Home : Blogs : Aurora Colorado Real Estate Ray Saenz, Colorado Realtor : Aurora Colorado Homes for Sale-Aurora Colorado Real Estate-Colorado Spanish Speaking Realtor

Some Basic Questions to ask when doing Short Sales

When you are starting a Colorado Short Sale Real Estate, never forget to ask some basic questions before you start the whole proces. Avoid to waste your work big time, I learned that by trial and error , but I am sharing this so you can not make the same mistake that I did once.

When dealing with a Colorado Short Sale Real Estate, never forget to ask your client (seller) whether they are current in Taxes and Home Owner Association or if they have any pending other judgments, many lenders when dealing on the final stage and dealing with the final numbers on a Colorado Short Sale Real Estate, they do not want to see on the HUD-1 that your client owes Taxes and Home Owners or other judgments or other kind of not related or something that they tell you that is not their responsbility to pay off, just the mortgage liens.

Be careful, since beginning to ask very well your client where it exists any liens against the property beside the mortgage liens or some dues that can affect your final numbers.

No one wants surprises at final, right? So, your client need to be very honest and you can get plenty of information with the title commitment to have a good idea at least where are you standing and if there is something more, you can help him/her on time

Posted by Aurora Colorado Real Estate Ray Saenz, Colorado Realtor on 11/16/2007 07:21 PM

Comments (32)

aurora colorado short sales for sale, aurora colorado real estate, aurora colorado homes for sale

Originally posted at: Colorado Homes for Sale-Colorado Metro Denver Area Specialists: Some Basic Questions to ask when doing Short Sales

This post has been included in Colorado Information

32 Comments on Some Basic Questions to ask when doing Short Sales

NOV

2007

Ray - in this situation surprises are not good. Yes the client need to be honest for this to work

Thanks for the advise. I just took a listing today and the owner told me that she owes two years of back taxes. I pulled her tax records and told her that someone had paid her taxes through a tax certificate. In a way she was happy but not when I told her that she had to pay 32% on it. At lest she was honest about her taxes but I think that we should also use consider everything just like you stated; taxes and home owners association with every step of the real estate process.

It is the reverse with another seller, he is paid up with taxes but not with HOA fees and is an absentee owner. So that leaves me wondering, if it's a new construction condo unit and he has not lived in it, does that mean he still have to pay HOA fees? Might be a silly question but I have not encountered this situation yet. At least we learn & grow while we experience and encounter new situations.

Ray, EXCELLENT ADVICE!! That is not the type of surprise you would want to find out about. I can just see where all that hard work could go down the drain with that kind of surprise.

Ray, good advice here. To this day I haven't worked with a short sale. Actually the only forclosure I worked with was 2 years ago. I guess I have been lucky. If a short sale comes up I am going to call you for advice!

Ray good advice. Last minute surprises at a Closing is no fun, especially with at short sale. Keep the good advice coming.

This is tremendous advice for everyone. Receiving honest answers along with doing a little research up front, avoids disasters down the road. Thanks for sharing this educational information with everyone.

Great information. I am starting to work with short sales and it's definitely on my list of questions to ask. So many things to be concerned about.

That is a good point. People aren't aware that the buyer will end up eating those costs at closing to make the deal work because the approved amount will not include what is not disclosed to them at time of approval.

Jennifer,

Sure, the honesty is a must !!! so you do not waste your time and you do not waste your client time too. there is a solution for this, but both seller and buyer will not like it, one of them will pay for that.

Ray Saenz

Diana,

yes, as I wrote above, honesty is a must, also you can pull information from title company and you can get a whole idea what is going on, county information. About your question, of course even when that person is not living there, borrower needs to pay pending dues. I do not like many times how HOA regulates this, many times HOA does not do much to deserve their fees. We always learn and as I told Sandra Cummings and something true, we never finish. We always learn something new. that's something very interesting about many careers, professions and life.

thanks for your comments :)

Ray Saenz

Marchel,

When that happens some transactions fell down and that is not fair for anyone, so it is always good to review everything since beginning instead to regret. Nice to see you and thanks for your support and comments as always.

Ray Saenz.

Lizette,

Sure, we always learn something different and we are here to help us and grow on knowlege, whenever you need assistance, let me know, I can tell you what I could do in my state, but it is very similar on all states the short sales. :) Hope that everything is well for you.

Ray Saenz

George

thanks, you always around checking my blogs, I always consider your answers, I appreciate it. It will be a nightmare to know at the last time bad surprises.

keep the good blog and work.

