Short Sales are NOT Bank Owned Properties

I can not believe we are even having to think about writing a post in today's market for Virginia agents and the Central Virginia real estate agents to explain that a short sale is NOT a bank owned property!! But we are!

I was asked to write this because this really just happened and we hope to educate agents as to what happens when you make an offer on one of our short sale listings.

After we receive your buyers' offer we contact our seller who is the homeowner of the property and present the offer to him/her/them.

It is then up to the seller what he wants to do with the offer. He can reject the offer, he can accept the offer, he can counter the offer or he can choose to do nothing with the offer. Your offer expires if he does not sign the offer before the time for acceptance lapses.

On one of our listings we received 3 offers in one day. Most all of our short sale listings get multiple offers. When this happens; our sellers choose one offer that they feel is the best and often ask for our input based on our experience. Then the seller will choose a back up offer also.

If none of the offers meet with the sellers' approval and with our experience of what a short sale lender is going to approve then the seller may send back to the buyers a counter offer. He may choose just one offer to counter or all.

So there is one agent who had sent in one of the offers for her buyers. The offer was $20,000 below asking price, the financing clause stated that the buyer was approved for his loan, yet there was NO approval letter. There was a pre approval letter that said his financials, income, etc were NOT reviewed. All they did was pull his credit. The financing spaces were not filled in correctly. When I did the math, the offer showed that the buyer was getting 100% financing. Then the addendum stated that the buyer was also asking for 6% back from the seller.

Ok, so here's the deal: The other two offers are over list price and ALL CASH offers. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out which one the seller is going to want to go with!

Let's see: let's weigh ALL CASH versus 100% financing!!!!

I told the agent that we sent the seller all the offers. He was out of the country and would not work the offers until he returned. We alerted all the agents about this.

Then Keller Williams gets THE CALL!

The agent with this 100% financing clause in the offer starts yelling at Keller Williams- "You are supposed to send our offer to the bank!"

"What do you mean?, This is a short sale."

To which the agent continues to yell, "I looked up the tax rolls and it says that the mortgage is held by XYZ bank. You have to send our offer to the bank. The seller does not have any say in our offer."

Our broker tries to explain again that this is a short sale. The mortgage information on the tax rolls is to show who the mortgage company is. He tries to explain to her that the tax rolls clearly state that the seller is the homeowner and NOT the bank!

Then she tells him she has been doing short sales for a year now and she never sends the offers to the sellers. She just sends them right into the bank. WHAT!?

Then Keller Williams tells her that her buyer's financing does not look as strong as the cash offers but that is for the seller to decide. She then tells Nestor-

"Oh no, they are putting 3% down! They don't need the 6% back. They do have an approval letter." and on and on.

Well, if that was the case, ( and I just came back from an all day Contracts Class with an Attorney) then her buyer's offer needed to be written that way and not the way that it was.

So sometimes the buyers want to see how low they can go, how much they can negotiate and many times in our town, that will lose them the deal. ALOT of our closings are with ALL CASH transactions.



Another example of misinformation on how a short sale transaction works and even who the principles are.

Foreclosure Is NOT An Option! Call Nestor and Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135 for a confidential interview regarding your options.

Don't Delay! Don't Wait Until The Sheriff Is Knocking On Your Door! Pick up your phone and call us to see if you can avoid foreclosure.
Rob Alley, Realtor at Keller Williams Charlottesville
540-250-3275 (cell)
roballeyrealtor@gmail.com
http://www.forestlakesliving.com/
http://www.charlottesvillevarealestate.blogspot.com/
http://www.charlottesvilleshortsale.com/

Short Sales are NOT Bank Owned Properties

I can not believe we are even having to think about writing a post in today's market for Virginia agents and the Central Virginia real estate agents to explain that a short sale is NOT a bank owned property!! But we are!

I was asked to write this because this really just happened and we hope to educate agents as to what happens when you make an offer on one of our short sale listings.

After we receive your buyers' offer we contact our seller who is the homeowner of the property and present the offer to him/her/them.

It is then up to the seller what he wants to do with the offer. He can reject the offer, he can accept the offer, he can counter the offer or he can choose to do nothing with the offer. Your offer expires if he does not sign the offer before the time for acceptance lapses.

