Kayla was located this morning. Details are sketchy but I truelly believe in the power of positive energy and I have no doubt all your thoughts, well wishes and prayers for a safe return brought Kayla home! Thank you all again.

Noel

I am reaching out to the awesome realtor community to help find a friend's daughter who went missing 10-12-2009. Please forward this link to as many people as possible and feel free to post on any and all of your social networking websites.

MISSING IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT KAYLA MARIE ROSA CALL DETECTIVE RODRIGUEZ AT 305-224-5418 KAYLA MARIE ROSA 

Missing From: HOMESTEAD, FL

Date Missing: October 12, 2009

Date of Birth: Nov. 14, 1993

Age: 15

Sex: Female

Height: 5’6”

Weight:155

Build: Medium

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown curly hair just past shoulders. 

Often wears her hair straightened with a flat iron.

Race: Bi-Racial: Hispanic/White

Complexion: Light skin

Clothing: Kayla was wearing khaki school uniform pants, white polo uniform shirt with black hi-top Nike tennis shoes. She had a black Jansport book bag with her. Kayla has no scars or tattoos and the only piercings she has are double pierced ears.

CIRCUMSTANCES: Kayla was last seen with a Hispanic male approx. 16 years of age whom she met on Myspace.

A while back I wrote a blog Top ten reasons your short sale will not close. I thought a perfect follow up would be a blog on the tools I use to stay organized and make short sales so simple that you'll wonder why you haven't delved into this niche market sooner.

After reading through this post and you still don't want to handle short sales, I will pay a referral fee of 30% for those of you who would like me to handle them for you. I will take the listing and do all the negotiations and get it to closing. No upfront fees (scam) just good old Realtor networking. Did I mention I've gotten 100% approvals on all my short sales? Can't beat perfection. (Southeast Florida Only Please!)

First off I want to disclose that I have in no way a relationship with the products or services I am promoting. I use these every day in my business and I am happy to promote them.

Bluebeam The bluebeam software is amazing for the price $149.00. It is a pdf editor that allows you to do all sorts of things to pdf documents. You can't change the copy but what I do is color over copy I don'tneed with a white marker, then flatten the image and use the text box to add whatever I want. The feature I particularly like is the"insert documents" one. I insert all the pdf documents needed for my short sale package and save it to one nice concise pdf. If you use a tablet, bluebeam allows you to sign and secure pdf's as well.

Metro Hi Speed Metro Hi Speed fax service is again another must have. At $12.95 per month for 1000 pages what else is there to say? You simply attach the documents you want to send in an email and plug in the phone number in the "To" field along with the metrofax extension and go have lunch. You can add as many documents as yo want separately up to ten megabytes and this service works flawlessly. After the fax is sent you get a confirmation e-mail.

Microsoft Office Suite 2007 You can find MS Office Suite at your local Best Buy or get it from the Microsoft website. With MS Outlook, the email management software, I created a fax cover sheet "signature" which I select and use when sending faxes. I just fill in the required fields, attach the documents I want to fax and hit send. You can create folders with rules and when you receive and email that conforms to those rules instead of your inbox it goes to the folder specified. You can also save all your emails for a particular transaction to a custom folder you setup. I use the MS Excel spreadsheet program to keep all of my listings organized. I got this idea from a brokerage I used to work for. They had this large dry erase board with all the office listings. I decided to do the same with a spreadsheet. You can add comments to each individual cell in the spreadsheet which is where I keep my notes when I speak to the banks while negotiating short sales.

Smart Phone with Bluetooth Headset I'm a Palm guy but any smart phone with e-mail capabilities, internet access, texting and word processing software is a must. I know there are agents out there who don't embrace technology and like to do business the old fashion way, knee cap to knee cap, but I personally don't know how I would survive without my Palm. Nothing beats being on hold while cooking dinner in the next room and not missing the connection to that short sale negotiator. That's what the bluetooth headset feature provides, freedom and control.

Tablet Laptop Speaking of technology, this is really taking it up an notch. I use a Gateway tablet with a Maxtor external 160 gig hard drive to keep it all safe and organized. I go as paperless as possible, from listing agreements to simple addendums it all it gets done on the tablet. After closing I hand my broker a cd instead of a dog eared file of faded and coffee stained legal file. It's not only cheaper this way, nothing gets lost as it;s backup on the the external hard drive plus it's good for the environment.

