Successful
Short Sale Closings And We Got Paid! Short Sale Series Part 9
We closed on 2
short sales successfully and both were our listings.
They were
both difficult transactions but in the end we got our
checks, the other agents got their checks and 2 new homeowners got
awesome deals on these 2 homes. Patience is the principle quality you
must have to follow a short sale through.
Nestor is very good at following up with the lenders and wielding all
the influence possible in order to get the sellers approved with short
sales below market value. You need to know what to say and how to say
it.
Why is below market value important right now? Because our market is
not quite finished going down, we are just about there but not quite.
One of the units was a
condo, we originally had it listed for $249,777 and kept
reducing the price as per the instructions of the seller's note holder.
As soon as we reduced it to $150,000 we became just about the hottest
listing in town. We had 4 offers on this unit within days. One of the
offers was way too low at $130,000. But one single mom put in an offer
of $150,000. This was good enough to get the ball rolling. Nestor made
sure the BPO agent would have to meet him at the property. The problem
with this unit was that in this development there has not been a sale
since October of last year. That comp is not workable in a down turned
market. The agent got it and was able to pull comps from outside of
this development. The BPO came in at $167,000. The other buyers all
went away when the counter came back. All of them except for the single
mom with her FHA loan. We actually prayed that she would get this condo
because there is nothing else like it in Wellington for that price. So
the highest she could go was $155,000. We sent in her counter offer to
the lender even though it was still too far off. The negotiator talked
to the note holder again and he finally said go for it. He only
approved our commission at 5%.
Her FHA appraisal came in at $208,000. We were so happy that our seller
was able to get a clean fully satisfied, no 1099, no default judgment,
no promissory note! And we are happy that this unit went
to a mom who is raising her child in this new home that she can call
her own. That is what makes this business worth what we go through!
How
did we get this listing? Of course, through our Expired Listing Program.
Our second closing on a
short sale was for our wonderful and loyal seller who is a great
referral source. She had her house on the market for
almost a year way too high. We sent her a letter notifying her that a
lis pendens had been filed against her 2 houses.
She moved here from
Africa, from Uganda, escaping some of the most vile and
cruel may ham and ethnic cleansing murders you can not even imagine.
She told me stories of how women's breasts are cut off so they can not
nurse their babies, so that their babies will die of starvation in
their mothers arms with mothers helplessly crying and being able to do
nothing to save themselves or their babies. She came here to live the
American dream and to live in a country that would never tolerate this.
Her son and my son have become friends, they are the same age and play
together. She now lives in a rental right down the street from
us so we have become friends as well. Well, she rented this
house out to a lady who made her living out of not paying rent. Our
seller was totally scammed. The woman would come crying about how her
mother had cancer and the next time, how she was in a car accident.
Well, the seller has a kind heart and at first believed her sorrows but
they were all lies. When she realized the scam; she hired an attorney
and it took another year to get the woman evicted. This scam artist
would not let us show the house either. Needless to say, our seller
could not make the payments and pay the attorney's fees. This caused
her to go into default.
We listed her house right
below market value but we received no offers. This was
when our market was just not moving. There were months where there were
just not any buyers for any of the homes in this community. The worst
part about this community is that the builder is still in there
building houses. He is giving away mega upgrades, low interest teasers
and selling the same model for less than what any resales were on the
market for. We reduced the price to $374,000 and then in December
buyers started buying again. We had 5 offers on this house. The BPO was
done right on this house too. The offer came back that the note holder
had to net $311,000 on this house. Most of our offers were in the high
200ks. Not going to work. But then we had an agent call us who had a
buyer who just lost a deal on a short sale offer and needed to close
quickly. He made an offer of $330,000 and got the house. We were able
to make the numbers work.
Our seller was not
1099'd, she has no deficiency judgment and no promissory notes to take
care of. The buyers' appraisal came in at $380,000! He got
a great house at a great price. Everyone is happy! We got our check and
so did the buyer's agent.
Both of these houses were
closed at the end of February and both of them took less than 6 weeks
to close from the point of the first offer to the BPO, to
the acceptance, to the closing.
So
have faith, it can be done.
If you are a seller
please read through ourShort Sale
Series and make sure you choose an agent who had closed short
sales and knows how to close them. If you are a buyer read
our Short Sale Series and make sure you have an agent working with you
that understands how to present you in the best light to the third
party lender.
If you are an agent please read and understand our Short Sale Series
and partner with an agent who had closed a short sale successfully on
your first short sale. It is worth splitting your fee to get it done
right and to have the hands on experience before you jump into Short
Sales.
Please be aware that no matter how great our success is with getting
short sales closed; there is NO guarantee
that your short sale will be successful. Please keep in mind that each
short sale is different, each seller has different circumstances and
different lenders. If you have Country wide as your lender- well- we
will pray for you! More
on that in the next short sale post...
