So, your house is in foreclosure…Now what? Try to look at the situation without attaching your emotions. I know, easier said than done!
One very important thing to remember: Time is of the essence, so take quick action in order to allow yourself enough time to complete the chosen process.
Do Nothing – If a homeowner does nothing, they most likely will lose their home at foreclosure auction. Loan applications generally ask if the applicant has ever been foreclosed upon. Credit reports also disclose this damaging information.
Payoff/Refinance – Completely paying off the entire loan amount plus any default amount and fees. Usually accomplished through a refinance of the debt. New debt is at a normally higher interest rate and there may be a prepayment penalty because of the recent default. With this option, there should be equity in the home.
Reinstatement – Paying the entire default amount plus interest, attorney fees, late fees, taxes, missed payments and fees.
Loan Modification – Utilizing the existing mortgage company to refinance the debt or extend the terms of the loan. This may allow the homeowner to catch up at a more affordable level if they qualify. More lenders are agreeing to a loan modification . Sometimes you may see a reduction in the interest rate either temporary or for the remaining life of the loan.
Forbearance – Lender may be able to arrange a repayment plan based on the homeowner’s financial situation. The lender may even be able to provide a temporary payment reduction or suspension of payments. Information will be required from the lender to show that you are able to meet the new payment plan requirements.
Partial Claim – A loan from the lender for a second loan to include back payments, costs and fees.
Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure – Give the property back to the bank instead of the bank foreclosing. This process can be much faster than a foreclosure. Most loan applications ask if this has ever happened.
Bankruptcy – This option can liquidate debt and/or allow more time. I can refer you to a qualified bankruptcy attorney.
Chapter 7 (Liquidation) To completely settle personal debt.
Chapter 13 (Wage Earner Plan) Payments are made toward a plan to pay off debts in 3 – 5 years.
Chapter 11 (Business Reorganization) A business debt solution.
Sale – Homeowner may sell the home without lender approval for a conventional home sale. If the property has equity (money left over after all loans and monetary encumbrances are paid), the homeowner will get cash from the sale. At the other end of the spectrum, a short sale, also known as a pre-foreclosure sale, can be negotiated with your lender by your real estate professional if what is owed is more than the property’s value.
The 4 steps you can take to make sure your Jacksonville Florida Home
will stand out from the competition
The Jacksonville Florida real estate market is showing signs of improvements, but with short sales and foreclosures flooding the market, what chance does a “normal” seller have? Below is a list of tips for sellers contemplating putting their house on the market.
1)Take a complete and HONEST assessment of your situation.
Do you want to move or do you have to move? Do you need the equity from your current home, to purchase the next home? What if you don’t have enough equity in your current home to use as a down payment, do you have the funds in savings? What if you don’t have enough equity to even break even? These are questions you need to ask yourself.
2)Study the market place.
If the funds for your new house are dependent on the equity from your current house, this could be the single step that puts your plans to a complete halt! To get a snapshot of the market, you’ll want to do a little research. Find out what has sold in your neighborhood in the past 3-6 months. What is currently under contract? What is your competition?
3)Price your home a hair below the competition.
A hair? What in the world do you mean by a hair you ask? 5% below the competition? 10%? 15.6%? Every market is different and every neighborhood is different, so it’s impossible to throw the pricing strategy in a nice, neat little box. Let’s take 2 different neighborhoods. Let’s say neighborhood # 1 is a highly sought out neighborhood and neighborhood #2 is farther out and gets overlooked because it’s perceived to be too far away. If your competition in neighborhood #1 is listed for 200k, then you could start a little lower let’s say 190k-195k. People are looking there already and a slightly lower price should get you activity. Now let’s go back to neighborhood #2 that is a little farther out. Let’s say the competition is listed for 175k, a 5% difference is probably not going to get you the activity you need, but pricing your house under 150k may bring in people who for the right price would be willing to travel a little farther. As you can see, each neighborhood has unique pricing strategies.
4)Make sure your house is in good repair.
This point would apply to any market, but with the large amount of short sales and foreclosures out there, most of those properties can’t pass your typical FHA or Va inspections, so making sure your house will pass those inspections is a huge benefit.
I’ll tell you, with the difficulties of getting short sales to close due to lien holders taking months to give an approval, buyers are getting tired of waiting! A just listed house in good condition, priced well and can close without requiring lender approval is a welcome change. Don’t make the mistake of continuing to think in terms of the 2005 real estate market, that market is long gone! Take advantage of buyers wanting/needing to close as soon as possible!