All in one Fax Copier Scanner This one should have been the first on my list but these units aren't exciting anymore. They have become an after thought yet oh so necassary. The most important feature is the scan to pdf feature. I use an ancient Lexmarx 6500 I picked up for $199.00 and it does the trick for me. Today's models have fax to email features, bluetooth, Wifi and the list goes on and on.

Education I saved the most important for last. I attended a 2 day intensive seminar that gave me the tools to build a foundation as to where I could be successful in getting short sales approved. I learn new something new everyday so you absolutely must keep an open mind to new ideas and be resilient and creative. Notice, I didn't take a two hour course or some 60 minute webinar, I invested in my business and spent 2 intense days learning. As far as I'm concerned nothing beats the Certified Distressed Property Institute.

As a Realtor you probably own most of these products but as a short sales specialists you may need to invest in some of these tools or upgrade to make life easier. Please free to add to the list, I'm a techie junkie and new gadget that makes life easier is an A plus in my book.

Happy Short Selling!

Noel Padilla, CDPE

"Doing Business Right"

Ok here's the skinny:

I represented a buyer (No buyer broker agreement in place, this was a "friend") who was in the market for a cheap REO or short sale. I informed her that REO's and short sales could be a lengthy ordeal. Of course she said she had time. She wanted to take advantage of the exceptional deals out there but was limited by her budget. I showed and showed and showed until she decided on a listing that I had sent her via e-mail that I had taken her to see. We wrote up an offer and sent it in only to wait and wait and wait before I finally was able to contact the listing agent at which time she informed me that all offers require a DU approval. Mind you this was not spelled out in the listing nor when I spoke to her assistant. Well after that was cleared up we sent in the DU and waited some more. After several e-mails I finally got a confirmation that everything was in order and submitted to the bank. We waited another 2 weeks and after several calls still no answer from the bank. Then after over a month the buyer gets frustrated and decides the whole ordeal is too stressful and decides she wants to wait a few months before jumping back in the market. I follow her instructions and fired off an e-mail to the listing agent to pull the plug immediately. After receiving confirmation, everyone parts ways to live another day.

Here's the kicker:

The bed wasn't even cold yet and the buyer submitted another offer with another agent 10 days later. The offer was accepted $10,000 over what she had originally offered. I see this woman every week at our networking meeting and she tells me, "You'll never guess, I just closed on the house you put an offer in for 10k more than what we offered." I said, "What offer?" trying not to choke her! She either doesn't have a clue or she is just plain stupid. She just screwed me out of my commission that I worked months for and has the audacity to flaunt it in my face.

Did I mention I have all e-mails listings, contracts and communication saved as a concise pdf ready to fired off to the State real estate commission and local MLS board? I'm so disappointed right now I don't know which route to take. I know it probably won't go anywhere but I want to ruffle feathers and make a few people lose sleep. This is not how deals are done and I want it to be lesson for all involved because if we don't police our selves this crap will just keep happening.

I need your advice AR bloggers, how would you go about handling this for ultimate effect, satisfaction and possibly monetary compensation?

P.S. No one will get in my car anymore unless they sign a buyer agreement!

Noel Padilla, CDPE

10.) You sent in multiple offers to the bank. Put yourself in the bank's shoes, what would you do if you got 3,4,5 or 6 offers on your property? That's right you would wait to see if you get more at higher prices. We all know short sale departments at banks are extremely organized and they can surely keep track of multiple offers (Yes I'm being sarcastic). Oh did I mention accepting and having your seller sign multiple offers is probably a little against the law and at the very least unethically? Third party approval is just a contingency just like an inspection or financing. You wouldn't keep accepting offers if there was an only and inspection contingency right?

9.) You don't call the bank periodically for updates, you rely on them calling you. With literally thousands of short sale offers coming in, you need to keep your file fresh on their minds. Files are always being lost or misplaced, yes even in this digital age they get lost in cyberspace. A file goes to a negotiator via email and the pdf gets deleted accidentally. Do actually think the negotiator is going to remember let alone try and recover that info when he/she has another 100 or so to work on? They just say NEXT.

8.) You don't bother to lower the price periodically. Do I really need to explain this one, this is real estate selling 101.

7.) Your marketing, well sucks! No pictures, no virtual tours, poor description, etc. Again real estate selling 101.

