Posted by Wendy Rulnick on September 30, 2009 at 11:30am
Are you an airman PCSing from Eglin AFB or Hurlburt Field? Are you upside down in your mortgage and owe more than your current property value? If so, you may know I have been checking the HAP website daily for the last several months. As I have previously reported, the site was taken down at one point, and all information was removed.Today, the site has changed and information is posted that may be useful to relocating military who might qualify for the government assistance to cover some of the loss.1. Qualifications include: PCSing more than 50 miles, having purchased your home or entered into a contract to purchase prior to July 1, 2006, you lived there and it was your primary residence, and your orders were between February 1 2006 through September 30, 2012.2. Your home must have declined at least 10% in value. (That should not be in problem in the Eglin AFB and Hurlburt Field market).3. Assistance will initially be emphasized to those who received orders through December 2009, with a report date no later than February 28, 2010.4. HAP benefits are based on the amount you originally purchased the property for (prior fair market value PFMV verified by your settlement statement). The full amount of your negative value will not be reimbursed.5. The site claims the government will provide benefits within 60 to 90 days of receiving your documents. I would use caution here, as that claim was also made several months ago and no HAP benefits have yet been paid to my knowledge.6. You may be reimbursed your mortgage interest, tax and insurance premiums you paid from the time the Army Corps of Engineers receives your application.7. The site states that no specific dollar amounts of loss reimbursement are addressed and HAP advises you to contact your local district CoE office. For Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field and Duke Field, please contact the Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District. However, elsewhere on its site, HAP mentions that up to 95% of your purchase price minus your sale price plus closing costs may be your benefit.8. The government claims they will make up “liabilities” to servicemembers from a foreclosure, but not past due payments or junior liens you obtained after buying the property.9. Some of your closing costs will be paid for, including title services and Realtor fees.10. The government recommends you use a Realtor to sell your home and states that using a Realtor will may increase your chances of finding a buyer.11. You are required to market your home for at least 120 days. Your initial list price should be obtained by the Corps of Engineers automated value model for at least 30 days.12. Your benefits will be taxable as income to you.13. Caution: Per the Realtor Guide , you or your Realtor must maintain records of price changes, showings, offers, etc to demonstrate that the house was not sold at too low a price. The CoE office will obtain an appraisal to verify the price was within market range. If the sales price is considered too low, no benefits will be paid.14. There are maximum price range limits for assistance. In Okaloosa, Walton and Santa Rosa counties the purchase price limit for benefits is $417,000.Here is the HAP application checklist and HAP application.As soon as you know you have orders from Eglin AFB or Hurlburt Field, apply for assistance immediately.Analysis and questions to follow. I would like to hear from you, our local servicemembers.It's Wendy!Wendy Rulnick, Broker, serving the entire Emerald Coast of Florida, Navarre, Fort Walton Beach, Crestview, Destin, Freeport, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Santa Rosa Beach.Rulnick Realty, Inc.itswendy@rulnickrealty.com850-650-7883 ext 204
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Posted by Suzanne Hinton on September 25, 2009 at 12:00pm
Should I sell or buy my Kansas City home via a short sale?A Continuing Guide to Understanding Short Sales Series.Whether you are facing the possibility of needing to sell your Kansas City Home via a short sale or if you are considering buying a short sale, you will need to have information and tips on understanding this ever growing popular tool for home selling and buying. Over the course of several weeks, I will be providing a series of quick tips and information from experiences that my clients have had in selling and buying short sales as well as very practical information supplied by the National Association of Realtors as well as other well respected short sale authorities.Today let's start with:"What is a short sale?"There are plenty of definitions that you can find. The simplest way that I have defined it is that a short sale arises when the total costs associated with the sale of real estate including, but not limited to, the payment of all outstanding mortgage(s), taxes, real estate commissions and other liens exceeds the amount of the proceeds from the sale AND, the existing lender(s) or mortgage holder(s) agree, based on the borrower/property owner meeting certain requirements, to accept a payoff that is less than the balance due in order that the home can be sold/closed.I look forward to exploring and discussing this ever popular growing niche in selling and buying Kansas City homes with you."Remember, you have options to the financial situation that you may be in with your home-I have helped many families who were facing uncertainty with their Kansas City homes including pre-foreclosure-let me help you."-SuzanneYOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO AVOID A FORECLOSURE WITH A SHORT SALE-Don't wait to find out if you qualify.REQUEST FREE CONFIDENTIAL PRE-FORECLOSURE OR SHORT SALE ANALYSIS OF YOUR KANSAS CITY HOME.Search All MLS Kansas City Home ListingsSuzanne Hinton-Hinton Homes-Pre-Foreclosure and short sale specialist. Specializing in assisting home buyers and sellers with their Kansas City homes-short sales.Suzanne Hinton, Voted 5 Star Real Estate Agent, providing real estate services to home buyers and sellers in the areas of Overland Park, Shawnee, Prairie Village, Olathe, Mission, Merriam, Roeland Park, Leawood, Kansas City, Lee's Summit and all surrounding cities in the Johnson County, Kansas and Kansas City Metropolitan area.Suzanne is also a specialized pre-foreclosure and Kansas City short sale agent with a successful track record of having listed and sold short sale listings throughout the Kansas City Metropolitan area including in Kansas and Missouri.