You may be wondering, where do I start? Let me help you with that! I offer a complete Home Selling Analysis completely free of charge. Here’s what it entails:
1. Market analysis showing what has sold, under contract and currently available.
2. Seller expense sheet showing you what you will net once it’s all said and done.
3. A Maximum Home Value Audit, showing you room by room, tips on how to have your house in top showing condition.
Now I know what you’re thinking, what’s the catch and if I let that real estate agent in, will she ever leave! Yes I’ll leave and without sucking the life out of you! If you’re thinking of selling, I offer this free service that will help you to determine if selling is the right thing for you. If it’s not, then it’s not! I hate pushy salespeople, so I refuse to be one myself. If you find that it is the right time to sell, all I ask is that I get an opportunity to interview for the job.
Want to move forward? Just pick up the phone and call me at 904-910-3516 or you can email me at pam@pamgraham.com.
Move in ready condo on the 3rd floor, with balcony. Great location close to 9a. All the appliances stay including the washer and dryer! Both bedrooms have walk in closets and master bathroom features a garden tub. Gated Community with ammenity center. Requires lien holder approval.
That's a feeling oh too common when you're fighting a foreclosure. You get tired of the never ending phone calls, the stress eats away at your sanity. You can't sleep, all you do is think about how your American dream has turned into a nightmare. Enough is enough you just want this to be done! You say: "Who cares if my credit will be ruined, I just want to feel peace again!"
Is that you? Is that how you feel? Hey, it's normal to feel that way.
No this isn't a session with Dr Phil! This is an attempt to help you to reach down inside and continue the fight! I know this isn't as serious as fighting a disease but the stress and worry will make you sick! You ask, why should I continue to fight? Nothing is going my way. My house is on the market, I'm getting showings, I've gotten 3 contracts and the first two have fell through and the third, well it looks just as shaky. Enough!
Is walking away with your hands thrown up in defeat what ya really want?
Do you want to rent for the next five years, because if you let your house go into foreclosure, that's the time the lenders have said they'll loan to you again. Do you want someone else telling you what you can or can not do in or to your home for 5 years? That you can't paint, you can't take in that cute little stray kitten your kids brought home. Ya gotta make sure the carpets stay perfect, the walls don't have marks and the list goes on! Or what's worse is you get settled and you find out a few months into your lease, that the landlord hasn't been making their payments and the house is going into foreclosure! You pay your rent on time but the owner doesn't have the same courtesy with their mortgage for you. Let's look at this.......
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are saying you can't get a loan for 5 years if your home goes into foreclosure. 2 years they say if you do a short sale. Yes you have to rent for 2 years with the same dangers and nuisances as 5 years but 2 is much better than 5. Take those two years and pay your debt off, save money and build your credit. Learn from your mistakes.
There are times in life that it was just plain hard and instead of giving up, you fought, you dug deeper!
You stayed with the fight and when it was over you felt like you accomplished something because you saw it through to the end! It felt good. And I bet there are times when you let go just a little too soon and later ya wished ya stayed with the fight because the results would have been better. But hey! You live and learn.
Now I'm not saying every house on the market as a short sale will sell, some don't and the end result is a foreclosure. At the end of the day though, you can say I tried everything I could and I didn't give up. No regret, again you just learn from your mistakes and move on.
You see, this is how I feel about my short sale listings. I don't believe in giving up. I will fight in getting your home sold until it's either sold, or until the unfortunate may happen and it's foreclosed on. I will do everything I can do to try to prevent the latter.
If you're in foreclosure and you don't know what your options are, call me (904-910-3516) or email me at pam@pamgraham.com. Also check out my avoid foreclosure pages. Maybe you've had your home on the market with an agent who has given up but you haven't yet, contact me and we'll see if we can come up with a plan. I'm not going to say that I'm the ultimate short sale expert, short sales have just become the norm in the past year or two. Every lien holder is different they have their different policies or for some lack of policies. I've learned from the experts who have done short sales when no one knew what a short sale was. I have a system, I don't give up and I treat all parties involved with respect. I leave my ego at the door and I work hard to get your house closed.
If you're ready to fight or ready to continue to fight, let me know, I'll fight with you!
Spacious home ready to move in. Enjoy the cozy fireplace in the winter and come sit under the shade on the private patio. The eat in kitchen is perfect for the chef in the family. Need an office with book shelves? This house has you covered. New carpet in all 3 bedrooms, Pergo floors in office, tile in kitchen, family/dining room and hallway. Pets ok with non refundable pet fee. Only $950 a month, deposit $950.
The adventure in short sales, Jacksonville Florida
Yep, you heard (read)me right-I do love to do short sales! Now, I wasn't always on the short sale band wagon-they did intimidate me, but I started taking classes and gobbled up as much information that my little brain could handle. I still take classes and I still pick the brains of the experts in my office who were doing short sales when short sales were a foreign language.
Some agents in the Jacksonville Florida area, say they won't show short sales, my question to them is how do NOT show them, they're EVERYWHERE! I realize in some parts of the country, short sales are not as common, but here they are in everyone's backyard. Let me show you an example: As I'm writing this I checked the Northeast Florida Multiple listing service, there are currently 2,748 active (available) homes for sale in Jacksonville in the 100k-200k price range. Out of these 2,748 homes for sale in Jacksonville, there are 712 homes that are short sales (list price is lower than what they owe). YIKES! That's about 26%.
