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My husband and I have submitted a fair offer on a property that was approved for short sale with Capital One. A couple of months have gone by and no one has gotten back to our realtor - I'm running out of time but REALLY want to buy this property. Is there some way to get in contact with someone at the bank? If I could just get in touch with someone I feel that I could work my way to the right person to get this moving!! Thanks in advance for any helpful info!!

This home at 352 Hwy 2, DeFuniak Springs, Florida has been approved as a HUD Pre Foreclosure sale by Bank of America. It was approved 23 days after submitting the short sale contract, buyer proof of funds and HUD. But that is not the whole story.

When doing an HUD (also called FHA) Pre Foreclosure sale, you can get the sale price approved in advance. Your seller should apply to his lender to see if he qualifies. Doing this at time of listing or before, you can really speed up the approval of a contract. You see, by getting the short sale lender the seller financial documents and request to participate, they will order an appraisal. That value is shared with the seller and the listing agent.

In this case, Bank of America took four months to send the HUD package to the seller after application. It took them almost four more months to issue an "Approval to Participate". By that time we already had a contract submitted that more than covered the appraised value.

This lengthy process with Bank of America's HUD PFS program may have been an anomaly. My advice to short sale listing agents and sellers, is to apply as soon as you know you want to go forward with the program. This will save you valuable time when you finally get a buyer.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Read Wendy's Destin Real Estate Blog

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

Chase has approved the short sale of 1 Pine Ridge Trace, Destin Florida.

Details?

Senior Lien: Chase Home Finance

Balance: $185,000

Junior Lien: JP Morgan Chase Bank

Balance: $25,000

Sale price: $90,000 appr

For you sleuths who like to analyze investors, this one was Freddie Mac. The mortgage also had a sub-investor pool who utilized MGICfor credit enhancement. Basically, MGIC was the mortgage insurance company for this group of investors. MGIC only allowed $500 to the JP Morgan Chase junior lien.

The interesting thing about this process was that Chase Home Finance communicated strangely with JP Morgan Chase. Even though they are part of the same company, they had me act as a go-between to relay information, get each other's email addresses and move the process along. A good word of advice when you are dealing with any Chase division as both the senior and junior liens- initiate the process with each division separately. It may speed up your approval time.

Bottom line - this Destin Florida short sale was approved in 36 days.

If you are considering short sale to avoid foreclosure, consider hiring an experienced Destin short sale agent.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Read Wendy's Destin Real Estate Blog

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

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Flash back to summer 2009. 11XXX BridgeCreek Dr in Riverview was listed for sale (short sale). The owner could no longer afford to live there, so he moved his family to the panhandle, and left his home in the care of the listing Realtor. The home was empty, the power was off, and the pool started to resemble more of a swamp then an oasis. As the year dragged on, the house sat lonely and empty, no showings, no offers, and the price kept being reduced to try and force a sale. When the listing expired, savvy Keller Williams Realtor, Tim Terpening took on the challenge of selling the home for the owner and won the listing in July 2010. That was when he called Angelina Ogle-Clarke of Bank Real Estate Solutions Inc. for help. Her company cleaned the house & pool, furnished and decorated the house, all with ZERO cost to the Homeowner OR the Realtor! Now Tim had a real HOME to market, not an abandoned, vacant, unkept listing with no utilities running to hopefully sell. That was 27 days ago. TODAY, 9/16/2010 a FULL PRICE offer came in (at the open house)!

In this market, an "out of the box" marketing strategy is a necessity. The traditional position has only one option, lower the price until someone steals the house, and with that said, a vacant home screams only 2 words...STEAL ME! We stage homes with furniture, and a sales person who works to protect, maintain and assist YOU in selling the property! This professional relieves the homeowner/bank of monthly carrying costs such as utilities, lawn maintenance, pool maintenance, cleaning services, etc. and is dedicated to making sure the vacant property shows like a model home every time it is shown to a potential buyer. Best of all our services are FREE of charge, AND we pay Realtors a referral for each home they bring into our program! Something has to change to sell vacant homes in this market, should it be the price again?

