short sales: Selling Your Home During Loan Modification
- 04/10/10 04:51 AM
Loan Modification is a solution to a problem of mortgage affordability. If a mortgagee is experiencing a financial hardship and needed a lower mortgage payment, the mortgagor may reduce the interest rate of the loan. However, these modificiations are temporary and often carry terms that the mortgagee may not understand, particulary when it comes time to sell your home. Let me give you an example.
I recently represented a couple that sold their home to upgrade to a home with more bedrooms. They were expecting a second child. And while they were slightly upside down in their mortgage, they had just enough money to … (29 comments)
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short sales: Beware the Allure of Living Without a Housing Payment
- 04/06/10 04:49 AM
As a Northern Virginia Short Sale Listing Agent, I meet plenty of families who have fallen on hard times and find themselves unable to pay their mortgage and upside down in their homes. Most of the families I meet are struggling to do the right thing by their families and their mortgage companies. They fear what happens after a short sale or foreclosure. They want to prepare for their next move and not have a rug pulled from underneath them.
Then there are families I meet where a legitimate hardship turns into living housing payment free for as long as possible, … (23 comments)
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short sales: Another Questionable Earnest Money Deposit Practice
- 09/02/09 07:26 AM
My last post on Earnest Money Deposits focused on Short Sale Buyers. There is a lot of opinion on whether Earnest Money Deposits should actually be deposited at contract ratification, or at the time of short sale approval. Either way you go, the Buyers and Sellers MUST agree in writing when that Earnest Money will be deposited, and the contract must be followed.
Understanding the concept of Earnest Money Deposit instructions being signed by all, and followed, you can understand my concern when a Buyers Agent on one of my Short Sales that will go to settlement on Friday calls and wants to … (12 comments)
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short sales: Gainesville, VA: Short Sale Approved and SOLD!!!
- 06/30/09 11:34 AM
This short sale, located in the gated community of Piedmont, hit the market on April 15, 2009. It was under contract one day later and sold on June 30, 2009.
There was only one loan through Wells Fargo. It was a very quick process. And the final sales price was $385,000, just $4,000 below the appraised value...$13,000 below list price.
The sellers owed no additional money to the bank. The buyers got a GREAT HOUSE that others buyers may have avoided because of the necessary third party approval by Wells Fargo.
It really does help the short sale approval process to have … (6 comments)
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short sales: Another Northern Virginia Short Sale---SOLD!!!
- 05/28/09 05:23 AM
Just got back from settlement. This lovely single family home in Warrenton was a short sale. There were two separate lien holders, a first and second mortgage. The house would not sell for what was owed.
The owners contacted me and listed the home for short sale on February 26th. On March 1st we received the offer that ended up going to settlement today, May 28th.
The home sold for it's full list price of $234,500. And you can see that the time it took to get an offer and go to closing was not as bad as you may hear. … (10 comments)
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short sales: Ridiculous Remarks in the MLS
- 05/26/09 11:33 AM
So I'm parsing through the MLS today. Of course, you have to read remarks these days. Who knows what the REAL status of a listing is. Then I find this classic in the remarks:
APPROVED SHORT SALE...QUICK CLOSING! WE ARE NOT GOING TO ONLY PAY YOU $1 IN COMMISSION. MRIS DOES NOT ALLOW US TO SAY THAT WE WILL SPLIT THE COMMISSION 50/50...BUT WE WILL! WHATEVER THE BANK PAYS, YOU WILL GET 50% OF AND WE HAVE AN ADDENDUM TO THIS EFFECT FOR YOU TO SIGN.
Approved short sale? That sounds great! Wait a miinute. If this listing agent doesn't even … (20 comments)
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short sales: Bristow, VA: Short Sale--SOLD!
- 03/20/09 11:34 AM
This charming two bedroom townhouse style condo in Braemar just sold...and guess what? It was a short sale! A short sale is when a mortgage company agrees to take less than the amount owed for the sale of a home. Short sales are generally the result of a hardship (financial, divorce, relocation, etc.)
This townhouse first went on the market on December 3, 2008. It's orginal list price was $199,000. The buyers, with the counsel of their mortgage lender, quickly found that the list price of $156,000 was what made things happen. On January 20,2009 the sellers received an offer and on … (4 comments)
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short sales: Writing a Hardship Letter for Your Northern Virginia Short Sale
- 03/07/09 09:20 AM
In the Northern Virginia real estate market, I meet a lot of home owners that are facing a Short Sale situation. Most of my time as a Northern Virginia Short Sale Listing Agent is spent educating my Short Sale Sellers about the process in an attempt to help them avoid Foreclosure.
