Today I was doing a few more drive bys, and I noticed sooo many for sale signs and foreclosed properties literally in just one street. Then about 2 blocks down only a few signs were visible.
Sometimes I think these mortgage companies prefer to hit one specific area and just wipe them out all at once. Is there an advantage for them when they do this?
Are they trying to get rid of the current homeowners to bring in a whole new different type of community?
If this is the case, then how are the realtors supposed to market these homes when their clients come to the neighborhood and see all these signs up?
have to wait the typical four or five years to re-qualify for financing for another home, it could be as little as two years. Fannie Mae is relaxing rules that prevented loan applicants who did a short sales or a deed in lieu of foreclosure from obtaining a new mortgage for up to five years.Ran into an issue this week - wanted to see if anyone else has ran into it and what happened.
Had buyers, we found the home, knew that it was a short sale, made an offer and it was accepted. During the offer to acceptance, we found out that an investment group had successfully negotiated a short sale and that they would be closing on May 19th, 2010. They would be the ones selling the property to us. Thought okay, we got a good price on a good home, works for the buyers. Buyers had been approved for a FHA loan. We found out all the details several days later, when the listing Realtor called the buyer's mortgage company. What happened was that everyone we have talked to has stated that they can not close the loan until 90 days after the investment group has closed. Most all of the lenders said that even though FHA has waived the 90 day rule at this time, it doesn't apply in cases where investors have bought a short sale property. One lender has said that they would close it, but their debt to income ratios are much lower and the buyers didn't qualify.
My question is: with the number of short sales out there, has anyone else ran into an issue where they have the buyer and the property is now owned by an investor. And if so, have you had financing issues and how did you get around it. In our situation, it appears next to impossible. We have been told that we could go conventional with either 10% or 20% (depending which lender), but the buyers don't have that kind of money. Are we now going to end up with a surplus of investor owned homes that they can't sell for 3 months due to financing restrictions.
I’m curious how other agents see short sales and REOs mixing.
If you are an REO agent and are assigned a listing, you are happy. If you then find out that one of your associates in your brokerage has had it listed as a short sale within the past 6 months, your happiness might turn into a sense of loss. You need to tell your seller that the property has been listed with your brokerage and let them decide if there is a conflict of interest. In fact, the seller probably is already aware that the property was previously listed with your brokerage, in which case they may not have assigned it to you at all depending on their policies.
Do you, REO agents, consider this scenario potentially damaging to your business? One reason I was motivated to build my own brokerage was I could control what listings we handled and avoid sellers in distress since potentially we have a better chance of selling their home as an REO listing than selling their over-priced, underwater short sale home. When I worked at a franchise brokerage I had to turn down pre-listing bpos because another agent in my office currently had the properties listed. This happened a few times and I decided that it was up to me to solve the problem by leaving.
Now, the whole game is changing and short sales are becoming part of the mix with management companies that previously only managed REOs. I have heard some short sale agents claim that they get REO listings by being the short sale agent for the owner in default but I have yet to see any proof to back up this claim. Usually the short sale agent gets a call from the REO agent instructing them to remove their short sale listing from the MLS because the property has a new owner. These are uncharted waters so my question is:
Will a short sale assigned by a management company be more likely to be kept by a listing agent if it fails to sell and becomes an REO?
85335,85268,85269,85233,85234,85295,85296,85297,85298,85299,85301,85302,85303,85304,85305,
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Maricopa County
Pinal County
Gila County
In response to an outcry for Uncle Sam to step in and provide uniform procedures for helping homeowners stay in their homes. This is how the HAFA, Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program, was born. HAFA is part of the HAMP, Home Affordable Modification Program. This provides incentives in connection with a short sale or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure used to avoid foreclosure on a loan eligible for a modification under HAMP.
HAFA:
* Complements HAMP and provides a viable alternative for borrowers who are HAMP eligible but unable to keep their homes.
*Uses borrowers financial and hardship info previously collected for a mod.
*Allows borrowers to receive a pre-approved short sale prior to listing.
*Prohibits lenders from reducing real estate commission ( 6% )
*Requires borrowers to be fully released from future liability for the first mortgage ( no deficiency judgement is allowed).
*Uses set standard processes, documents and timeframe deadlines.
* Provides financial incentives: $1500 for borrower relocation assistance; $1000 for lender to cover admin and processing cost and up to $1000 for investors for allowing a total of up to $3000 in short sale proceeds to be distributed to subordinate lienholders.
The program begins on April 5, 2010 and ends on December 31, 2012.
You need to know who is eligible.
Are you ready?
Short Sale Flipping isn’t Fraud…….right? WRONG!
I have argued, for several years now that in my opinion Short Sale Flipping Schemes that use Option Contracts without full disclosure to all parties involved, including the selling bank is fraud however, we still have many agents out there that just don’t get it.
Quote from John Doe Realtor # 1
“Jesse you have been ill informed and need to watch out what type of horrible , fear mongering advice you are putting out on a public board.