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QUESTION: I see many listings online that state "Short Sale, please allow 3-5 months to process." What does "Short Sale" mean and why does it take so long to process?ANSWER: I am ask this question here in Las Vegas almost on a daily basis, especially now since "Short Sales" seem to be dominating the market.The term "Short Sale" occurs when you "owe" more on your home than what it could sell for and you need your lender approval to sell the home. "Short" meaning the lender will be "short" the difference between what it will sell for and what you owe. If you have 2 loans, you would need to get both lenders approval the transaction.A "Short Sale" is "Not" usually a short process. Here are just some of the things that can make a "short sale" take 3-5 months.A Short Sale will take longer because your lender will want to verify your hardship (hardship = you need to sell due to loss of income, divorce, job transfer, you can't refinance, etc).They will usually ask for all your financial information to prove this "hardship" and review all this information. (paystubs/unemployment check copy, bank statements,etc).Once an offer is sent into the bank, they also will want to appraise the home to make sure the offer is within a reasonable price point as to the comparable homes that have recently sold in your neighborhood. They may even want to check out the buyers prequalification to make sure their preapproval letter is solid.Then, they review everything they may also have to get the "investors" approval of the sale as well. "Investors" are the persons/corporation/bank, etc that actually own stock in your loan, there may be several "investors", that may or not be the actual bank that you make your mortgage payment to.Also, make sure you are working with a REALTOR® who knows how to do short sales or this may also delay the process.All these steps take time and the banks are inundated with short sales, loan modifications and foreclosures so bear with them and your REALTOR®.
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Posted by Ron Donavon on September 18, 2009 at 7:20pm
Foreclosures and preforeclosures made up a large part of homes selling in the Fox Valley area of Illinois last month. In addition the number of homes on the market continues to decline. Both of these trends bode well for the housing industry, although “complete” recovery is probably still many months away.The percentage of homes that are bank owned (foreclosed) or on the verge of (short sales) made up nearly 50% of the homes actually selling last month. If you break the homes for sale into price ranges, the number of homes under $200,000 that sold and were distressed (foreclosed, or preforeclosed) is much more than 70%. I calculated 77% of single family homes under contract (in the Fox Valley area) being distressed properties in a quick survey of the MLS. “Traditional” sellers just cannot compete with the banks on the price line. And, although this is extremely anecdotal, I have witnessed the quality of home go up among the distressed properties. Nearly 72% of the transactions I have been involved in have been first time buyers, and most of those homes fell into this under $200,000 price category. In touring with these buyers, there have been more and more homes in “move in” condition. Many with nothing to do but paint walls, clean carpets and cut the grass. Again, that has made it tough on Mr and Mrs Seller, who just want to move.This market still brings amazing opportunity to the traditional seller who can sell and leave with money in their pockets to buy in the next price range up. Because so much of the activity this year has been in the lower price ranges, with much fewer sales as you move up the property ladder, the discounts in the higher price ranges are bigger not only in dollars, but in percentage too. If you have been in your current home more than 7 years, or have a good equity position, you may never see a better opportunity to get your “dream home” Interest rates are still great, and in the higher price ranges, the bargains are incredible.
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Posted by Tracey Martin on September 16, 2009 at 6:02am
I am not an attorney and even though I do not give legal advice, I owe it to my clients to have a basic knowledge of the legal aspects of a short sale. If I am informed I can tell them what questions to ask their attorney.Even though I may disagree with some advice they give, I know I cannot argue against an attorney’s advice because that would be, in fact, giving legal advice.However, I often feel that some attorneys are too quick to advise clients to let the bank foreclose on recourse loans. “Live there for free as long as you can and let the bank foreclose” seems to be very common advice.My latest short sale approval came from Country Wide. There is a first and a second, both with Country Wide. The first approval letter agreed to pay the second $3000.00. The letter from the second accepted the $3000.00. Both letters had the standard “we are not giving up the right to pursue the deficiency” language. As I do with every short sale, I told my client to take the letters to an attorney and see if proceeding with the short sale is still in his best interest. I also told him that he needs to ask the attorney about the second’s right to pursue a deficiency if the first forecloses. It is my understanding that, in California, seconds can and are pursuing deficiencies if they are not the ones who foreclosed.In my client’s case at least the second would receive $3000.00 towards the balance owed if he proceeded with the short sale and given the cost of pursuing the deficiency, they probably would accept that. He took the letters to an attorney who told him that since the first and second were with the same lender, the second would not be able to pursue the deficiency. He told my client to ask me to ask the bank to remove the “right to pursue” language and if they don’t he should let them foreclose. I said I would ask but my experience tells me that Country Wide will not remove that language. (If they agreed to remove the language then I would have had the client ask the attorney if removing that language meant the lender was forgiving the debt and giving up the right to pursue.. My understanding is that it does not.)As I was typing the email to the closer requesting that they remove the language I realized that I had never asked Country Wide who owned the loans. Country Wide may only be the servicer for the loans. I called customer service and was told that there were, in fact, 2 investors. The first is owned by Bank of New York and the second is owned by Wells Fargo. I called my client and told him to go back to the attorney with this new information. He did and the attorney told him that, in that case, the second could pursue the deficiency even if the first foreclosed.My concern is this: It seems to me that this attorney gave advice without knowing all the facts. Shouldn’t the attorney have asked who owns the loans? Shouldn’t this attorney have known that unless the approval letter says they are forgiving the deficiency the removal of the “right to pursue” language means nothing. My client chose to proceed with the short sale. I believe he made the right choice. I did not ask my client what he paid the attorneybut I hope it wasn't much.
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Posted by Jayne Sanders on September 16, 2009 at 2:00am
FASLO Solutions...Has anybody had any successful dealings with these folks. They either service or bought the EMC loans from Chase bank. They are totally unreasonable. Will not start negotioations unless they are getting 25% of the loan balance....and they are in 2nd position. I have 3 deals with them and am about to lose them all. HELP!!!!.
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