Are you a homeowner in financial
distress, you are not alone, on June 5th, MSNBC.com releases updated
market statistics (Original Article):
.99% of all homes in the US are now in foreclosure
6.36% of all mortgages are delinquent
The number above
indicates that over 6,000,000
homeowners are in foreclosure and over 20 million homeowners are
late on their mortgage payments. Even though you
may feel like you are the only one, you aren't, so what do you do about
it?
My belief is (and
always has been) that the most important person for a distressed
homeowner to encounter is an educated agent. An educated
agent can tell you what your property is worth, how likely it is that
it will sell and what your real options are - no other professional can
provide you with all of these answers.
When hiring an agent find out:
What
kind of education they have?
How
many distressed homeowners have they worked with?
Do
they understand the foreclosure process in your area?
How
many short sales they have been involved with?
If you are in
financial distress your agent may be the only person standing between a
solution and foreclosure. I hate to put this so bluntly but
this is reality and your decision needs to be taken seriously.
Best case scenario is that you will find an agent who has taken the
time and effort to earn the Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE)
designation. At the minimum make certain the agent you hire
can answer the questions above.
Alex
Charfen
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Distressed Property
Institute, LLC
www.1cdpe.com
Get Certified Today!
The Market Needs You!
Alex Charfen & Cadey
Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
See what
agents like you have to say about the CDPE Desigantion:
“Awesome!! The best class! I attended the
CDPE in January 08 and I
am back today to make sure I didn't miss anything the 1st time. Since I
earned the CDPE I have closed 5 distressed transactions and have 7 more
under contract!”
Are you a homeowner in financial
distress, you are not alone, on June 5th, MSNBC.com releases updated
market statistics (Original Article):
.99% of all homes in the US are now in foreclosure
6.36% of all mortgages are delinquent
The number above
indicates that over 6,000,000
homeowners are in foreclosure and over 20 million homeowners are
late on their mortgage payments. Even though you
may feel like you are the only one, you aren't, so what do you do about
it?
My belief is (and
always has been) that the most important person for a distressed
homeowner to encounter is an educated agent. An educated
agent can tell you what your property is worth, how likely it is that
it will sell and what your real options are - no other professional can
provide you with all of these answers.
When hiring an agent find out:
What
kind of education they have?
How
many distressed homeowners have they worked with?
Do
they understand the foreclosure process in your area?
How
many short sales they have been involved with?
If you are in
financial distress your agent may be the only person standing between a
solution and foreclosure. I hate to put this so bluntly but
this is reality and your decision needs to be taken seriously.
Best case scenario is that you will find an agent who has taken the
time and effort to earn the Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE)
designation. At the minimum make certain the agent you hire
can answer the questions above.
Alex
Charfen
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Distressed Property
Institute, LLC
www.1cdpe.com
Get Certified Today!
The Market Needs You!
Alex Charfen & Cadey
Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
See what
agents like you have to say about the CDPE Desigantion:
“Awesome!! The best class! I attended the
CDPE in January 08 and I
am back today to make sure I didn't miss anything the 1st time. Since I
earned the CDPE I have closed 5 distressed transactions and have 7 more
under contract!”
I know we
have all done it, you get a call form an unexperienced agent who...
Is trying to figure out how to use their Supra Key at
one of your listings
Can't see any of the 26 photos you have loaded in the
MLS
Wants to show the property that needs 24 hours notice
in 15 minutes
Or one of many other somewhat frustrating issues
and
unfortunately we get irritated and frustrated with them. Then
this happens to me, I like to think to myself - Appreciate
the Rookie
or Remember your Inner Rookie.
Appreciate - we learn the best by
teaching others. Take the time to show the agent how to do
what they are trying to do and you will be that much better off
yourself.
Remember - remember when you were
the rookie and needed the same kind of help. Also don't
forget in this rapidly changing market you are only one step away from
being the rookie dealing with something you have never encountered.
Also given our market today and everything you hear in the press,
anyone willing to get into the Real Estate market right now deserves
some credit, respect and a couple minutes or your time!
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Power Couple in Real Estate
Alex Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
There are many reasons why
Google is such an incredible company and the vast majority of them are
free to you and I the consumer. Google has a hew service
called:
It is absolutely awesome and
over performs - it is a free service that we would gladly pay for if we
had to.
You sign up for a local number
in your area, my GrandCentral number is 561-902-1609. Then
you direct that number to ring as many phones as you want it to.
So someone calls my GC number and my cell phone, and office
line ring. if I am working out of someone else's office for
the day I can have the phone ring there.
The features do not end there, it someone call my GC number and I
answer with my cell phone when I get to my office I can hit * and the
office phone will ring and transfer the call (or if I am in the office
and need to leave I can transfer to the cell).
Every call that comes in is screened so I know exactly who I am going
to talk to and more!
Here are some more features:
Go to Grand Central and reserve your number today!
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Power Couple in Real Estate
Alex Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
On a weekly basis I speak to
several large groups of REALTORS, this week I spoke to about 150 total.
One question that I always ask every group is
"How many
of you consider yourselves experts in the foreclosure process in your
area?"
On a
consistent basis less than 2% of the REALTORS in any given weeks raise
their hands - this week it was only 2 out of about 170.
I also talk to
many (sometimes over 100) financially distressed homeowners a week and over 80%
of them tell me their first call was to either us (my wife is a
REALTOR) or to their local agent who could not help them.
This
means that 2 out of 100 REALTORS understand foreclosure and 80 out of
100 homeowners call a REALTOR when they have an issue.
In the market we
find ourselves in today you owe it to yourself and to your market to
understand your area's foreclosure process. 80% or more of
the homeowners out there expect you to.
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Power Couple in Real Estate
Alex Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
Sometimes so much can be said
with so very little:
We
are in a Price War and a Beauty Contest.
I don't know who first said this or where is was said but it really
describes our market perfectly. Buyers are not only looking
for more but they are looking for more for much less. It is
sometimes difficult to convince a seller that their price needs to be
aggressive but sometimes the simple statement above as a simple
explanation has helped.
Hope this works for you!
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Power Couple in Real Estate
Alex Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
A couple of day s ago Cadey
and I sent out an agent-to-agent communication. Yes it was
advertising and yes we know some people really don't want it but the
only way we know of to get it to the people who do is to pay a service
and send it to everyone. The message was brief, relatively
unintrusive and contained only information (nothing that would clog a
server).
This morning I received an email from a local agent (from his real
email address) that was laced with a string of obscenities followed by
what many would consider an implied death threat.
I know the market is bad but really, could an email annoy someone this
much. Also if a simple email is enough to set this guy off
like this, can you imagine an issue with a contract?
It is a brave new world in this industry and I know we all are having a
challenge adjusting but do we really "deserve to be shot" over an
email?
I appreciate your comments.
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Power Couple in Real Estate
Alex Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
When was the last time you sat
down in the morning and were handling 3 to 500 files?!?!?!
Each morning that most loss mitigators sit down that is what they are
staring at, 3 to 500 files (in some cases more if their department is
shorthanded). If you are currently negotiating short sales or
have recently started you need to remember that the person you are
dealing with is probably three things:
Most
likely Brand New at Their Job - Loss mitigations
departments barely existed only a couple of years ago and have grown in
size from a few people in some cases to 40 or 50 people or more.
Have some
patience for the person you are dealing with.
They are
Over Worked - I have not spoken with a single loss
mitigators handling less than 150 files, in most cases hey are handling
more than double this amount. This means that in a typical 40
hour work week they can dedicate about 8 minutes per file if they have
to touch each one of them. Understand where they are coming
from and make sure you turn
in a complete package with absolutely nothing missing and
everything that they as for an more. They do not have time to
do your job for you, most of the time they will move on to the next
file (they have plenty).
The
Negotiator is Underpaid - The mortgage industry has
suffered massive pay offs in the past 36 months. People who
can process a file are a dime a dozen and the industry knows this so
they are paying them just about that. One negotiator I spoke
with was previously a sales executive and he was making 20% of what he had before.
The
fastest way to get your file moved to the bottom of the pile of 300 is
to forget any of the above and take an adversarial tone with the
negotiator. I am certainly not saying you can't be firm and I
am not saying you shouldn't elevate your situation to a
managerial level if there really is an issue however way too many
agents we speak to get hostile in the first day they are dealing with
someone. I can assure that leaving multiple messages right
after faxing in your package in the same day will not help you.
You
are a Team
Approach the
Loss Mit Rep as a member of your team. Tell him or her you
are there to do anything you can help. You feel you have
presented a great deal for the bank and you want to give them
everything you can to get the deal done. We close a lot of
these deals and the team mindset helps us evertime.
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Power Couple in Real Estate
Alex Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
We
talked to yet
another loss mitigation person yesterday at a major lender that was
telling us about the semi-complete short sales package he got from a
REALTOR and the agent didn't put her contact information on it anywhere! This is not an
isolated incident, we hear this often!
It is critical
that
once you are faxing in your (complete) short sale package that you
get identifying information an every page of the package.
Each page should include:
Borrowers Name(s)
Loan Number
Agent's Name
Direct Contact
Number (use the number that you are most
likely to answer)
Here
is a trick to get
this done easily. Gather your (complete) package together.
Put it into your printer so that it will print on the side of
the pages with information. Open a work doc, reduce the top
margin on 1/4 of an inch or .25. Type the four items above in
a single line and reduce the font to 8 pts. Now print on each
page of the package.
This ensures
that if
one page of your package gets separated or the loss mitigation person
at a lender wants to talk to you, everything they need is on every
page!
Hope this helps!
Alex &
Cadey Charfen
Power Couple in Real Estate
Alex Charfen Distressed
Property
Institute, LLC
800-482-0335
Get Certified Today!
Wrong to EXPECT professional courtesy?? Showing call on
EASTER!
Yesterday
was Easter and we spent the day with our 15 month
old daughter Reagan.I
want to let all
of you know that neither Cadey or I is afraid to answer the phone at
just about
any time.We
realize that real estate is
not a 9 to 5 occupation and we are willing to work when we need to.We answer the phone so
much and so often that
one of the games Reagan started playing when she was about 10 months
old was to
‘answer’ just about anything an talk to it.Yes, our 15 month picks up remote controls, garage door
openness, random
toys, and the occasional cell or home phones and conducts a phone
conversation
so intense you would bet that she is either closing a major deal or
solving the
world’s problems.
I
only mention this so that you all understand that this is
not an issue of us not picking up the phone!
Yesterday,
on Easter Cadey cell was in her office in a passing
glance noticed that she had missed four phone calls from the same
number.She
considered calling back just in case
there was an emergency and just then, (at about 8:00 PM) the same
number called
again only this time Cadey answered it.
“Your showing desk is closed!”
the agent on the line errupted.
“Yes they are not open on Easter”
Cadey replied.
“OK, I want to show (address
deleted) tomorrow” the agent
continued.
“I can call the owner tomorrow to
confirm but today is Easter”
Cadey explained.
“I want to show it first thing in
the morning tomorrow” the
agent interrupted.
“It is Easter but I can call
you right after I speak to them tomorrow
morning” Cadey replied a bit surprised and
(perhaps) a bit frustrated.
“Fine” and
the agent hung up.
Is
it wrong for Cadey to be irritated?I can tell you that I am.I don’t think there is another industry (except
for perhaps medicine) where a call on Easter would not only be made but
the
caller would expect a result.
What
would you do in this situation?
Is it wrong to expect some
kind of professional courtesy?
;)
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