Ray Saenz

Cris,

I always love to share, I feel good when I help some of you or many of you, it is a pleasure, thanks for your comments, :) Keep the good work / blog

Ray Saenz

Stacy,

Feel free to surf many of my short sale blogs and you can learn more, if you want to share an experience that you have, please feel free to do it and let me know, always we learn something new believe me.

thanks for your comments and to share your thoughts.

Keep the good blog / work.

Ray Saenz

Stella,

or buyer or the seller, or no one :) LOL, someone has to pay and eat the errors and if no one agrees, the transaction is over. thanks for your comments, always apreciated. !!

Ray Saenz

NOV

2007

Ray this is awesome information. I actually thought that back taxes could be included. Im very happy to have read this so that I know this information ahead of time when asked by clients!

Hi Ray, This is excellent advise and something that many would forget , at least up front when you need to know about it.

You raise a significant question. When a client is in arrears with a mortgage, it should not be surprising that other things are suffering deficiencies as well.

How do counsel your client in this case? Being past due in taxes has it own consequences and HOA's most always have lean rights. What alternatives are there for people in this position? That would make for a great counseling post. Where can they get help, if wanted?

Ray,

We actually made sure my client provided all this up front on there worksheet. They were two payments behind which is usually the golden rule here. They were not required to pay the tax and the maintenance was paid up until the last payment before the closing. Good points!

Ray, great blog. You simply stated some "must do's" in your short sale preparation. Thanks for sharing what you've learned. You, like many others who share such valuable information is what truly makes Active Rain a great place to interact if you're serious about being in Real Estate and helping your clients - I appreciate it, thanks again.

Thanks, Ray. HOnesty from the seller is clearly essential, but it pays to do our own due diligence, becuase assuming that the seller is being honest may lead to problems. Some may not be able to admit that there is a problem somewhere, or think that it might not become apparent. Better to find out all the issues up front. And there may be problems they are not even aware of, such as a lien on the property.

Jeff

Ray, as always great advice. I'd say after my latest one I'd stock up on valium.

NOV

2007

Ray--You are much more knowledgeable on this subject than I will ever be. Good post!

NOV

2007

Kim,

Depends from lender to lender, but usually Lender wants that your seller have paid those. :) it is always a pleasure to share information. thanks for your comments.

Ray Saenz

William,

Well, Goverment do not like that someone owes to them right?, you can not mess with the goverment :) You know when it happens it can foreclosure the real estate if they want, that's what lender wants to avoid, so it is the first #1 to pay their taxes, if they do not have money for that, they can ask to a family member or a trustly friend to give them a hand at least on that, get any money from a savings account or sell whatever that they need to sell, usually lenders do not want to see that someone owes taxes and HOA, varies from lender to lender, Washington Mutual that is one of the worst lenders , they do not want to pay HOA or Taxes that seller owes. In case that seller can not pay those, we need to probe it with docs that support that and maybe if the lender takes the decision to skip those, they will do it, but it is a very weird case that lender accepts.

Thanks for your comments and question, did you have the answer for that and you were testing me? Do you have another helpful answer to help sellers on this kind of situation? I always appreciate your comments.

Ray Saenz

Neal,

That's good to read and we always find ways to avoid issues on our transactions as you wrote, thanks for your comments, I appreciate them.

Ray Saenz

Lynn,

We always learn from each other I totally agree what you write, I have written some great blogs about short sales, do's and don'ts, etc , you should surf for the ones that you are interested and if you can learn something or share, that would be awesome. :) keep the good blog/work and thanks for all your comments.

Ray Saenz

Jeff,

It is always good to see you and thanks for your comments, for some reason I have missed many of your awesome blogs, I will make a commitment to check your blogs when I can, I apologize for that, but I missed you big time.

Ray Saenz

Chris,

I understand how hard it is sometimes for many of us to deal with some negligent employees and lender organizations, but ohh well, what we can do? just to learn and share our bad or good experiences. thanks for your comments.

Ray Saenz

Teri,

I appreciate that, but do not say that :) you are very knowledge realtor :) I always learn many things from you, thanks for your comments and keei it good, you do awesome.

Ray Saenz

NOV

2007

Congratulations on having a featured post. Keep up the good work.

NOV

2007

Stella,

Uppss :) thanks for that , sorry for delay, but I am checking my comments, no time to check everything, I am not "god" like George ! LOL

ray saenz

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?