Hi folks. Today I want to clear up one big misunderstanding about the Equator.com system. For those of you that aren't familiar with Equator, Equator is the online portal that Bank of America and GMAC use to help expedite their short sales. Quite often I hear from agents, buyers and sellers that......"Equator accepted our offer" or "Equator denied our short sale." In fact, here's a question I pulled off of www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com this morning.

• "Equator accepted our counter. Then 5 days later said it "made a mistake" and rejected our offer, after it accepted. Has anyone seen this before?"

MY RESPONSE:

Equator is nothing more than a software program to help lenders/servicers process short sales. They don't have negotiators nor can they make decisions about short sales.

When a short sale is entered into Equator, the servicer (usually Bank of America), is looking at the deal and trying to negotiate a short sale that they feel the investor (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and others) AND the mortgage insurance company (MI) will accept. Once a short sale in Equator is "accepted" it is then passed on to the next entity (investor and/or MI) for their approval. This entity may very well come back and continue to negotiate or even reject the deal that was already "accepted" by the servicer.

• ***Until an actual written short sale approval letter or denial letter is issued the transaction is still being negotiated and the terms and conditions can change.

When you receive a counter offer in Equator the Seller has 3 options.

• Accept: If you accept the deal is passed on for final approval (or counter).

• Reject: If you reject....the file is closed and you have to start over. ***Warning Will Robinson!!*** NEVER reject!!! Rejecting in Equator is not something that can be retracted. If you choose that option in a fit of passion you have to start over. DON'T DO IT!!

• Counter. Unless the deal is acceptable...counter. Countering is where you have the opportunity to dispute a cash contribution, or a promissory note. It's also your opportunity to dispute the value of the property by uploading market data.

But whatever you do, just remember, you are NOT negotiating with Equator. Make sense?

By the way, here's a sample offer and counter offer from the Equator system. Hopefully this will help.

Sample Equator Counter Offer

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

This beautiful condo unit at The Palms in Destin Florida was just approved for short sale.

Lender: Bank of America

Payoff: $324,000

List Price: $124,000

Notes: Bank of America initially rejected the buyer's offer of $100,000. They countered $119,000 in Equator, the bank's online negotiating platform. The buyer would not come up in value. Instead of simply clicking "no" i.e. rejecting the bank's counter-offer in Equator, I called and emailed the negotiator to find a solution. Otherwise, the file might have been closed. The seller also agreed to participate in the loss with a cash contribution.

Result? Approved!

If you need to short sell your condo in The Palms, in Destin Florida, contact an experienced Destin short sale agent.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-487-9639 or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

Quickie -

I had a short sale approval in November 2009 WITH 6% to agents, 3% closing cost credits, and $3040 to the second lien. Buyer could not get financing and pulled out.

Approval letter I got today, roughly 8 months later:

5% to agents

2% closing costs

$2080 to second lien

I have spent a GREAT deal of time trying to learn what the issue is and why the BIG change (Wells Fargo is the Servicer and they had no idea).

Anyone know anything?

Anyone have a good contact at Fannie to at least give me an explanation?

you can reach me off here at BBenita@comcast.net if yoou do not want to post the contact info. you may have.

Thanks

Ben Benita

We recently received an email (below) from a negotiator at WF. I was told FHA is not affected, but they are not detailing what Conventional investors are. Has anyone else received this?

Hello,

I have been trying to get a short sale approved on a condo via Equator. I escalated the file and resubmitted and now the counter offer is even higher than the 1st time the file went through. Original counter was $72K now they countered first at $85K and now $75K with a 7K promissory note or 3K cash contribution and not paying a lot of fees - such as lawyer, wire, transfer and 2nd lien because they claim I did not give them 2nd lien holder's info though I put it in the comment section where they made their request.

Buyer is ready to walk! Offer is 66K which was only $6K off from original counter. Over 70 active listings in subdivision with 2 closed at 60K and 66K in last month.

Who can I call at Fannie Mae for a escalation. I can't find number or servicing agreement between BOA and Fannie online.

Any Help will be appreicated!

