Don't be an ostrich!
If you have an questions about short sales in The Silicon Valley please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
PALO (11)
In East Palo Alto from Jan 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012 there were:
36 closed short sales
20 closed bank owned homes
Total sales during this time period were 96
Total % Short Sales: 37.5%
Total % REO Sales: 20.8 %
Total Percentage East Palo Alto Distressed Properties: 60.7%
60.7% of all East Palo Alto sales being distressed is enough to still have major effect on the overall market. However, as inventory is still so low unless these homes are truly physically distressed, which is more common with bank owned homes at this level, it probably will not have a long lived effect. It is interesting to see there are almost twice as many short sales as bank owned sales which has also happened in other cities.
If you have any questions about short sales or foreclosures in San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
DRE 01191194
In Palo Alto from Jan 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012 there were:
1 closed short sales
3 closed bank owned homes
Total sales during this time period were 284
Total % Short Sales: .3%
Total % REO Sales: .9%
Total Percentage Palo Alto Distressed Properties: 1.2%
1.2% of all Palo Alto sales being distressed properties is not enough to even comment on. The price of homes have in Palo Alto is now up to pre 2008 prices in the $2,500,000 price range and the homes over $2,500,000 usually do not have loans that are a very high percentage of their value so anyone who is having financial problems can generally sell and be made whole. So if you are looking for a bargain, look outside of Palo Alto.
If you have any questions about short sales or foreclosures in Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
DRE 01191194
Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales
One of the best things that has happened to short sales in the last couple of years is the on line platform for processing a short sale. There are several platforms in use, but Equator is one of the more popular ones, and is the one used for Bank of America and Wells Fargo Short Sales. So, instead of your agent having to fax all the documents, usually several times, the short sale documents are uploaded as PDFs onto the Equator web site. In order to keep the process moving forward Equator will assign a task to be fulfilled by the agent, like uploading an offer or financial documents onto the website. Once the task is assigned they will give you a fixed number of days to upload the requested documents. This number of days is the same, no matter when the task is assigned. So if it isa 2 day task and it is assigned on a Friday, it is due Sunday, period.
So my latest Bank of America short sale assigned me the task of uploading the signed offer on Friday, with a due date of Sunday, which happens to be Christamas.
And that is why this Palo Alto short sale agent is cheerfully working Christmas Eve.
Enjoy your holidays!
If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me!
Marcy Moyer
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales
It's the end of the year so time for the round-up of distressed property sales in Redwood City. So here's what happened:
Single family and condo townhomes 2011:
Total sales: 553
Short Sales: 91
REO: 49
Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales: 25.3
Compare to 2010
Total sales: 600
Short Sales: 93
REO: 78
Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales: 28.5
My conclusion:
The percentage of distressed properties in Redwood City is a little lower in 2011, 25.3% as compared to 2010, 28,5%. This is dues to a 40% decrease in REO sales in 2011. It will be interesting to see if the rumored release of REO inventory actually happens, and increases the percentage in 2012, or if the econmy picks up and helps people afford their homes.
If you have any questions about short sales or bank owned homes please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales
There are several different types of short sales that will approve your price and the seller's eligibility before you get an offer. If you do not qualify for one of those programs (like HAFA or Bank of America co-operative short sales) then you can try to do a traditional short sale.
In most traditional short sales after the seller signs an offer, his/her short sale real estate agent will send the offer and all of the seller's financial documents to the lender. This can be a time consuming process, and if the lender is still using faxes to gather information rather than online platforms, several weeks can be lost while the lender checks to make sure all the needed documents have been collected.
Chase has a policy which makes this portion of the short sale truly shorter. Once the seller signs the listing agreement the short sale realtor can send all of the documentation to Chase. Once an offer is received and signed, you will be weeks ahead of the game.
So, if you are short selling your home with Chase be sure and ask your short sale realtor to send in your documents right away and save time when you get that offer!
If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
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There is another conflict brewing between investors and first time home-buyers, and this time the home buyers may win. In the more affordable areas of the Silicon Valley distressed properties, ie short sales and reos have been popular with investors and first time buyers. Many would be owner occupiers lose out on great opportunities to investors who have all cash. Since condos are the least expensive properties, have the fewest maintenance issue, and tend to bring in more rent per dollar spent they are popular with investors. Coupled with the more restrictive lending practices on condos, many bay area developments are now in a position where the number of owner occupied units has fallen to a critical level. Owners of these properties are having trouble refinancing and buyers trying to get loans are being rejected by the lenders. As a result, many complexes are starting to pass new HOA regulations limiting the number of rentals allowed in the condo development.
These restrictions can be a double edged sword. If they occur in a building where the delinquency rate on the HOA dues is too high then a buyer will not be able to get a loan anyway and it will effectively cut off all sales. In the future when the market has settled down the rental restriction could put a damper on future sales. However, if they are not instituted it may become impossible for anyone but investors to purchase in some condo complexes, which in itself will lower values not to mention make things harder for the first time home buyer. It will also make it impossible for current homeowners to ever refinance in some of these buildings.
I do not have the answer here as to what is right or wrong here. I can only give some advise on what to do if you want to purchase or sell a condo and want to get the information about potential rental restrictions.
1. Ask your agent to find out if the HOA docs are available yet. If it is an reo they most likely will not be and a
short sale very likely not
2. If the docs are not available before you make an offer ask your agent to ask the listing agent for the number of the HOA management company
3. Call the management company and ask about any current or contemplated rental restrictions
It is not that hard to find out and can save a lot of time and possibly money.
