Jeff Jasper's Blog

The Long and short of a short sale!

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:10:46 -0800

What really is a short sale? Basically if the property is sold for the price that it’s listed for, the seller will be short funds necessary to close the transaction. With this in mind, offers of less will only worsen this situation.

Who determines if this is a short sale? In a nut shell the seller. And, the mortgage company may not agree with the seller. Just because the seller is short funds required to close at this price doesn’t mean that the Mortgage Company will agree to relinquish their claim for less than agreed to.

Why won’t the Mortgage Company accept the offer? At the outset it would seem logical that the Mortgage Company would want to clean the books and negotiate the short sale. After all, the seller may be behind in payments and quite often is! In reality, the mortgage company has little incentive to do so. Closing a mortgage for less will reflect the loss to them and they certainly don’t want that. If the property is foreclosed on, there is mortgage insurance to cover the loss. And, they may still be able to go after the seller for the shortage. Their books will look better!

What takes so long to get answer? Even though most sellers are aware of the situation the mortgage company isn’t. Even if the seller is behind doesn’t mean they are short! To address the short sale the mortgage company will require a lot of information, current information! They need justification as to why they should give up their position. Most mortgage companies today are large multi-state concerns where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. The package they receive needs to be complete with all the information required to make a decision. And, they quite often don’t know what all is, as it changes!

How do I know if I am a short seller? Basically you suspect you are but in all cases consult a financial attorney and a REALTOR who is versed in short sales! A simple tip to note at this point is to put the loan number in question on the top and bottom on every page of everything!

I’m considering buying a short sale property is this wise? There is no correct answer to this. First and foremost, are you prepared to wait 2,3,6 months, or even longer to get an answer to your offer? This isn’t always the case but be prepared to wait! Has the seller completed all the necessary information requests of the mortgage company or are they just starting to? Just because the seller is in a short position doesn’t mean the property isn’t being maintained correctly. However, when money is short sometimes the property that is a problem to the seller may not get the attention it deserves. Are you prepared to deal with this? Just because the seller is selling short doesn’t mean that it’s a good buy it simply means they are short!

The Bottom line is that I’ve only scratched the surface of this topic. There have been short sales for time and eternity. The problem today is the volume of them. If you are a seller know your position by consulting the experts, sooner than later! Keep the property up! Respond to all information requests promptly accurately and remember to put the loan number on all pieces of paper top and bottom. The position isn’t very palatable but its’ better to go forward up and out! If the process were easy more people would be addressing this and the mortgage companies are already in trouble! Without strong Mortgage companies we all lose.

So What's your Vision?

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:37:45 -0800

Or, maybe the question should be, do you have a vision for your future? Do you have a Vision for your business future? If you can't visualize where you'll be how will you ever get there? I think a lot of Americans have lost this habit. Our fore fathers, I believe had a vision of a better life in America. Really owning the vision and then setting out with goals to get there. Today, I believe most of us lose our vision after we leave school. Getting to caught up in life and not on where we want to end up. Many of us set goals annually but are they really going towards a Vision? Recently, I was reminded of Alice in wonderland who walking down the road came to a fork in the road. Not knowing which fork to take she asks the cat in the tree "which fork to take?" To which the cat responded "Where do you what to go?" Alice replies with "I don't know." The cat replies "then it doesn't matter." My comment is, does it matter your goals if you don't have a vision of where you want to end up. Maybe with a new year starting as well as a new decade you might consider your visions.

Forbes best bang for the buck cities

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:56:32 -0800

Looks like my city Albuquerque ranked in the upper third of the 100 ranked for best bang for the buck!

And, they wern't even considering the fabulous weather we have as well!

The cost of Prescriptions

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:19:27 -0800

Most Americans once they reach middle age are on some sort of medical prescription. A lot are simply maintenance type of drugs like statins for cholesterol control. And there are those of us who either don't reside in the perfect body and or we've made it less than the perfect body by how we've used it.

The point I wanted to address is that most of us really haven't given a lot of thought to or realized that not all pharmacies the same. They all get the drugs from the same couple of wholesalers. And they are all held to the same way of filling the prescriptions. But what they charge is up to them. And, for many charge they do! How many Americans price shop their Prescriptions? More today than before but all in all not many! Pharmacies that are part of large Big box retailers are by far more economical! They are covering their cost of operation in numerous fashions. And a lot of people aren't aware that membership retailers like Costco will sell prescriptions to the general public. What sets these retailers apart from the rest is that they typically sell whatever they do for a fixed amount over their cost. Drugs included. In many cases this difference alone can be thirty, forty and even more percent less than the standard pharmacy. Costco even has a program for their members that don't have health insurance where they will sell the drug at even a lower price, just to be a good neighbor!

For me, this difference amounted to a monthly cost at my local pharmacy of $144. which I was able to obtain at Costco using their programs for $53. per month. This for me was a massive monthly savings! I only wish I had check this difference out years ago!

Thoughts on health!

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:09:10 -0800

It's no secret that Real Estate / moving ranks right up there with death and divorce when it comes to stress!

I know from experience as I have moved my residence 8 times in the last 8 years and experienced a divorce! What has kept me healthy is dropping my weight and two sisters who come from the medical field and keep me posted on the latest news. For example, we started discussing one night after the barrage of news bites on H1N1 and wondered is it really as bad as the say. and if so by how much? Well, you decide the CDC does not know exactly how many people die from the seasonal flue each year, more.