On one of our listings we received 3 offers in one day. Most all of our short sale listings get multiple offers. When this happens; our sellers choose one offer that they feel is the best and often ask for our input based on our experience. Then the seller will choose a back up offer also.

If none of the offers meet with the sellers' approval and with our experience of what a short sale lender is going to approve then the seller may send back to the buyers a counter offer. He may choose just one offer to counter or all.

So there is one agent who had sent in one of the offers for her buyers. The offer was $20,000 below asking price, the financing clause stated that the buyer was approved for his loan, yet there was NO approval letter. There was a pre approval letter that said his financials, income, etc were NOT reviewed. All they did was pull his credit. The financing spaces were not filled in correctly. When I did the math, the offer showed that the buyer was getting 100% financing. Then the addendum stated that the buyer was also asking for 6% back from the seller.

Ok, so here's the deal: The other two offers are over list price and ALL CASH offers. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out which one the seller is going to want to go with!

Let's see: let's weigh ALL CASH versus 100% financing!!!!

I told the agent that we sent the seller all the offers. He was out of the country and would not work the offers until he returned. We alerted all the agents about this.

Then Keller Williams gets THE CALL!

The agent with this 100% financing clause in the offer starts yelling at Keller Williams- "You are supposed to send our offer to the bank!"

"What do you mean?, This is a short sale."

To which the agent continues to yell, "I looked up the tax rolls and it says that the mortgage is held by XYZ bank. You have to send our offer to the bank. The seller does not have any say in our offer."

Our broker tries to explain again that this is a short sale. The mortgage information on the tax rolls is to show who the mortgage company is. He tries to explain to her that the tax rolls clearly state that the seller is the homeowner and NOT the bank!

Then she tells him she has been doing short sales for a year now and she never sends the offers to the sellers. She just sends them right into the bank. WHAT!?

Then Keller Williams tells her that her buyer's financing does not look as strong as the cash offers but that is for the seller to decide. She then tells Nestor-

"Oh no, they are putting 3% down! They don't need the 6% back. They do have an approval letter." and on and on.

Well, if that was the case, ( and I just came back from an all day Contracts Class with an Attorney) then her buyer's offer needed to be written that way and not the way that it was.

So sometimes the buyers want to see how low they can go, how much they can negotiate and many times in our town, that will lose them the deal. ALOT of our closings are with ALL CASH transactions.



Another example of misinformation on how a short sale transaction works and even who the principles are.

Foreclosure Is NOT An Option! Call Nestor and Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135 for a confidential interview regarding your options.

Don't Delay! Don't Wait Until The Sheriff Is Knocking On Your Door! Pick up your phone and call us to see if you can avoid foreclosure.
Rob Alley, Realtor at Keller Williams Charlottesville
540-250-3275 (cell)
roballeyrealtor@gmail.com
http://www.forestlakesliving.com/
http://www.charlottesvillevarealestate.blogspot.com/
http://www.charlottesvilleshortsale.com/

Don't Lose Your Home to Foreclosure

Rob Alley, Realtor of The Avery Group at Roy Wheeler
540-250-3275 (cell)
roballey@roywheeler.com
http://www.robsellscharlottesville.com/
http://www.forestlakesliving.com/
http://www.charlottesvillevarealestate.blogspot.com/
http://www.charlottesvilleshortsale.com/

Don't Lose Your Home to Foreclosure

Rob Alley, Realtor of The Avery Group at Roy Wheeler
540-250-3275 (cell)
roballey@roywheeler.com
http://www.robsellscharlottesville.com/
http://www.forestlakesliving.com/
http://www.charlottesvillevarealestate.blogspot.com/
http://www.charlottesvilleshortsale.com/

Foreclose On My House, Please!!!!

