Possibly. I have found that more times than not the Seller is not only willing to but wants to make a cash contribution or sign a note to get the deal done. It helps them to feel better about their situation. Most people WANT to pay their bills and honor their obligations
Our job as your Short Sale Agent is to give you, the Seller, the facts and let you make the decision.
Here are two responses recently received from Bank of America and how they were presented to my Sellers.
What Bank of America is really saying is"Yes we approved your Short Sale request now let's work out the details". This is the response we want. Right?
CASE #1
In response to your counter offer, BofA will not budge. They rejected your offer of $500. Below are the 2 options they have given.
OPTION 1: total proceeds of sale toward the 2nd $7,500.00 Can be any combination of proceeds of sale AND 'cash contribution.
OPTION 2: $3,000 proceeds of sale PLUS new deficiency note for $5,000.00, payable at $150.00 each , 0% APR.
We already have $2,350 to give to the 2nd so subtract that from the $7,500 figure leaving $5,150 needed for the first option and for the 2nd option it would require $650 cash and a note for $5,000. The notes are soft which means they have zero interest and they are unsecured.
Now we could try to get the buyer up higher. Although I personally feel this may cause an appraisal issue with their mortgage. The note could possibly be negotiated for a longer term, say 5 years. That would make the payment $83.33. They may even go 7 to 10 years.
Please consider your options and let me know. We need to give them a response no later than tomorrow.
CASE #2:
I have just received an email from BofA. They are asking you to contribute either $3,000 cash at closing or they want you to sign a $10,000 soft note. The note would be interest free. I would think they would be willing to go either 5 or 10 years. on the note. 5 years would have a payment of $166.67 per month and 10 years would be 83.33
What are you thoughts? The other items are things I would take care of. Please let me know as soon as possible as time is of the essence.
***I am not an Attorney and cannot give legal advice. You are advised to seek competent legal and tax advice. Any decision you make may have negative repercussions.
Now I don't know what these particular Sellers will decide. They may accept the offers or they may want to negotiate. Once they decide I will act accordingly. I do feel that both of these Short Sales will get closed. Any questions?
Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.
FHA Buyers, at least in my market, are normally placing the minimum amount down, 3.5%, and asking the Seller to pay 6% towards their closing costs. In a market where 87% of the sales are distressed properties, FHA Buyers, in the eyes of the Seller, are second class citizens.
It's not only difficult for FHA Buyers to find a property and get an offer accepted but....they pay more. That's right, the folks who can probably least afford it have to pay more to get a home.
Here are some stats I pulled today that will back up that statement.
During the period 1 October to 17 November 2009 there were 162 single family homes that sold in the Neighborhoods of Poinciana Villages. 30 of these were purchased using FHA financing.
***Check out this little chart:
Beds
Baths
Sq Ft
List Price
Sold Price
Price/Sq Ft
LP/SP
FHA
3
2
1821
$76,280
$78,880
$43.73
104%
Others
3
2
1847
$70,267
$70,404
$38.63
101%
Difference
NA
NA
(26)
$ 6,013
$ 8,476
$ 5.10
3%
***Data pulled from the Mid_Florida Regional MLS on 11/17/2009 and is deemed to be reliable.
So what do you think about that? FHA Buyers are getting less house and paying 11% more. Even if you take out the 6% in closing costs assistance FHA Buyers are still paying 5% more....for less house.
Should FHA Buyers be treated like second class citizens? I don't think so. Maybe Sellers Lenders should have more incentive to help these folks get a home without having to pay more than others. OR...maybe Buyers need to save more money before getting into the housing market.
What say you?
Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.
How many times have you heard "I want to buy a foreclosure so I can get a deal" and "I was told I could buy foreclosures for 20% less than asking price"?
I hear these things every day. It's frustrating when you try to explain the "market" to potential buyers and they don't listen to you. I'm sure they figure that all we are really doing is trying to sell them. Well they are right. We do want to sell them a house. BUT...we also want to make sure they get the house they want and are able to buy a house.
In my market, Kissimmee Florida, the well priced foreclosures are flying off the shelves. It is imperative that buyers understand the market or they'll end up without a property at all.
So....hopefully this article will help you to understand the market in my area. As you can see, there were only 21 REO (foreclosures) properties that sold in Poinciana Florida between 1 October and 14 November 2009 that fall within these parameters:
Built in 2000 or later.
At least 1500 sq ft living area.
Priced less than $65,000.
Of the 21 sales only FOUR sold for less than the asking price. The average was 110% of asking price. That means a house priced at $60,000, on average, sold for $66,000. This means if you are looking for this style of property offer at least asking price and be prepared to go higher.