Contact Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset, CIPS,
Realtors®, International Properties and
Investments, Inc. Licensed Realtors® in Florida
at 561-753-0135 to list your property for sale or to purchase a
property in Wellington,
Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Lake Worth, Hypoluxo Island, Lantana,
West Palm Beach and the rest of Palm Beach County Florida.We are accepting referrals.
Visit our profile
to find out more about our services. Call us today at 561.753.0135 or
Toll Free 800.444.3316. Contact us by email if you prefer by clicking
on email me on the right side of this page under our profile.
Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several
sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog
does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and
provides said information without warranties of any kind, either
express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the
opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not
express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or
those of the broker.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short
sale in Palm Beach County Florida make
sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the
experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale
packages. Call us at 561-753-0135 to find out more about Palm
Beach County Short Sales.
27 Comments on Successful Short Sale Closings And We Got Paid! Short Sale Series Part 9
Good work on those short sales and getting paid. From comments on other posts, more agents should be reading this than the dis-informative info found elsewhere. Thank you.
Matt- The biggest reason agents do not get paid is because they did not turn the package in correctly. When the note holders approves a certain net, they will not go back and change it just because the agents forgot to add something to the HUD! Katerina
Thanks for illustrating once again that if you're skillful and determined, you can get the job done. It is good to hear something positive about short sales; that they actually do close and that everybody can come out on top, including the agents!
Congratulations on the transactions closing. I came here after seeing your comments on the Industry commenting on Industry post. I was impressed there and even more here. I hope that your post serves as a light at the end of the tunnel for the others in FL. Great job!
Gayle- I have not heard of that. There are a lot of rumors out there too. I don't believe until I get the to the source.
Sharon- It is all in how you look at life and your business. What you focus on expands so if you think short sales are going to rip you off, well, then they will. We like the challenge and we love the victory.
Mark- Thank you very much for your comment. I invite you to subscribe to my blog as I write pertinent information for SEO, blogging, the real estate business and running a business as well as our area posts on Localism. Feel welcome to come back any time. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Katerina
Bryant- Gee, we are living proof that an agent can learn to successfully close on short sales and that we do know what we are doing:) We have another scheduled to close in the next 2 weeks.
Katerina- I just listed a short sale last night- The lender COUNTRYWIDE!!! Let's see what happens. I will also be posting ona short sale I will be closing on at the end of the week.
Jeannette- Heavens To Betsy! Countrywide's computers were down for 2 days this week! I wonder if that is because of the FBI investigation? They are the PAIN IN THE REAR of all the lenders! Good luck, you will need it. We have 2 going on with Country wide right now and I will post about them to beg them to help out!
Great stuff. I have done a couple and they did not go so smooth. They took so long we almost missed out. I discovered that if you let it the bank we not move fast enough to avoid the foreclosure.
Thomas- Were you on the seller's side or buyer's side? It is crucial that you follow up with lender every 2 days. Nestor does not let up on them at all and will go to supervisors and up the food chain. They do not want to foreclose. They just don't know how to do anything different. The foreclosure is on retainer at some local attorney who does not stop the process no matter what. They can not because to do so they can be giving up their rights to foreclose. Katerina
Katerina. Well, being that I read your entire post, and that I nursed my 3 bio children, I am hurting for the women & infants you wrote of in Africa. Shaking it off to congratulate you for successfully closing two short sales!!! I've heard of banks reducing the commission even further, so it's great you were able to keep it at 5% all the while making dreams come true for at least two families in Florida!
Natalie- Thank you for reading the whole post. I nursed all my 6 children and my last one until he was 4 because he was my last. I could not imagine this to happen to any woman. We put a much larger than 5% on our listing agreements so that they are only knocking it down to 5. We have another one closing anytime this next week or so, just waiting for the buyer to finish their loan processing. Katerina
Gary- Actually we love the appreciation we receive from the sellers when we save their home from foreclosure. We close all of ours, the lenders are a pain but we have a great system down that is very efficient and we are here to serve our sellers. Since 70% of all active listings here are short sales it behooves you to show them.You just need the listing agents to learn how to close them! We are making money and helping others, what can be better than that!
I can't believe the amount of material available free for active rain members- Thank you for your help and added training- This is a great and new topic to our area.
Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes
Wellington, FL
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International Properties and Investments, Inc.
Office Phone: (561) 753-0135
Cell Phone: (561) 502-1577
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Wellington Florida Real Estate Blog By Katerina Gasset of International Properties & Investments, Inc. is a Great Place For Real Estate Agents and Potential Buyers and Sellers to get to know more about Wellington Florida as well as other parts of Palm Beach County.
Good work on those short sales and getting paid. From comments on other posts, more agents should be reading this than the dis-informative info found elsewhere. Thank you.