Evelyn

Three months can make a big difference in a market place.

Three Months Ago... Chase approved the short sale for this Driftwood Estates home in Santa Rosa Beach Florida. The sale price at the time was $230,000. But oops- the buyer's lender only appraised the home for $220,000. The buyer could not get a loan for $230,000. Despite providing Chase with the buyer's appraisal, they refused to lower their approval amount to $220,000. They were stuck on the value and would not look at the big picture. The buyer walked.

Fast forward three months later. The Driftwood Estates home was gradually reduced in price to $189,900, as the market dropped considerably in Santa Rosa Beach Florida. There was an oil spill. There was an oversupply of homes. But we found a new buyer, who offered in the $180's... Over $30,000 less than the last offer. Chase ordered a new Broker Price Opinion. Guess what? Even the short sale negotiator was suprised. The new value, just three months later, was significantly lower - in the $180's. The short sale was approved.

Unfortunately, three months were wasted and $30,000 was lost. Maybe Chase and its investors will review their procedures and look at the big picture in the future. Maybe not.

If you need to sell your Driftwood Estates home to avoid foreclosure, be sure to contact an experienced Santa Rosa Beach Florida short sale agent.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Santa Rosa Beach FL Real Estate

Santa Rosa Beach Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Read Wendy's Santa Rosa Beach Real Estate Blog

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

Any advise on how to handle this aweful situation that I am in will be of great help!

I did a short sale with Chase and sold the house in July of this year and I just got contacted by a collection agency representing Chase to collect on the $176,000 that is the balance of the loan after the sale of the house. I had to pay my second lender $30,000 to settle and now Chase is coming after me. I was told by my realtor that when I did the short sale that in alot of cases the second will come after you and that is why I settled with them but almost never the 1st comes after you and now they are.

Need suggestions on how to get Chase to drop this, anytihng is welcomed!!!!

James

It is scary how much misinformation there is about Short Sales. I am in the midst of negotiating an offer on one of my Destin Florida short sales. I told the buyer’s agent the seller will be counter offering.

1. The buyer’s agent was shocked, “Counter Offer!? The seller cannot counter offer. That is up to the bank!”.

Wrong. A seller still owns the property until the title transfers. A seller has the right to counter offer, accept or reject any offer. The approval of the seller's lienholder is a contingency of the contract. (The August 2010 issue of the Florida Realtor Magazine states that “The approval of the seller’s lender is a contingency much like a contingency for the buyer’s obtaining financing.” ) I explained that the seller did not want to send in the “low short sale offer and waste time”.

2. The buyer’s agent then asked me, “Does the seller’s lender know that the home is on the market as a short sale and did they pre-approve it?”

Again, “no” and “no”. These are common questions from buyer’s agents. I answered that I didn’t know if the seller told Bank of America his home was on the market. And it was not pre-approved. Sure, there are some HAFA or HUD Pre-Foreclosure sales where the sellers and price are approved in advance, but that does mean the contract terms offered would be approved in those cases, anyway. The buyer’s agent then said I could not market the home as a short sale if the lender did not know about it.

Wrong again! A home is listed as a short sale when the list price is not sufficient to pay off the liens in full at closing. (Of course, if it is a small lender, find out if their policies allow short sales before proceeding.)

3. Finally, to justify the low offer, the agent said, “Lenders accept 80% of value as a short sale”. BUZZZZZZZZ. Nope. There is not set percentage of value that each lender or servicer will accept for a short sale. It depends on the investor for each loan. Any percentage is based on the net to the lender anyway, not the contract price.

If you are new to short sales, study up.Join www.ShortSaleSuperstars.com, a plethora of short sale knowledge. Learn, know and grow!

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Read Wendy's Destin Real Estate Blog

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field

Economists (and other people smarter than the average politician) are starting to make noise about government spending to jumpstart the real estate market, and the economy in general.

Did you see the article this weekend in the New York Times? If not, here’s THE STORY.