If you have any questions about short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara Counties please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
The question of whether to short sell a home in probate used to be rare, but now unfortunately it is not. There are estates where the owner dies, owes more than the house is worth, and a decision needs to be made by the Personal Representative (executor) as to what to do.
My opinion, try it. If it is in the best interest of the bank/investor to short sell rather than foreclose they will do it. If it is not, they won't and will take it to foreclosure.
So who benefits if the home is sold as a short sale? Well the realtor for sure. The commission is paid by the bank.
However, if the attorney's fees are put on the HUD1 statement (the statement saying who is paying for what and who is receiving what money) the bank may pay them. Also, the payment to the personal representative can go on the HUD1. This would make it worthwhile for the Personal Representative to try and do the short sale. This can be very handy if the representative is a Bank or Professional Fiduciary.
The heirs do not get anything out of a short sale so it does not matter to them if the property is foreclosed or sold short, but it does matter to the neighborhood. A vacant foreclosed home brings the other homes around it down, while a short sale is cared for by the realtor and even if vacant is not abandoned.
So should you bother?
I think so.
If you have any questions about probate or short sales, please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Trust and Probate Sales
The short answer is no. There is not a lot of help for owners with jumbo mortgages.
The long answer is maybe not.
If you are one of the few owners who has one loan then the chances of a successful short sale are much higher. The bank will lose less money than with a foreclosure and will be more inclined to approve your sale. This is assuming you have a verifiable hardship. However, even people with only one loan may run into road blocks if the bank has investors who own pieces of that loan,( frequently hedge funds) and if they don't feel the offer on the house is good enough for them they may derail the sale.
Ok, so what if you have 2 loans, but they are both with the same bank. Again, this is usually easier than some of the other scenarios, but not a guarantee. The bank may be willing, but the investors may not be.
Third scenario, you have 2 loans with 2 different banks. First bank offers second bank 3-10K to allow short sale. The theory is second bank will get nothing if there is a foreclosure. Second bank can have 3 reactions.
3. Not cooperate because they have insurance on the second loan and will get more money if the first bank forecloses and they get paid 25% of their loan from the insurance company as opposed to the 1-5% they are being offered by the first lien holder. In this scenario the first bank is probably not losing too much because borrower has very little equity to begin with since they borrowed on a second or equity line.
4th scenario: In addition to a first and second loan there are other liens against the house including tax or business or personal loan liens. In this case a short sale is almost impossible to accomplish and it is not worth anyone’s time.
So as you can see this is a complicated process and not for the faint at heart. Since many of the loans on Palo Alto homes are jumbo, there are a lot of hedge fund managers out there making decisions about markets in which they may not have enough information. Added to that is the growing resentment against borrowers who are opting for a strategic default or foreclosure because the asset (their home) has depreciated so much they don't feel it is a good investment strategy to hold onto it.
It will be very interesting to see how many attempted short sales actually go through in the next year.
For anyone interested, here are some links to articles I've written on short sales and foreclosures:
The Facts About Palo Alto Short Sales and Foreclosures
Don't Get Behind on Your Mortgage in Palo Alto
A Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure
Hardships and Short Sales
When Homeowners Change Their Minds, Landlords Reap the Benefits
A Better Way to Do A Short Sale
Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty
In the past few years short sales have been long, frustrating, and undependable. The sellers had to prove they were desperate and often had to stop making payments in order to qualify for a short sale. The listing agent had to spend hours trying to figure out who was able to make the decision and whether or not the documents were even received. They buyer’s agent had to wait endlessly for an answer while his or her buyer threatened every day to bail. The closing statistics for short sales have been estimated at 10-30%. Many people felt why bother?
So why should you bother? For some reason banks are getting on board with the idea that allowing a seller to do a short sale is a better deal for them than foreclosure. In general banks get 45 cents on the dollar for a foreclosed home and 75 cents on the dollar for a short sale. It has taken a long time for the banks to get on board with short sale approvals, but short sales are now getting approved and some banks have started trying to make the process more efficient.
Bank of America, who has taken over Countrywide, is now using a platform called REOtrans for their short sales. This platform started as a method for asset managers to process bank owned properties with realtors and is a very effective method for all parties, as they can see in real time where the file is and what else needs to be done. As anyone knows who has dealt with a Bank of America or Countrywide short sale, it can take a month after an agent faxes the short sale package to the bank for the bank to upload it onto their system. Now it is uploaded directly on the site and everyone knows it is there. Everyone will always know where they are in the process so no more allocating 3 hours a week for follow up per file.
Wachovia wins the prize for the best short sale system. Twenty five percent of Wachovia loans are 60 days or more past due, so they have decided to encourage more short sales. They have a system that will get the sale approved and closed in 45 days or less, and do not care if the seller has hardship, or just made the decision that they would rather give up a home than pay for a home for 10-20 years before they are no longer underwater. Underwater means that more is owned on the home than the home is worth. Some estimates put the number of underwater homes in this country as high as 50%. Given those stats Wachovia has made a decision that if someone wants to sell short they will facilitate it. This is not to say they will just give a home away, but if a home has $700,000 of loans on it, and it is now worth $500,000, Wachovia will let someone buy it for close to $500,000 and forgive the other $200,000 debt, and do it in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, they will even give the seller up to $5000 for moving expenses.
Wachovia bought World Savings so this applies to World Savings loans as well. Wachovia was acquired by Wells Fargo but as of now Wells is not doing the same thing with short sales. Hopefully this program with Wachovia will work well and spread to not only Wells Fargo, but to other banks as well.
If you have any questions about short sales, or other real estate related questions please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
Intero Real Estate Services
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
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