Quote from John Doe Realtor # 2
“Real Estate Day trading is not illegal. While you may wish to make it so, wishing and hoping won't change the law. Please cite some code somewhere that supports your statement”
Quote from John Doe Realtor # 3
“Jesse you are obviously an intelligent man but a bit misguided”
This is just a few examples of what has come my way however, it hasn’t changed my opinion and, now I have a recent ruling by a Magistrate in Connecticut to support my opinion. To read the entire article yourself, follow this link, http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news16047/connecticut-real-estate-agent-admits-defrauding-bank-short-sale-scheme
In a nut shell, like many short sale investor flips I have seen, the selling Realtor doesn’t disclose to the selling bank that they are planning on selling the property for a profit and the Selling Realtor doesn’t disclose that the offer they are sending into the bank isn’t the best offer they received on the property. This is Mortgage FRAUD and now I have precedent to agree with me.
Quote from the National Mortgage Professional.com article….
“According to court documents and statements made in court, McElaney worked with Sergio Natera, also a real estate agent, to defraud Regions Bank, which held two mortgages on a residential property in Bridgeport. On Dec. 5, 2007, McElaney, who was a listing agent for the property, received an offer to purchase the property for a price of $132,500. However, McElaney and Natera subsequently directed communications to Regions Bank that the highest offer to purchase the property was for $102,375 by BOS Asset Management LLC, an entity that Natera controlled. The bank agreed to a short sale of the property for the lower price, and released its mortgages on the property. On June 9, 2008, Natera, through BOS Asset Management, sold the property for $132,500 to the original bidder on the property, and Natera and McElaney retained the difference in the two sale prices.
McElaney is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Janet C. Hall on May 10, 2010, at which time she faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years, a fine of up to $1 million, and an order of restitution. Natera pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud on Feb. 11, 2010. He awaits sentencing”
If you are in a Short Sale Flip Transaction and you aren’t disclosing to the selling bank that you plan on re-selling this home for a profit, you are opening yourself to risk that could be argued as fraud and your insurance doesn’t protect against that
Today's real estate market is ever changing. Here today and gone tomorrow. Unfortunately this applies to the homeowner AND the agent. I remember when I started in the business in 2004 with my CA Conditional License. I just knew I was going to be an immediate success and make a boatload of money just because I had the word "REALTOR" next to my name. Wow, was I in for a surprise!
Getting a listing was almost impossible because of the competition. Either you needed to be a veteran in the business, work on a successful team, work your tail off or get out there or do old fashion door knocking. Luckily for me I changed my approach and became a strategic buyer's agent. I used my knowledge of internet marketing to dive into the world of Craigslist, Backpage and Myspace. Building my online presence proved to be a great way to get into the door and grow my business.
We are now into 2010 and the game has changed tenfold. The homeowners of 2004 are now making the decision to either short sale or walk away from their investment. Yesterday's "premiere listing agent" is now having to be a counselor, an advocate for the bank and sometimes even a property management specialist.
With the Loan Exit Option before us, what are the tools of the trade that you will use to become "the expert" in your field in your local market? How will you lobby to get the new short sale business the banks are offering? How will you survive the new changes in the real estate market?
What's in your toolbox?
I attended the Five Star Short Sale Summit in Vegas. What an awesome conference and certification. There are many changes coming down the pike for short sales. Now that there has been stadardization put in place for short sales the time frame from contract to close will become more reasonable.
The changes being made will force some accountability on the lenders as well as the borrowers. These distressed home owners will not be going straight into foreclosure with HAMP and HAFA in effect.
It is for seen there will be many more short sales in the future and less foreclosures. The bottom line is you will need your Short Sale Certification to ramp up business. Do you have yours?
An asset manager can mean many things depending on what industry you refer to (and no, we’re not referring to your computer operating system’s asset manager in this blog post). Even in real estate, it can mean different things — someone who manages rental property can sometimes go by the title of asset manager.
For the purposes of buying and selling real estate (and the sub-plot of understanding foreclosures in the secondary market), an asset manager is neither someone who collects rent on a property or sorts out the different processes that Windows is running. An asset manager is the person that controls a bank’s REO listings and properties.
(And if you didn’t know, REO stands for Real Estate Owned — it’s the term given to properties that have gone through foreclosure, failed to sell for cash at the foreclosure auction, and reverted back to the lender.)
Now, why should you know what an asset manager is? More importantly, why should you find out who asset managers are?
Simple — they’re the people that you can negotiate with if you want to buy these properties. And because these properties come in such wildly varied states — some in good shape, some in bad; some in pricey neighborhoods, some in cheap homes; some are mansions, some are tract homes — getting in touch with an asset manager will help you zero in on the exact type of home you want, all while educating you on just what it would take to pry that home out of their hands.
How can you figure out who is an asset manager at particular bank or lender? Thanks to the internet, we’ve got a number of ways to determine these things. You can try searching on a professional networking site like LinkedIn or you can go with the more direct approach and use Jigsaw to figure out who holds that title at a specific bank.
Update: For clarification, please note that this post is designed to
help you learn who the major players are as you educate yourself on
the process. However, it's best to work with the REO agent whenever
you involve yourself in a potential transaction. Not only are REO
agents experts in bringing a deal to close, the asset managers will
probably thank you -- they're often juggling 200+ case files at once,
which means they've got a lot on their hands!
Search for foreclosure homes www.bestreohomes.com
The views published here are the opinions of the writer and are not a substitute for legal counsel.