and concerns of consumers regarding the purchase of foreclosed and/or short sale homes. In addition, information on how to prevent foreclosure will also be made available.

“The clock is ticking to capitalize on the best real estate conditions buyers and investors have come across in literally decades,” said Yates. “Record-low home prices and interest rates, as well as limited-time government tax incentives, have created the ‘perfect storm’ for future homeowners.”

The educational seminar, which is free to attend and open to the public, will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. ET. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

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What a success!

The 2009 Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program has closed with a bang thanks to a truly overwhelming response.

Students from across the nation at schools such as Northwestern University, University of Virginia, University of Miami and University of California, among countless others, eagerly submitted their essays on “How to Solve the Foreclosure Crisis” up until the final hour.

When the dust finally settled, the Dec. 31, 2009, submission deadline was met with an overflow of essays tallying more than 1,000!

Now the hard work for our review panel, which comprises a collection of professors in the fields of law, real estate and economics, can finally begin.

The results of the essay contest will be announced on or around Jan. 31, 2010, when five talented winners will be chosen based on creativity, originality, writing ability and overall excellence. Remember that the first place winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship toward the college or university he or she attends (or plans to attend), and the four semi-finalists will each receive $1,000 scholarships.

We’d once again like to issue a big “THANK YOU” to all the students who participated in our inaugural scholarship program. And, of course, we’d like to also commend the hundreds of colleges and universities who actively promoted the scholarship.

Be sure to check back next month as the winners of the essay, “How to Solve the Foreclosure Crisis?” will be announced and their essays posted to the Web site.

Good luck!

Attention students!

The 2009 Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program deadline is closing in — only three weeks remain.

All essays need to be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2009. That’s only 23 days left to come up with an original solution to “Solve the Foreclosure Crisis.”

So get your thinking caps on now and win cash for college before it’s too late.

Essay finalists will be selected no later than Jan. 31, 2009. Our grand prize winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship, while four  additional semifinalists will each receive $1,000.

For complete details and submission requirements/instructions for the Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program visit www.foreclosure.com/scholarship.

In case you didn’t know, Foreclosure.com has partnered with Microsoft to ensure that you have the very best (and most detailed) mapping technology possible to facilitate your nationwide home search.

How’s that good for you?

Foreclosure.com Director of Business Development, Stephen Chip, explains:

“With distressed properties, photos are often unavailable, but our customers can use the bird’s-eye view to assess the property and the neighborhood.”

That’s right, you can now take advantage of the upgraded Foreclosure.com mapping environment with key new features, including the bird’s-eye view. We know that buyers interested in properties like to see them — to look at their context (the surrounding neighborhood, the roads, etc.).

So with Virtual Earth you can locate listings on the map choosing between a road-map, a satellite-image, or combination view. What’s more, you can zoom out to view a wide area, zoom in on a single property, or use the bird’s-eye view based on low-altitude aerial images taken from all four compass directions.

To check out a complete case study of how Foreclosure.com successfully integrated the latest map technology into its system visit Microsoft.com. And to see the maps in action, of course, head over to Foreclosure.com right now.