Personally, I think it should be mandatory that we take a short sale class. Heck, we are required to take a 6 minute class on how to unlock a lockbox bot not on how to do short sales in Jacksonville. Where's the logic???
So what do you as the consumer do if you're already working with an agent and that agent tells you-I don't show short sales or I don't do short sales? Walk, no I mean RUN as fast as you can! If they're not willing to show them, they probably weren't willing to take any classes to educate themselves on the process.
Sellers: Same thing! If the agent you're talking to has no short sale experience or short sale education, is hesitating on taking your listing, find an agent who loves doing short sales. In fact, if you're a buyer looking to buy a short sale or a seller needing to sell their home as a short sale in Jacksonville, Orange Park, Fleming Island or surrounding areas in Northeast Florida, give me a call at 904-910-3516.
The short of it for me is knowing that at the end of the day I've worked hard to help ease the stress of a family going through a financial difficulty, that's the real reason I love to do short sales.
This home features an open floor plan, with laminate wood floors in the spacious family room. Tile floors in the kitchen and dining room. Long day at work? Come soak in the master bath garden tub. Convenient location to schools and shopping. Requires lien holder approval.
I've solved the mystery of the financial crisis that Americans, the government and big businesses are in. Why we need bailouts, loan modificactions, short sales and such. It's pretty darn simple.
I found that answer in a book I've read by Dave Ramsey. It's called The Total Money Makeover. Now before you dismiss it as it's one of those books again that solves all life's problems, give it a try. With the economy the way it is and things being so uncertain, this book has really hit home, I had an "aha" moment. We overspend and save too little! Anyone in a financial crisis right now is probably guilty of being in debt up to their eyeballs. I'll be the first one to raise my hand. If this post helps someone else get their financial health back on track then I'm glad to admit that I'm a credit card junkie!
Ok, maybe not a junkie but I have way too many credit cards. My truck payment is too high, I had to sell my house as a short sale and I have no savings. And guess what? It's my fault! It's not my mortgage lender's fault, it's not the former president's fault, it's not the real estate market's fault, it's not my cousin's brother's girlfriends fault! I think you get the picture. It's my fault that I didn't save my money, it's my fault for not paying cash for a vehicle that was a little cheaper. It's my fault I kept getting credit card after credit card. It's my fault for refinancing my house with an adjustable rate mortgage. I'm grateful that I was able to do a short sale on my home but really, I didn't deserve it.
With that said, I'm a wiser person and I'm done making those same mistakes. I'm working on the baby steps. I'm paying the minimum payment on my loans and credit cards while saving for our $1,000 emergency fund. My next step is to make a list of all my debt, smallest to largest and start paying off one at a time starting with the smallest balance. I'm also going to save money to pay cash for another vehicle, once my truck is payed down to an amount where I can sell cos I'm a little upside down. For the first time ever, I have a plan! The funny thing, now that I have a plan, things seem to be falling into place alot quicker than I expected.
It's not easy putting my "business" out there but it would be selfish of me to keep my experience to myself, no matter how hard or embarrassing it may be. You don't need credit cards to get by in life, no matter what "they" tell you. Get a savings, get out of debt and you'll get to the light at the end of the tunnel, maybe even quickier than you expect!
I'm sure you've heard about one form or another of the tax credit for first time homebuyers. If you've heard about the tax credit of $7500 from last year, throw that out the door and listen up! The new one is better! Here's a brief gist of the tax credit:
The new one is 10% of the price of the home, up to $8,000.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY IT BACK! As long as you don't sell the house within 3 years of getting the credit.
It's for properties (owner occupied)purchased between January 1, 2009 through December 1, 2009
If you own a mobile home, even if you rent the lot, you DO NOT qualify for the tax credit. I called and heard it from the horse's mouth!
There are income restrictions
Here's the best part, just in case you're not sure how this credit works, let's say you do your taxes next year for 2008, and if you get a refund of $1,000 (just throwing a number out) if you bought a house and you qualify, you would get a refund check of $ 9,000! Nice. Or let's say you owe a $1,000 *YUCK* you'll no longer owe and you'll get a refund for $7,000! You can visit the IRS and get more information.
This is exciting! More homes to choose from, low interest rates, affordable housing prices and an $8,000 tax credit to boot! Plus you're helping the economy. Are you ready to buy? Not sure what to do next? Let me help, first time homebuyer's are my speciality! You can call me at 904-910-3516 or contact me online.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
checked the Northeast Florida Multiple listing service, there are currently 2,748 active (available) homes for sale in Jacksonville in the 100k-200k price range. Out of these 2,748 homes for sale in Jacksonville, there are 712 homes that are short sales (list price is lower than what they owe). YIKES! That's about 26%.
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