While it sounds improbable, some American homeowners are pleading with their lenders to ‘hurry up and foreclose already!’ Homeowners who have fallen months behind on their mortgage payments sit idle, ready to move on with their lives but are unable, just waiting for their lender to make the next move.
While this “financial limbo” has brought great reprieve to some delinquent borrowers who have benefited from the “rent-free” living, for others, the limbo is a time of added stress, emotional pain, and financial liability. But the limbo not only financially hampers borrowers and investors, it poses a threat to future recovery:
The overhang of homes in limbo means that foreclosure rates are likely to increase dramatically during the second half of this year and into 2010 as lenders work through the backlog, said Bob Bellack, chairman of Zetabid, which auctions foreclosed properties.
More than ever, foreclosure has become an unattractive outcome for lenders.
This could in turn put renewed stress on financial firms that carry mortgages or mortgage-backed securities on their books. As a general policy, many firms have been marking down the value of those assets as the loans become delinquent. But once the homes go into foreclosure and are sold, their value could decline even more, prompting another round of losses at financial companies.
However, lenders have become so swamped with foreclosure filings that they’re having a truly difficult time keeping up. Moreover, our nation’s dedication to foreclosure-prevention programs has redirected a lot of lenders’ and servicers’ attention away from repossessing homes to refinancing rates and modifying loans:
“Lenders are having an immensely difficult time handling the capacity. They are torn between loan modification, short sales, foreclosures, and they are finding they can’t do all these things at once, and do them well, so we’re seeing a lot of things falling through the cracks,” said Howard Glaser, a housing industry consultant and a housing official during the Clinton administration.
Those cracks must be pretty big. According to NeighborWorks America, a large housing counseling group, 60% of homeowners who miss more than four payments before seeking help will end up in foreclosure.
Is a swift foreclosure process the most clear-cut way to speed up the housing recovery? Or has delayed foreclosures (including moratoriums) helped ease the devastating impact foreclosures have on the market?

Rob Alley, Realtor of The Avery Group at Roy Wheeler
540-250-3275 (cell)
roballey@roywheeler.com
http://www.robsellscharlottesville.com
http://www.forestlakesliving.com
http://www.charlottesvillevarealestate.blogspot.com
http://www.charlottesvilleshortsale.com

Foreclose On My House, Please!!!!

While it sounds improbable, some American homeowners are pleading with their lenders to ‘hurry up and foreclose already!’ Homeowners who have fallen months behind on their mortgage payments sit idle, ready to move on with their lives but are unable, just waiting for their lender to make the next move.
While this “financial limbo” has brought great reprieve to some delinquent borrowers who have benefited from the “rent-free” living, for others, the limbo is a time of added stress, emotional pain, and financial liability. But the limbo not only financially hampers borrowers and investors, it poses a threat to future recovery:
The overhang of homes in limbo means that foreclosure rates are likely to increase dramatically during the second half of this year and into 2010 as lenders work through the backlog, said Bob Bellack, chairman of Zetabid, which auctions foreclosed properties.
More than ever, foreclosure has become an unattractive outcome for lenders.
This could in turn put renewed stress on financial firms that carry mortgages or mortgage-backed securities on their books. As a general policy, many firms have been marking down the value of those assets as the loans become delinquent. But once the homes go into foreclosure and are sold, their value could decline even more, prompting another round of losses at financial companies.
However, lenders have become so swamped with foreclosure filings that they’re having a truly difficult time keeping up. Moreover, our nation’s dedication to foreclosure-prevention programs has redirected a lot of lenders’ and servicers’ attention away from repossessing homes to refinancing rates and modifying loans:
“Lenders are having an immensely difficult time handling the capacity. They are torn between loan modification, short sales, foreclosures, and they are finding they can’t do all these things at once, and do them well, so we’re seeing a lot of things falling through the cracks,” said Howard Glaser, a housing industry consultant and a housing official during the Clinton administration.
Those cracks must be pretty big. According to NeighborWorks America, a large housing counseling group, 60% of homeowners who miss more than four payments before seeking help will end up in foreclosure.
Is a swift foreclosure process the most clear-cut way to speed up the housing recovery? Or has delayed foreclosures (including moratoriums) helped ease the devastating impact foreclosures have on the market?