6.) You don't know what the hell you're doing and are too pigeoned minded to actually take formal training to get better because of course you've been in business 28 years or that's what your broker told you to do. Formal training is not some 2 hour course given by your local board nor is it a 2 hour webinar. I'm talking at least 8 hours of classroom instruction or distance learning curriculum. Nothing substitutes for a live instructor if you have a choice chose the classroom.

5.) You don't submit an offer you feel is too low. WHAT? Let the lender tell you it's too low. Get the process going and hopefully you can get a hard number from the bank on what they'll take.

4.) You don't check this property's status and the bank forecloses. The short sale department does not communicate with the foreclosure/legal department. You don't know how many times I've called and informed the S/S department about an impending sale date and they reply, "Oh let me send them a message to delay the sale." This doesn't stop the process but in my neck of the woods if you delay a sale, you just bought yourself 60 days. It takes 30 days to get in front of the judge to schedule another sale date and that date is usually another 30 days out.

3.) Poor communication with the buyers/buyers agent and they walk. Mindset is crucial here. You need to prepare the agent and/or buyer for a long wait at least 90 days before you can go into the sales phase. You also need to let them know that not a whole lot will happen in the first 30 days and to expect updates every two weeks or sooner if developments occur.

2.) You're disorganized. If your the type that gets overwhelm at times (Like me) you need to systematize your business. You should have already done this but this is even more crucial in short sales. I designed an excel spread sheet that holds all my listings. I note whether they are active, pending , short sale, etc. It contains all the info I need in the notes boxes of the spreadsheet and I note every time I call with date and name of person. If you want a copy of it click the hyperlink.

...........drum-roll please........and the number one reason your short will not close is:

1.) Your short sale package is incomplete. A bank will not call you and say hey your package was incomplete. It will go in the round file cabinet. The more info you send them the better. I always call the lender first and ask for their specifics. I then send them what they ask and then some. A complete package should be at least 50 pages. I've seen some that are 100 pages. These servicers do not have a clue about your market. The more you send them pertaining to the market value the better chance you have at getting your package looked at sooner. You come across as a professional that really knows what you are doing, perception is the key here. (Who cares if you just took the Short Sale class 24 hours ago, you're a pro act like it!)

Good luck and happy short selling

Noel Padilla, CDPE

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=221622

I believe it was very irresponsible of the FAR to post this article. It never mentioned other costs associated with foreclosures, ie: vandalism, electric bills, maintenance costs, water bills, attorneys fees etc. Also banks rarely go after homeowners for the deficiency. They file the judgment but never pursue it because guess what, it’s another expense. Do you really think the bank servicer is going to come out and say: “If we drag out these short sales for as long as possible we can keep collecting servicing fees from our investors.” Sounds like someone is trying to keep their REO business intact or the manager at the asset management company is full of crap.

For a pdf version click here

If you've tried to buy a property lately you know it hasn't been easy. Multiple offers, offers above list price, cash offers and prices that are so high you know they won’t appraise-are all happening with more and more regularity today. It closely resembles the boom of the early 2000's and it's the same type of buyers doing it again with mostly cash.

It seems as though this group of buyers doesn't want to miss out this time around so they are jumping in and artificially inflating an already delicate market. This could spell disaster down the road. Eventually the cash will run out and we will be right back to where we were at a few months ago, but worse.

Sooner or later financing will have to play a role in market stabilization. If agents and banks don't begin entertaining financed offers, we are going to see homes selling for pennies on the dollar.

Eventually the foreclosure with no kitchen will have to be dealt with by the municipalities. What happens when you pay cash, as-is for one of these homes and the municipality requires all work be permitted, inspected and signed off on? Now your weekend project just turned into a money pit and you don't have the cash to cover the added expense (probably 4 times the cost)...ouch.

These 'investors' are over paying and once again inflating the market and once again they will eventually get burned.

To make matters worse homeowners with properties that have plenty of equity are trying to take advantage of the buyer frenzy and listing their homes as “non-short sales” at exuberant prices. These homes will never appraise and their direct competition-distressed properties-are burying them. These homeowners are in la-la land and refuse to accept their homes market value. Eventually they will be upside down as well. The agents who list these homes should have their licenses revoked. They are doing a disservice to the homeowner, prospective buyer and the industry as a whole, all so they can brag about their listing inventory but we all know listings don’t make you any money until they close.

Look for the market to take another dip and slide further until true stabilization sometime in 2012. Don’t believe me? Wait until the effects of the recession take root and those foreclosures begin to hit the market the beginning of next year and we may be in this thing beyond 2013. It’s still a great time to buy, just don’t overpay and be prepared for a long frustrating search.

Noel Padilla

I wrote this article in August of 2007 although it seems as I was being naive about the real trouble we were going to be in, the numbers seem to be working out. Enjoy

The media has reported gloom and doom for the real estate market for some time now. I wanted to take the time and clear some things up about the market as a whole.

Real estate is a localized business in nature. What happens in one part of the country doesn’t necessarily affect another. This is true in any market including the one we are in today. There are parts of the country that are enjoying property appreciation and brisk sales. While most of the country is in a market where there are plenty of homes but no buyers, however we must keep this situation in perspective. (You’ll see what I mean at the end of the article.)

What we are seeing today is good old fashion panic and hysteria induced in part by the media, bad investments, bad loans and a market that was bound to adjust. You see, those buyers that were snapping up properties a few months ago were most likely the same ones that couldn’t get a mortgage pre-2001.

Some lenders loosened their criteria and to stay competitive, others followed suit. All of a sudden just about anyone could get a mortgage. Some of these individuals did quite well and went on their way. Others got caught in that ARM* re-adjusting nightmare.

Speaking of ARM re-adjustments, let’s discuss that for a minute. What would happen if thousands if not millions of loans are re-adjusting ARM’s, set to re-adjust anywhere from 2005 through 2008 or perhaps later? I’ll tell you what would happen, those people (Attracted by low introductory rates and by people with less than stellar credit ratings.) would run to their banker/broker and try to refinance.

To make matters worse this is all happening as the market is cooling, causing home prices to drop as well as appraisals. Now those same homes are worth less than they are mortgaged for and these poor souls are stuck with an overvalued home with a high mortgage and no way to refinance. What’s the next logical step to salvage an already bad situation? You guessed it, “Honey we’ll just sell the house, we’ll be all right.” And there doing it by the droves.

Thousands of folks are stuck in this same scenario. Now others who want to sell their home maybe because they want a bigger home or have outgrown their current home are stuck in a market with too much inventory and not enough qualified buyers. Thousands of homes languish on the market because they are priced too high to sell, while others slip into foreclosure. Owners simply can’t afford to lower the price, so they just walk away. Simple economics: supply and demand, prices drop as inventory rises and vice versa. Not gloom and doom.

When will it all go back to ‘normal’ you ask? In a sense this is normal, maybe even a little on the flat side sales wise. Considering we just came out of a record setting market that saw property values appreciate at 20% and above annually. This is unheard of and we will probably never see it in our lifetimes again.

Now for the brighter side of things: If you were to buy an average property: house, second home, condominium or small multi-dwelling for $200,000, and that property were to increase in value at a modest 6% per year (7%-8% is more accurate historical average), the chart below illustrates the appreciation of that one property.

Ten - Year Projections
6% Annual Appreciation - $200,000 Property

The value of the average $200,000 property appreciating at 6% for ten years is about $350,000. Now let’s take a look at what would have happened to that same property if the boom market would have continued using the 20% appreciation rate we spoke about earlier.

Ten - Year Projections
20% Annual Appreciation - $200,000 Property

Some of us are in the 4 to 5 year range in the above chart as it relates to the property value of our homes. If you compare that to the previous chart, a home purchased in 2001 for $200,000 should be worth about $268,000 today that property is probably in the neighborhood of $414,000 to $497,000. So we’re about $200,000 ahead of the ballgame. No reason to panic, unless of course you ‘cashed out’ all of the equity, then you’ll just have to live there a little longer provided you can afford the payments.

I wouldn’t pay much attention to the media. They get paid to keep you buying newspapers and watching commercials while you wait for that ‘Real Estate Exclusive.’

Keep your head up and your ear to the ground you never know, you might run into a great real estate bargain.

Regards,

Noel Padilla

*An ARM, acronym for "adjustable rate mortgage", is a mortgage on which the interest rate is not fixed for the entire life of the loan. The rate is fixed for a period at the beginning, called the "initial rate period", but after that it may change based on movements in an interest rate index.