I am at a point in life where one of my concerns is my prostate health so my sister again sent along an article that states Red, Processed meats linked to prostate cancer, more.

Recently, I had the occasion to have a prostate reduction procedure, Fun - not. Actually it wasn't as bad as I feared. Well the procedure required a pre op physical and the results, my weight and cholesterol was not of my liking or my doctors. Basically, I followed my normal path of procrastination and put the procedure off. While I delayed I also stopped alcohol, sodas and ice cream. Actually sodas were not a problem! Nor was alcohol, I just substituted pomegranate juice. I really like ice cream! Did I mention I REALLY like ice cream or at least did. Now I eat fresh fruit cocktail for a late night snack. It's cold sweet and satisfied my late night hunger. Well a little over two months later when I really couldn't put the procedure off any more the redo of my physical showed that my weight was down 20 pounds and my cholesterol was down roughly 50 points! I did increase my walking some but the real kicker was what I consumed or didn't. And now, she sends me another article where they state Low Cholesterol may prevent some Prostate cancers, More.

And one final thought, there are two countries that advertise prescription drugs, the US and New Zealand. Advertising isn't cheap and every third commercial seems to be for a drug I can't buy without a doctors prescription. It seems to me the whole prescription industry could save a ton of money and maybe our cost if we made advertising illegal. We did for cigarettes and alcohol why not drugs?

Moving!

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:59:00 -0800

Recently, I needed to move what amounted to a single bedroom apartment contents across country.
Without putting a lot of fore thought I assumed I'd have to rent a truck. Near the move date I called to check rates and reserve a vehicle and was somewhat shocked to find out the least expensive vehicle was going to be around $1,200 plus all the additional associated fees. And, from prior experience I knew the fuel cost would be in excess of $400. With a tow dolly for the vehicle, fuel and rental I was looking at a total cost in excess of $2,000. A sum, I questioned whether the possessions were worth.
Frustrated, I went on the Internet and located Uship an e bay sort for shipping. I inventoried the contents with dimensions and placed my job for bid. I was blown away when I received a bid promptly from SemperFiHaulers for roughly $400.00. With some faith and a little bit of trepidation I accepted the bid and placed a deposit via paypal. Bottom line in couldn't have worked better! Michael Frear of SemperFi Haulers called 24 hours prior to the departure date and arranged the pickup time. He was there on time loaded the contents effortlessly. A few days later He called 24 hours out and arranged to meet at the other end. Again, on faith I paid the balance via paypal when he called. I couldn't be there so I arranged to have a friend open a storage unit and, as promised Michael arrived and unloaded unattended! The experience was so refreshing! If you are in the a similar situation I strongly suggest looking into this, I will!

As a post script, I needed a couple of doors at the destination location. Prior to the move, I located what I wanted at my departure location for roughly $280. less than I could purchase at the destination. The merchant wouldn't ship to my destination so I included these in with the job bid. The savings of nearly $280. reduced my basic cost of the move to $120. With no stress!

Backup or wish you had!

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:01:35 -0700

Life has gotten so much easier or has it? With todays scanners (my favorite is Scansnap) one can reduce mountains of paper work receipts etc to a mere hard drive. Its so easy to email documents from memory. Print duplicates save tons of photo's and yet have them at your disposal within seconds.

But what happens when a disaster happens? Do you have time to unplug during that lightning storm, or flood, or tornado, or fire or ....? A few years ago I went out and purchased a backup drive that had it worked properly would have saved me tons of time, money and frustratrion for a few of those disasters. A few! Today I use an online backup service. It takes probably about 15 minutes to sign up and costs about $3.00 per month for virtually unlimited backup storage. Remember that's about $36. / year or less than ½ of a tank of gas for relief!

All one has to do is just stop and do it!

Disaster preparedness or how I should have been!

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:59:32 -0700

Many years ago, my father in law was in a major car accident. My wife swung by the office to pick me up and the whole family to include the dog headed out to the hospital. Hours later, we arrived at our home exhausted and drained to a vandalized home. What they didn't take they destroyed!

We lived in a quiet upscale neighborhood but it happened.

We had insurance but for what? Really, when you think about it what's in the hall closet, the cabinet, the desk? Sure you'll remember a couple of items but months after you've turned in your claim you'll remember the real treasure that was there - too late!

Tragedies occur every day! The lesson to be learned is to take a camera once a year and photo the home, open the closets, drawers, etc. and shot photos of everything!

Years ago I wrote this for a publication and suggested that you take the roll of film (remember?) and put it undeveloped in the freezer. Most freezers would survive a typical fire. That publication paid me a minimal sum to republish that article for several years.

By today's standards the idea still works just upload the photo's to a photo web site. Cost is minimal only a few moments of time, the savings in frustration alone can be immense.

As then, I suggest you do this annually. Pick a date and do it every year! My date was always Independence Day. Independence from at least one area of potential stress!

Backup or wish you had!

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:51:05 -0700

All one has to do is just stop and do it!

Video Tours

Jeff Jasper (RE/MAX Results - Wayzata) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:49:15 -0700

The internet started off as flat text communication. Then came enriched text and photos and now today its Video! Let's face it we are a visual society! And now today we can save the gas and tour the homes while at home! This is the future and we're there! Check out a tour or two!

http://www.wellcomemat.com/home/channels/albuquerque#wrapper