Rob Alley, Realtor of The Avery Group at Roy Wheeler
540-250-3275 (cell)
roballey@roywheeler.com
http://www.robsellscharlottesville.com
http://www.forestlakesliving.com
http://www.charlottesvillevarealestate.blogspot.com
http://www.charlottesvilleshortsale.com

Mortgage Industry Warms to Obama's Foreclosure Relief Plan

Cities across the country say they are seeing a disturbing new practice when it comes to foreclosures – more and more, banks are opting not to take possession of foreclosed properties because the costs of maintenance, repairs, and legal fees outweigh the still-declining value of the property.
According to a New York Times report published over the weekend, these bank walkaways, as they are being called, are spreading through cities across the nation, from Jacksonville, Florida, to South Bend, Indiana, and Kansas City, Missouri.
In Buffalo, New York, the Times reports that the problem has reached “epidemic” proportions in recent months. In fact, the city of Buffalo has brought a lawsuit against 37 different banks, the newspaper said, claiming they are responsible for the deterioration of more than 57 abandoned homes because they “walked away” from taking ownership of and maintaining the properties following foreclosure proceedings.
Kermit Lind, a clinical professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and an expert on foreclosure law, told the Times, “It [bank walkaways] is what some of us think is the next wave of the crisis.”
According to the Times, experts suggest the bank walkaways are most visible in states where foreclosures are processed through the courts and therefore tend to be more transparent, but roughly half of the states allow foreclosures to proceed without court intervention, making it difficult to accurately count the number of bank walkaways in recent months.
While a walkaway may be the most cost-effective option for banks in today's market – given the fact that lenders can lose up to 50 percent of their investment in a foreclosure – it offers little assistance to the homeowners, who are still on the title and therefore legally responsible for the property's upkeep under city ordinances. In addition, the homeowner is usually unaware of the bank's decision not to repossess the home until after the home has already been sitting vacant, leaving it vulnerable to vandalism and contributing to neighborhood blight.
Larry Rothenberg, a lawyer for creditors' rights firm Weltman, Weinberg & Reis, explained to the Times, “Oftentimes when the foreclosure starts out, it’s a viable property, but by the time it gets to a sheriff’s sale, it might not have enough value to justify further expense. We’ve always had cases where property was vandalized or lost value, but they were rare compared to these times.”

Rob Alley, Realtor
The Avery Group at Roy Wheeler
540-250-3275
roballey@roywheeler.com
http://www.robsellscharlottesville.com
http://www.forestlakesliving.com
http://www.theaverygroup.com

Mortgage Industry Warms to Obama's Foreclosure Relief Plan

Cities across the country say they are seeing a disturbing new practice when it comes to foreclosures – more and more, banks are opting not to take possession of foreclosed properties because the costs of maintenance, repairs, and legal fees outweigh the still-declining value of the property.
According to a New York Times report published over the weekend, these bank walkaways, as they are being called, are spreading through cities across the nation, from Jacksonville, Florida, to South Bend, Indiana, and Kansas City, Missouri.
In Buffalo, New York, the Times reports that the problem has reached “epidemic” proportions in recent months. In fact, the city of Buffalo has brought a lawsuit against 37 different banks, the newspaper said, claiming they are responsible for the deterioration of more than 57 abandoned homes because they “walked away” from taking ownership of and maintaining the properties following foreclosure proceedings.
Kermit Lind, a clinical professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and an expert on foreclosure law, told the Times, “It [bank walkaways] is what some of us think is the next wave of the crisis.”
According to the Times, experts suggest the bank walkaways are most visible in states where foreclosures are processed through the courts and therefore tend to be more transparent, but roughly half of the states allow foreclosures to proceed without court intervention, making it difficult to accurately count the number of bank walkaways in recent months.
While a walkaway may be the most cost-effective option for banks in today's market – given the fact that lenders can lose up to 50 percent of their investment in a foreclosure – it offers little assistance to the homeowners, who are still on the title and therefore legally responsible for the property's upkeep under city ordinances. In addition, the homeowner is usually unaware of the bank's decision not to repossess the home until after the home has already been sitting vacant, leaving it vulnerable to vandalism and contributing to neighborhood blight.
Larry Rothenberg, a lawyer for creditors' rights firm Weltman, Weinberg & Reis, explained to the Times, “Oftentimes when the foreclosure starts out, it’s a viable property, but by the time it gets to a sheriff’s sale, it might not have enough value to justify further expense. We’ve always had cases where property was vandalized or lost value, but they were rare compared to these times.”

Rob Alley, Realtor
The Avery Group at Roy Wheeler
540-250-3275
roballey@roywheeler.com
http://www.robsellscharlottesville.com
http://www.forestlakesliving.com
http://www.theaverygroup.com