The dilemma: More government intervention in an attempt to revive the housing market? Or sacrifice now for a quicker recovery? After billions spent by the Obama Administration to jumpstart the economy, with few results, number crunchers are calling on lawmakers to lay off and let it crash.

Last week, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told CNN the administration might consider another home-buyer tax credit to get the economy moving. Even though the last tax credit prompted existing home buyers to simply purchase earlier and didn’t create the expected influx of new buyers. The White House shot down Donovan’s idea as untenable, but isn’t that how these things tend to get started? Fly that trial balloon to see which way the public winds blow?

The White House says it’s got enough to handle right now just trying to launch the billions of dollars worth of stimulus programs that have yet to be rolled out.

Economists say such programs in fact simply elongate the misery. They say the economy needs “shock therapy”! Essentially, get to rock bottom sooner in order to begin the arduous climb back up.

What if the market were allowed to correct itself? Could it really be any worse than it is or has been thus far? We’re on track for more than 3 million foreclosure filings in 2010. The number of home sold dropped more than 25 percent after the tax credit expired. There quite possibly are 3.5 million homes in shadow inventory (depending on whose opinions you subscribe to). And we haven’t reached the peak yet — 5-year option arms don’t finish resetting until September 2012.

All this despite billions and billions and billions and billions spent to artificially prop up the real estate market. Kind of reminds me of those two guys in the movie “Weekend at Bernies.” You can put sunglasses on it and tie a string to the wrist, but on Monday, the guys’ still dead!

Can programs like those we’ve seen truly change the course of a world economy, or are they just arrogant attempts to manipulate that which cannot be manipulated?

At what point should the free market be free?

(Brian Bean is a real estate broker and ambassador for Helping A Million Homeowners, a nationwide organization that is committed to helping alleviate the financial stress that so many homeowners face today. He can be reached directly atBrian@DreamBigRealEstate.com.)

Brian Bean
Real Estate Professional
www.DreamBigRealEstate.com
www.IEShortSalePros.com
www.HelpingAMillionHomeowners.com

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If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

We’d heard rumors. Sightings whispered by weary agents. Pleas from desperate homeowners. Tons of mailers, news clippings and emails touting the elusive prey.

But we’d never actually seen an honest-to-goodness closed HAFA short sale. Until today. When we officially closed escrow on such a deal and secured $3,000 relocation assistance and a deficiency waiver for our seller.

Can’t say it was too big a deal. Took longer, and we had to restart twice because the lender messed up the process in the beginning. The forms were different. Many people wonder why more homeowners haven’t taken advantage of the Obama Administration program. On the surface, it looks like a great deal:

• $3,000 for the seller to relocate
• Waiver by the bank to seek a deficiency judgment for shortage
• No cash contributions or promissory notes required
• $1,500 to the bank/servicer for admin and processing cost, and up to another $2,000 for investors who distribute up to $6,000 to junior lien holders

So why aren’t HAFA program closings dominating the short sale landscape?

For us, it might have more to do with where we live and work. Southern California is prone to conditions that make HAFA deals difficult. Values here are higher than the national average, and a great number of distressed homeowners seem to have HELOC 2nd TDs with banks that are unwilling to settle for $3,000.

It’s more likely, though, that this is just another case of an inefficient government program created by lawmakers with little or no hands-on experience in the real world. Many servicers still don’t have their guidelines down or processes streamlined.

Hopefully, for the sake of so many homeowners in distress, it’ll get easier. Until it does, agents have to remain vigilant and resourceful and educated. There is no room in this space for agents who aren’t committed to seeing the task through. Their clients’ financial futures depend on their skill and doggedness to complete the task.

(Brian Bean is a real estate broker and ambassador for Helping A Million Homeowners, a nationwide organization that is committed to helping alleviate the financial stress that so many homeowners face today. He can be reached directly atBrian@DreamBigRealEstate.com.)

Brian Bean
Real Estate Professional
www.DreamBigRealEstate.com
www.IEShortSalePros.com
www.HelpingAMillionHomeowners.com

http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/inove/img/blockquote.gif";); background-color: rgb(244, 245, 247); border: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); background-position: 3px 3px;">

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau