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Seems like a bizarre question doesn't it? Well guess what, it is not.  If you are selling your home as short sale the bank may have the right to send a property preservation company to the house and "secure it" if they feel the house is vacant and abandoned. But it is still my house, right?

Yes, it is still your house, even if you have stopped making payments, but here is the catch. Many loans contain clauses that say if you abandon your home the bank has a right to secure the property to preserve their interest in the home while they are waiting to re-posses it.

So here is the typical situation.  Owner has a home that they need to short sell.  They have already left the home, often to take a job somewhere else, but maybe for some other reason.  The short sale is initiated and the bank finds out the property is vacant. They do not want any damage to the property so they send out a property preservation company to secure the house.  The company changes the locks and may even board up windows. There are even some instances where the property preservation company employees help themselves to some things that were "abandoned" in the home that do not belong to them. The realtor listing the property may not be given the key and other agents may not be able to get in until the mess is straightened out.

What is the solution?  There is no fool proof solution but there are some things you can try.  If you are selling an empty home for what ever reason the best thing to do is to hire a realtor who can stage it for you. (I do this for all my listings) Once the home is staged, or even if that is not possible, take pictures. Show the bank the house is being cared for by the realtor, that the windows are not broken, and that there are locks on the door.  Take pictures of all the fixtures to show what is in the house.  Send these pictures to the bank along with the initial short sale authorization and then again with the short sale package to show that the home is not abandoned and in case there is any question about things going missing.

This may not stop the the bank every time from "securing" an un-abandoned house, but it should help.

If you have nay questions about short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara counties please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

A few days ago short sale sellers in California got great news!  Governor Brown signed a bill which prohibits lenders and investors of junior loans to pursue a deficiency judgment on most approved short sales.  First lien holders are already prohibited from deficiency judgments, but second mortgages and HELOCS were not previously exempted. As of July 15th, they are included. So, if a bank approves your short sale, then they have to give up all rights to going after the borrower for any deficiencies. So if the second lender says they will take $6000 for an $85,000 HELEC, that is all they get. After close they can not come back to the borrower and say we still want more money.

This is great news for short sale sellers in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.  Certain exceptions apply if the bank can prove fraud, but for most sellers, this is the last piece they need to be able to transition out of their homes and have a chance to start over.

Since California has had such a large percentage of homeowners who owe more on their homes than they are worth, and of those people there are always going to be those who need to sell, this is a welcome relief for huge numbers of homeowners.

If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales please feel free to contact me!

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

Federal Government Disclaimer (MARS): 1. You may stop doing business with us at any time. You may accept or reject the offer of mortgage assistance we obtain from your lender [or servicer]. If you reject the offer, you do not have to pay us. If you accept the offer, you will have to pay us commission as agreed to in listing contract for our services.
2. Marcy Moyer of Keller Williams Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender; and 
3. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

Have you ever gotten a Save the Date invitation for an upcoming event? They are great because they help you plan for the future, and bring excitement for the future into the mix. I got a lovely e-mail today from my negotiator on a Santa Clara Short Sale Listing.  He said that he was just waiting for management to approve his approval and he should have something in writing to me in a few days.  This was very nice for a number of reasons:

1. Everyone involved is looking forward to getting approval and moving forward. The buyer and seller need to know things are moving forward.

2. After short sale approval there is a lot that needs to be done. The buyer's loan gets initiated, appraisal is ordered, and the property inspections are completed. The HOA docs also need to be ordered if the home is a condo and they have not already been ordered.

Knowing that approval should be coming in a few days (baring any management hiccups) means we all have a heads up to get ready to roll.

If you have any questions about short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo Counties please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

Federal Government Disclaimer (MARS): 1. You may stop doing business with us at any time. You may accept or reject the offer of mortgage assistance we obtain from your lender [or servicer]. If you reject the offer, you do not have to pay us. If you accept the offer, you will have to pay us commission as agreed to in listing contract for our services.
2. Marcy Moyer of Keller Williams Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender; and 
3. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

Wells Fargo has a call center which is where you call to initiate a short sale, and then to get updates before they assign a negotiator.  But what sets them apart from some other banks' call centers is that they stay involved throughout the short sale process.  So, if you call or e-mail your negotiator and he or she is not available you can ask the call center to talk to them directly.  It is a very nice system, kind of like talking to an agent's personal assistant. Sometimes you get more information from an assistant then you do from agent. 

Isn't nice to know that at least some banks are trying to get this process more organized?

If you have any questions about short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara County, please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

Federal Government Disclaimer (MARS): 1. You may stop doing business with us at any time. You may accept or reject the offer of mortgage assistance we obtain from your lender [or servicer]. If you reject the offer, you do not have to pay us. If you accept the offer, you will have to pay us commission as agreed to in listing contract for our services.
2. Marcy Moyer of Keller Williams Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender; and 
3. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

This was not a terrible week for me with short sales. In fact, it was pretty good. Here's the summary:

1. Closed a Menlo Park Short Sale with Bank of America, I represented the buyer.  It was smooth, and took 3 months start to finish.

2.  Another buyer is buying a short sale in Sunnyvale.  The file had been lost in bowls of HAFA, (government assisted short sales), but the listing agent managed to find it, get it back to a tradional sale, and we are waiting for a negotiator to be assigned.  we are 6 weeks into it.

3.  My Menlo Park Short Sale Listing with Chase has been in and out of escrow 4 times now.  the investor for Chase wants more money than the house is worth based in its condition.  After being with the latest negotiator 6 weeks we got another response from the investor asking for more money now than what they approved last time.  The buyer has now agreed to the previously approved price and we are waiting to hear back from teh negotiator.

4.  My Santa Clara Short Sale Listing was submitted 5 weeks ago.  It finally got a negotiator this week.

So all in all it has not been a bad week.  Short sales are still long, and can have problems, but all in all there are a lot of yeses so they are worth pursuing if you can not keep your home and want to avoid foreclosure.

If you have any questions about short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

Federal Government Disclaimer (MARS):
1. You may stop doing business with us at any time. You may accept or reject the offer of mortgage assistance we obtain from your lender [or servicer]. If you reject the offer, you do not have to pay us. If you accept the offer, you will have to pay us commission as agreed to in listing contract for our services.
2. Marcy Moyer of Keller Williams Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender; and 
3. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

Arms Length Transactions in Silicon Valley Short Sales Is It Too Onerous?

When a seller sells their home as a short sale, most lenders  will make everyone, the buyer, the seller, and the agents sign and notarize an Arms Length Transaction document. This states that the sellers and buyers do not know each other, are not related, and the seller will never again, EVER, live in the house , or ever make any profit off of the sale of the home. They can never rent the house or ever buy it back from the new owner.

The intention of this rule is obvious. The banks do not want to sell a home for less money than is owed on it and then have the seller get the benefit of being able to own the home for less money than they originally promised to pay for the home. I am not going to take sides here on whether the seller or the bank has the moral high ground on this. I am just going to say that the banks have made a decision that it is in their best interest not to reduce principal on most loans, but allow a short sale with new owners instead.

In addition to not being able to buy back the house for less money, or have a friend or relative buy the house for less money, the seller is also not allowed to rent the house, ever. This is where I start to have a problem. Some  banks have been allowing foreclosed owners to stay in the homes as renters which makes a lot of sense. The house does not get stripped or destroyed and the renter has a relationship with the house which will help preserve the home’s value.  So why can’t a seller rent from the new owner in a short sale? Many of these sellers do not have money to move and except for HAFA short sales or an occasional generous bank they are not given moving expenses.  It may be hard to find a place to rent after having some credit hits from missed mortgage payments or high credit card bills due to trying to keep up with the mortgage. It seems like an onerous rule to me, and one that does not directly benefit the bank anyway. Why should the bank care who the next owner rents to, especially if the original bank no longer owns or services the note?

And most importantly, what is wrong with a little humanity? Why can’t families stay in their familiar surroundings, keep their children in the same schools, have the same neighbors? Isn’t is enough punishment to lose your home, your equity, and your savings?

What do you think?

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

I sell a lot of of Probate and Trust sales. They are not quite like a traditional sale, but not as unlike a traditional sale as a Short Sale or Foreclosure. One of the differences are disclosure obligations. In California one of the diclosure requirements that causes the most confusion is what happens about the Natural Hazard Disclosure Report and statement. It is simple:

As per the Trust Advisory or Probate Advisory that needs to be signed in each of these transaction the Trustee in the case of a Trust, or the Personal Representative in the case of a Probate, is required to provide a Natural Hazard Disclosure report, but is not to sign the report.

The most common request I have with these sales is for the Trustee's signature on the Natural Hazard Report. It is not an oversight that it was not signed, it was on purpose.

If you have any questions about trust or propabate sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo Counties, please feel free to ask me.

It is not easy to close a transaction, and an REO is no exception. In my area we do not have a lot of bank owned properties for sale. Even in 2009, when San Jose had a good number, the northern part of Santa Clara County had very few foreclosed homes as a percentage of listings, and newer, nice homes were even harder to find. In 2010 the REO inventory has been few and far between, so when a 4 year old home in the western part of Sunnyvale came on the market I had a buyer who jumped on it right away, and managed to get his offer accepted in a multiple offer situation. The home was foreclosed by Chase, and they wanted a pre-approval from Chase, so the listing agent told everyone to go through Long Nguyen, a very nice and competent loan officer from Willow Glen. My client was very impressed with Long, and decided to use him to get the loan for the property, not just for the pre-approval. Well, nothing was particularly easy. The appraiser took 14 days to submit her report, and on a 17 day contingency that does not work out too well. The underwriter also declared the property a second home instead of a primary residence, so that took time to fix. Last week it was apparent that not only would we not meet the contingency removal deadline, but the closing date was also not going to be possible. Long tried to pull strings and got his wrist slapped, but kept persevering. My client was a little perplexed about how innefficient everything was, but did not blow a gasket. In the middle of a bad conversation about things not going right I stopped and thanked Long for doing so a great job and working so hard for us. He acted as if I had just handed him a million dollars. I guess a thank-you goes a long way, especially in these tense times.

The great news is that loan docs were finally drawn, my client signed today, and hopefully we close by Wed, only 2 days late. Chase gets their money and a new loan, my buyer gets a 4 year new home with great schools and only a little cosmetic damage, Long, the listing agent and I get our commission, and no one was yelled at, belittled, or made to feel like they were not wroking as hard as possible. It really makes for a more pleasant transaction if you just say a few thank-yous.

My sister in law as executor of the estate just sold my mother and father in law’s house. She chose a realtor who lived in the neighborhood who also was an reo realtor without a lot of reo inventory right now. (Not an unusual situation) She turned out to be the perfect agent for the job because of her REO background. She took a home that was filled to the brim with things that no one in the family wanted, had it cleaned out, trashed out, secured, on the market at an aggressive price, and sold in 2 weeks. I couldn’t have done better myself, except I would have staged it, but that is a separate story.

Getting a probate or trust sale ready for market is very similar to an REO. When a homeowner dies his or her personal property must be disposed. Things of value need to be appraised for tax purposes and are distributed accorded to the terms of the will, or in the case of no will sold and the money distributed according to state law. There is often much left over that is not of value and someone needs to trash the home out, much the same way as an REO home is trashed out. This job is often left to the realtor. The home will almost always be vacant, and again the realtor will need to make sure it is secure.

While probates and trusts do have some differences in the technicalities of sale from an REO, many of the disclosure exemptions are the same. The executor is exempt from the transfer disclosure, the seller’s questionnaire, the smoke detector requirement, and signature on the natural hazard report, but not exempt from providing the report. If the realtor knows anything about the property he or she does have a duty to disclose anything that is material.

Homes that are sold through probates or trusts are very often not perfect. There may have been a death on the property or there could have been many years of deferred maintenance when the owners got older. They may even have been left empty for a period of time while the owner was in assisted living or a nursing home. Like an REO property the realtor must make adjustments to the suggested price based on these issues which are common to both kinds of sales. (Generally the death on the property is not found in REO properties, but it can happen.)

The other big similarity is that both REO homes and trust or probate homes have to be sold. They are not owned by people who have the luxury to test the market and sell if they get the price they want. They need to be sold, either to settle an estate or in the case of an REO to mitigate a loss. As a result they are a wonderful opportunity for a buyer to get a home at a great price or a realtor to get an assured sale. Both sides win in these types of sales.

So why the comparison? If you are an REO realtor and add probates and trusts to your repertoire then many of the skills you have learned are very useful. If you are an investor it is a good place to look when REO inventory is not getting you everything you want. If you are an end user buyer these homes are worth exploring because of the motivation of most of the sellers.