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Lehigh Valley Foreclosure- A Homeowners Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure by Pre-Foreclosure / Short Sale

Real Estate Agent with eXp Realty RS282575

October 17, 2009 05:07 AM

Lehigh Valley Foreclosure - A Homeowners guide to selling your home Pre-Foreclosure / short sale in the Lehigh Valley, What's is the process and Basics to selling your home to Avoid a Foreclosure on your credit.

The Pre Foreclosure/Short Sale Process can be very confusing, disorganized, not to mention complicated if not impossible to do for someone who has NOT been Trained properly to handle the Details of this important process.

We would like to keep things simple .... and Give you The Basics about How we Handle our Short Sale Process for Lehigh Valley Homeowners.

Our approach to the Short Sale Process is working as a TEAM.
The Short Sale process is almost impossible to be completed efficiently by one Real Estate Agent (in our opinion) Brian Segel handles the Typical Listing and Marketing of your Property and Moriah Martin handles all of the Paperwork, communication, and negotiation with the Bank (s).

1) First Contact with a Homeowner is by Phone. We will ask various questions that will confirm if the Homeowner qualifies for a short sale and if we can help them.

2) If the Homeowner qualifies for a Short Sale,The next step is to schedule a meeting at our office. The homeowner will be requested to bring with them various documents pertaining to their Mortgage & Income. We will provide the homeowner with this information by postal mail or email with the Appointment Confirmation Letter.

3) During the Office Apppointment we will review with you The Short Sale and Foreclosure process, this way you know what to expect and when to expect it. The meeting is for preparing all the documentation we will need to handle the Short Sale process for you. The Listing Agreement will also be signed at this meeting.

4) Within 5 days, we will vist your home to gather all the information needed to prepare the Cost of Repairs Report if needed and Prepare your Home to be listed on the Lehigh Valley MLS. Photos will be taken at this time, a For Sale sign and Lockbox will be installed.

5) Your Home will be listed on the Lehigh Valley MLS within 48 hours.

How the Short Sale Process is handled with YOU and your Mortgage Co. (Just the Basic's)

1) Your Home MUST be listed at or just under current market value - The list price of your property needs to be as close to current market value as possible. Remember, when we value your home we will compare recent sold and settled properties in your same community and then after preparing a Cost of Repair Report including photo's (if needed) this will be subtracted from the current market value if the homes that have recently sold...where ready to move in and required no repairs. The listing price is really important as it needs to be exactly where the comps prove it should be.

2) Your Mortgage Company really does not care what anyone wants to sell/purchase the property for, that includes the Real Estate Agents, The seller, and The buyer. The Mortgage Company needs to get proof of the current market value of the property as everyone knows that the current market value is LESS than what is owned on the property...or a the very least including closing costs and all other sales fee's and costs that the bank will be taking less than agreed for the Loan. So, LET'S be blunt. If the property is listed too low then the bank will counter that offer and if it is too high...then the home will not appraise. So, The key is to list it where it needs to be AND generate multiple offers. A Multiple offer situation only occurs when a property is list just at or under the current market price.

3) If there are no showings - The List Price needs to be reduced every 2 weeks at the least! Most Mortgage Companies require that we have a complete short sale package to submit to them and this includes a REAL offer signed by the buyer. So, even if the offer is a low ball offer...it is an offer signed by a REAL buyer and we are moving the wheels toward approval. We do not submit Fake or unsigned Buyer Offers (Mortgage Companies are not stupid)

4) The Seller Can not make any profit from the sale of the property and they are not required to conduct regular maintenace on the property...because if they had the money to make repairs..they would have the money to make their mortgage payment and homeowner may live in the property during the entire short sale process which is on average 90 days. (if you are working with us)

5) The seller Does not need to be BEHIND on Mortgage Payments to conduct a short sale or Pre-Foreclosure sale on their home in the Lehigh Valley. Most Financial Hardships can be seen into the future.....Most homeowners use savings and 401K and credit cards to try and keep up with their bills before they just can not make ends meet any longer and the Mortgage Payment then starts falling behind.

6) The Seller no longer has any contact with the Mortgage company - They will no longer receive phone calls all times of the day. Moriah handles ALL communication and negotiations with the Bank.

7) We have an online Service Check up site available 24/7 for you to log in with your secure and confidential user name & password to see exactly what we are doing to process your short sale. We make a committment to update this site NO LATER than every Friday at 5pm. Weekly progress is a must!

8) We will never tell you that it is a "waiting game" - We proactively work toward progress every week as we have a 90 day closing system and if we follow the system and the Mortgage company does not follow our system...we find the people that will help us follow the system and get the answers. Weekly followup is the key...as changes are made quickly in the Short Sale department with Most Mortgage Companies.

Again this is just the basics and not everything involved with process a Pre-Foreclosure / Short Sale but at least it gives you a bit more information than you might have had before.

We are here to answer all your questions and tell you if this is the best option for you...OUR 1st Priority is to help you stay in your home.

Of course a Video for you too...Who can help me with a Short Sale?