The beginning of the Northern Virginia Short Sale process is communicating with your mortgage company and letting them know that you are experiencing difficulty in making your monthly mortgage payments. This is done through a hardship letter. And as simple as it may seem, it is a very intimidating letter to write.
In … (4 comments)
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short sales: Bristow, VA: Best Value in Braemar!! Back on the Market!!
- 08/08/08 11:10 AM
… (4 comments)
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short sales: A Bad Argument to Make with a Counter Offer
- 05/10/08 04:48 AM
So I presented a lowball offer on a property I have listed that is priced according to current market conditions. It doesn't bother me. And I prepared my seller for it with a simple statement, "If you wanted to make an offer on a house, would you start with full price offer?"
In a slow market, the property had only been on the market for a little over a week before this "show stopper" came across my desk. Not surprising. It's amazing what can happen when your client prices their home correctly. So my client and I leafed through the offer. I … (4 comments)
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short sales: What Listing Agents Can Do to Make Bank Response Time Quicker in Short Sales
- 03/31/08 11:07 AM
I really should entitle any post I write about short sales as "Musings from the Edge of Sanity." I keep reading posts about Realtors frustrations with various banks, and how loooong they are taking to approve a short sale. I think it's time for us to take a look at how WE, the wonderful, hardworking Realtors out there, may be contributing to, and can help alleviate, some of the back-up.
FIRST, we must understand that the banks are not a literal party to the contract. Their relationship with the seller is similar to that of the home inspector to the buyer. … (8 comments)
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short sales: Landlords Who Take the Money and Run
- 03/22/08 10:04 AM
As if we didn't already have enough to think about. When we go on listing presentations for a sale, we have to determine if the sale might end up being a short sale. When we take buyers into ambiguously listed properties we have to inquire, "Is this a short sale or a bank-owned property?"
The entire landscape of buying and selling is changing. People who destroy their homes when facing foreclosure, to spite the bank, were just the beginning. Now there's an entirely new type of unethical behaviour.
Enter the landlords who victimize tenants.
Yes, some of those investors who would … (11 comments)
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short sales: What Second Mortgages May Do to Make Money When Facing A Short Sale
- 02/01/08 02:57 AM
I would start this particular post by saying that I was surprised when this happened in a transaction where I was a buyer representative, but at this point nothing in a short sale transaction surprises me.
As a Buyer's Agent, I try to prepare my buyers for the gut wrenching drama that can come with writing on a Short Sale property. The problem in my market (Northern Virginia) is that just about all homes under $250-$300K are short sales or foreclosures. And these are the buyers, first time home buyers to be exact, that I have had the pleasure of working … (7 comments)
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short sales: Short Sale Insight....Getting the Negotiator to Call you Back
- 11/17/07 01:31 AM
Yesterday I ranted about a scenario I was experiencing where I, representing the sellers, got a phone call from the buyer's lender who had gotten a hold of the Seller's Negotiator. These two got their heads together and discussed lowering the sales price by $10,000 as a result of the appraisal being low.....and that was my seller's appraisal!! There seemed to be no discussion of having the buyer conduct a separate appraisal. I was upset, but I learned something after I got to speak with the negotiator directly myself.
Let me begin by saying both the selling side's negotiator and the busyer's lender, … (7 comments)
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short sales: An Interesting Twist to A Short Sale Negotiation
- 11/16/07 07:04 AM
I have a listing that is under contract, awaiting 3rd party approval from my seller's mortgage company. I knew this process would make me want to rip my hair out, but I didn't expect this.....
This afternoon I received a phone call from the BUYER'S LENDER (same company as my seller's mortgage holder) and the BUYER'S LENDER told me what the acceptable terms were to the lender/mortgage holder. She evidentally had success getting a hold of MY SELLER'S NEGOTIATOR.
That is fine, but I am a bit concerned that the terms of the short sale were ironed out with the … (7 comments)
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short sales: Short Sale Listings
- 11/15/07 07:15 AM
I had no idea at the beginning of 2007 that I would be working with these things called "short sales". Yet, there seems to have been a baptism by fire of Realtors in my area, and I'm sure elsewhere around the Country, to the ins and outs of a short sale.
Dealing with a short sale scenario is like walking a tight rope. Banks will not usually entertain the idea of a short sale until you have missed a payment or two. And when a client is headed down that path, their property better be priced to attract the buyers, because … (8 comments)
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Loan Modification is a solution to a problem of mortgage affordability. If a mortgagee is experiencing a financial hardship and needed a lower mortgage payment, the mortgagor may reduce the interest rate of the loan. However, these modificiations are temporary and often carry terms that the mortgagee may not understand, particulary when it comes time to sell your home. Let me give you an example. 
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