Knowing what a property is worth will make it easier to prepare an offer that will be accepted. That's where we come in. Does this help?
Here a list of the properties used for this report with their asking prices and selling prices. Check it out.
Hi folks. What a week we have had!! The revamping of www.ShortSaleSuperStars.comseems to have gone over very well. Thank you for all of your positive comments on the new look.
Would you believe that in the last week we have had 785 absolute unique visitors? And we had 11,569 page views!!!
40 new members this week brings our total to 533. What else can I say? The growth of the network this week has been phenomenal. Thank you!
Due to this rapid growth we asked Jeff Payne to help us moderate the site. He gladly accepted his first order of duty which was to delete duplicate profiles and make sure all members are using First name/last name in your profiles. The first is for obvious reasons the second is to help with the new short sale agent search features.
That reminds me......please add yourself to the short sale agent referral map. We want to be able to find you to give you business. Just hover on the "Find an Agent" tab and you'll see the link to the map.
OK one more thing. Groups. Groups are the backbone of the site. Being able to find accurate info on the lenders we are working with is paramount to our success. If you are working with a short sale lender and can't find a group set up for them then please set one up. Or email me, Wendy or Jeff and we'll set it up for you.
I can't stress enough how important this is. The group should be set up in the name of the short sale lender. It should have current contact information, web address and any forms they require as part of their short sale package. You can place this stuff in the first text box. Ask for help if you need it.
We really want to make sure the short sale lender information is kept current. Please help. OK?
OK I think that's it for now. As always let us know if there is anything we can do to improve the site. Our goal is to make this the best place on the web for folks dealing with short sales to get their information. How are we doing so far?
Hi folks, Depending on who you listen to the foreclosure rate in Polk County Poinciana Florida is any where from 15% to 20%. I have no problem believing this since roughly 85% of the sales in this area are either foreclosures or distressed sales.
According to RealtyTracthere are 1,401 properties that are in foreclosure (Lis Pendens filed) on the Polk County side of Poinciana. There are 10,685 homes in this area. So let's call the foreclosure rate a minumum of 14%
Here's a little video I made yesterday that will show you what a 15% foreclosure rate looks like. The video was made going about half way down the road and only shows one side of the street.
Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.
OK folks, here's something I don't do that often, a blog post about blogging. I know...I know....booooring.
But every now and then I just feel I need to get it out there.
There have been quite a few posts lately about "Featured posts". And as usual the conversation gets around to the "popular" bloggers. I happen to be one of those "popular" bloggers and have been pretty much since the beginning of AR. In fact I think I may have had the first featured post ever. Since then I have had.....are you ready? 259 featured posts!! There...I said it
Is that fair? I doubt it. In fact there have been times where I didn't even want to post because I knew it was going to be featured and I felt embarrassed about it. Just last week I asked to have a post removed from the dashboard.
Maybe I do get featured too often. BUT I have no control over what gets featured. That's up to whoever has the power to feature posts. I don't solicit features, comments, subscriptions or readers. I just write and post.
I do however have a blogging plan. I always have and I stick to it.
This is what works for me. You have to find your own plan and style.
***In my opinion, there are several things that contribute to having a successful, well read blog on AR. First and foremost is providing good content that folks will want to read. I've found that in order to achieve this, a blog post has to be:
Informative
Easy to read
Eye appealing
Entertaining
You can put out the most informative post possible but if it is lacking in the other areas, it will get passed by. Folks like an easy read and they like to be entertained. The key to writing is to try and find a balance in these areas. You also have to be consistent. People have to know what to expect when they click on your blog. You need an overall theme.
It also helps to post at the same time and on the same days of the week. And don't post too often. I post 3 or 4 times a week. This builds anticipation.
You also have to be consistent in the "personality" of your posts. It has to be real, not fake. People can tell the difference.
Our personal lives, our business and AR are ALL built more successfully by being likable. It's human nature for people to gravitate towards people or things that make them feel good about themselves. This is where the social side of ActiveRain comes in.
Interacting with your peers by commenting is imperative if you want to be noticed. And not just commenting but commenting well. Well thought out comments that add to the post AND comments that make the writer feel good about themselves.
You don't have to agree with what they write. You can certainly have strong opinions and debates BUT debate the topic and respect the person. Good communication skills mean you can disagree with some one without being negative. No one likes negative people. If you have a reputation for being negative you are dead in the water. Negative is:
Whining,
Moaning,
Constantly complaining
Belittling others
If you do these things you will fail in life, business and on AR.
When I read posts, talking about "cliques", the "popular" people and blah blah blah, I truly don't know how to respond. Am I supposed to be ashamed of being popular? Should I try harder to be not liked? Should I change my writing style? Should I defend myself? Or should I just consider the source and ignore it? I just don't know.
And that's all I have to say about that. For now. What say you?
***I am not a blogging expert. I'm just a real estate broker that likes to share what I know. Hopefully it will help.
Avoid foreclosure. Another successful Short Sale Closing with Fifth Third Bank.
Mortgage amount: $185,000.00
Sales price: $87,500.00
Lender agreed to 3% in closing costs and a 6% commission.
Net to Lender: $77,078.00 (42% of amount owed)
Fannie Mae was the Investor and there was Mortgage Insurance (MI).
Challenges:
The Mortgage Insurance company started out wanting $60,000 in any combination of cash and/or promissory note. We negotiated for 2 weeks. The Seller ended up bringing $1,000 to closing. No note.
The first Buyer walked after keeping the property off the market for 60 days. The 2nd Buyer closed 38 days after going under contract.
Total time from placing the property on the market until closing: 205 days.
Seller testimonial:
Dear Bryant
"I want to personally thank you for your exemplary handling of our recent real estate transaction. From day one you were a professional; courteously and patiently guiding me through the entire process. Your response time was unparalleled; you responded to my emails and phone calls within minutes, as if I were your only client!
And I believe that’s what every seller (and buyer) wants – to get the idea, or enjoy the feeling, that Bryant Tutas is their exclusive agent! I tried quite a few real estate agents before I finally came to you, and you jumped into action from day one! My property had been on the market for more than a year; within days of contacting you I had my first real offer, and very soon the house was in contract. We just closed a few days ago, and I am so grateful for all your help. Thank you Bryant, for everything!" MARK
Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.
Go check the new layout and look forShortSaleSuperStars. There is one slight problem though........I didn't ask Wendy and she hasn't seen it!!! This look could be very temporary.
So.....am I going to be in trouble? I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Anyway....here are my thoughts.
The site needed to have a cleaner look.
Wendy and I had talked about getting our "product pitches" off the front page. So I moved the pitches and replaced them with buttons and a "Short Sale Training" tab. We will also be adding a "SuperStar Store" tab that will have tee shirts, mugs and other ShortSaleSuperStar goodies.
The wording on and the position of the tabs were changed. It looks more like a news site (I think).
The profile questions have been changed. The change was made to make it easier to "Find An Agent"
Blog posts now have a new tab "Short Sale News" and the forums are under "Q&A".
The tab for groups was changed to "Lender Info".
We added an "Agent Referral Map"
These changes were designed to make the site more consumer friendly. We want potential Sellers and Buyers to be able to find us and be able to navigate the site with ease.
So what do you think? Wendy.....do you still love me or am I in trouble. I can fix it I promise.
Good morning fellow and future Short Sale SuperStars,
First Wendy and I would like to welcome all of our 25 new members this week. We also had 611 Unique visitors this week and 5,282 page views. 23% of our traffic is coming from the search engines. What that means is that we have buyers and sellers visiting the site.
In fact, we actually had a couple of sellers join this week. So…..we want them to be able to search for a Short Sale SuperStar. With that in mind we have made a couple of changes this week to make it easier to use the search function. But in order for the search function to work properly we need your help.
Please go to your personal main page*** (My Page) and right under your picture click on manage my page. Then click on profile. If you scroll down you’ll notice we changed the profile questions. Add your first name, last name, State and city.
***What? You don't have a personal main page? If I were doing Short Sales or wanted to learn howe to do Short Sales then I know that I would pop over and join the site. It's FREE!!!www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com
OK now where was I........Now you may already have your name on the site but go ahead and do it again. Also, you can add more than one city. Just separate the cities by commas. For example: Kissimmee,Orlando,Haines City.
Once this information is there people can use the search function under “Members” and pull upShort Sale Agents by State, city or name. Also, we’ll be adding a Google site search to the front page. So making these changes to your profile is very important. OK?
A couple of more items. We created aShortSaleSuperStars fan page on Facebook. You can become a fan by clicking on the “Fan Box” in the right hand side bar of the main page of the site.
OK….I think that’s it. As alwaysWendyand I appreciate your feedback. Good or bad we want to know. Pop us an email.
Almost forgot…..thanks to everyone that purchased The Negotiator Interview, Short Sale Agent Training or the Short Sale Listing/Submission Package this week. The little bit of income Wendy and I get from these products helps to pay for the running of the site. And hopefully the products offered have helped you in your business. We will be launching new stuff in the near future.
We hope everyone has a great week. Don’t forget to invite a friend to join the site. We want to have 1,000 members by the end of the year.
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.
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