Central Florida Short Sales

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Orlando Florida Short Sale with Ocwen Loan Servicing. 

The property:

Investment Property. 2 bedroom 2 bath attached Townhouse located in Coach Home of Dover Villages in Orlando Florida. This property has 1,080 sq ft of living area and was built in 1994. It was purchased in June of 2006 for $165,900. It Sold 5/4/2012 for $50,000. That's a decline in value of 70% in 7 years!! 

Liens:

• 1st Mortgage with Ocwen Loan Servicing for $132,700
• 2nd Mortgage with Ocwen Loan Servicing for $33,200

Hardship:

• Curtailment of income.

Summary:

The property was placed on the market 27 October 2011 for $75,000.  The price was steadily reduced until we placed it pending at $50,000 on 8 February 2012. 

Issues: The biggest issue was my fear of dealing with Ocwen. I had never dealt with them before and everything I had read online was negative. They came across as the worse possible lender to have to do a short sale with. Their short sale package specifically states they will only pay 4% commission and that all closing costs have to be limited to 8% of the purchase price. We also had almost $4,000 in back HOA fees that needed to be paid.

Anyway, I submitted the short sale and said my prayers :) Ocwen was AWESOME!!! I had full blown approval in 43 days from submission. Full commission and they agreed to pay the HOA in full.

Tutas Towne Realty closed the transaction on 4 May 2012. 190 days from listing to closing!!

Ocwen Loan Servicing accepted $40,350 or .30 cents on the dollar for the 1st mortgage. And they accepted $1 on the second!

 ***The Seller received FULL WAIVER OF DEFICIENCY for both loans..

 Do you need help with your Orlando Florida Short Sale?

    Tutas Towne Realty has already successfully negotiated Short Sales with the following Lenders and Investors.

• Chase Short Sale
• Sun Trust Short Sale
• GMAC Short Sale
• Wells Fargo Short Sale
• Bank of America Short Sale
• USA Bank Short Sale
• PNC Bank Short Sale
• Citi Short Sale
• HomeEq Short Sale
• Fifth Third Bank Short Sale
• ING Direct Short Sale
• GreenTree Short Sale
• Capital One Short Sale
• ASC Short Sale
• First Horizon Short Sale
• E-Trade Short Sale
• Transland Financial Short Sale
• US Bank Short Sale
• IBM LBPS Short Sale
• Nationstar Short Sale
• BAC Florida Short Sale
• Real Time Solutions Short Sale
• Fannie Mae Short Sale
• FHA Short Sale
• Selene Finance Short Sale
• Indy Mac
• One West Bank
• DTA Solutions LLC Short sale
• Aurora Short Sale
• Ocwen short Sale

 Can we add you to our list of successful Short Sales?

Hi Bryant,

I am looking for techniques for obtaining Waivers of Deficiencies.  I noticed that you have commented on this issue in the CDPE forums.

I recently listened to an interview and from what I can recall, the silver bullet was to put a rider on the purchase and sale contract which allows the seller the option to cancel the contract in the event that a Waiver of Deficiency can not be obtained.

My first thought was this was pointless, as the seller's lender is not a party to the sales contract.  He went on to explain, however, that the rider serves as an effective tool with which to threaten the lender during the negotiation process, and that he had a lot of success with the technique.

Any thoughts on this technique?  Any other effective techniques to obtain a waiver?

My thoughts:

Most short sale contract contingencies give the seller the right to cancel the contract if the terms of the short sale are not agreeable. So there certainly needs to be something in the contract related to this. However, it will have ZERO effect on whether or not the lender gives a Deficiency Waiver. This is a technique taught by people that don't actually negotiate short sales :)

The way  to get a deficiency waiver is to just ask the lender. And start asking when you submit the Short Sale. It should be in your cover letter and then in every correspondence thereafter. If the lender says "no" then your next question is "What does the borrower need to do to get the full Waiver of Deficiency?" Usually the answer will be for the seller/borrower to make a cash contribution, sign a promissory note or both.

Negotiate as hard as you can. But even then some lender/investors will NOT place a Waiver of Deficiency in writing. If that happens the borrower just needs to make a decision whether or not to go through with the Short Sale or be foreclosed on. By the way, if the Seller decides to file a Bankruptcy they will STILL be foreclosed on.

But just because they won't put it in writing certainly doesn't mean they will spend time and money in the future to go back in front of a judge to get a judgment. My guess is few lenders will do this unless the Short Sale was not done in Good Faith.

A Deficiency Judgment may be more of a fear than a reality. I personally did Short Sales in 2010 on 2 properties I owned. BofA would not give me a Deficiency Waiver. I closed anyway. 6 months after closing I received letters in the mail forgiving the debt and waiving all rights to a deficiency.

Fannie, Freddie, BofA, HUD, HAFA, VA are all good bets that a deficiency will never be pursued if the short sale was done on good faith*****. 

*****Of course I am not an Attorney nor do i play one on TV. Folks need to seek legal advice on this very important issue.

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Hi folks. We have a good discussion going on over at Short Sale Superstars about “Padding the HUD”. If you are not familiar with this phrase, “Padding the HUD” is the practice of adding additional charges and/or inflated amounts to the estimated HUD before you send in the Short Sale request. The idea is that the Lender will take away some of the charges yet leave the ones you really need. It gives the Short Sale negotiator wiggle room.

Wendy and I completely do not approve of this tactic. We teach to submit a very clean HUD that is as accurate as possible then fight to get it accepted. "Padding the HUD" is a trick perfected by weak negotiators.

We negotiate deals where the only thing on the seller side of the HUD is Title search, Title work Title insurance, state doc stamps, commission, property taxes, HOA fees and mtg liens. That's it. We may include 3% seller concessions but only if we can't find a better buyer and we are under time restraints.

If the file has something unusual that needs to be paid we suggest you make it a Buyer requirement at time of contract . Fully disclose this in the MLS PRIOR to the buyer even looking at the property.

Repair issues and other stuff that may show up are determined at time of listing and the property is priced accordingly. If the property has major issues we only negotiate cash deals so financing and repairs are not an issue.

There is ZERO reason for there ever to be a surprise cost involved with a Short Sale. Unless it is a very rare mistake.

So...padding of the HUD is only needed if the negotiator is not doing their due diligence at time of listing. And that is why a 3rd party negotiator who is not handling the listing and the selling of the property has to resort to these tactics.

Therefore a 3rd party negotiator should have a detailed check list of items the listing agent needs to check. There also needs to be a lien search and title search done at time of listing to uncover any issues before the property is sold so any unusual items can be thrown on the buyer side at time of contract.

This stuff is not difficult. I recently saw a padded HUD that had almost $30,000 of expenses on a $180,000 property. $20,000 of these were bogus. Not surprisingly at all the lender countered with a ridiculous price. No one can tell me this wasn't related to the "Padded HUD".

I have personally spoken to lender negotiators about this practice and was told these HUDs are an inside joke. They are not stupid. You can expect guidelines in the near future where the lenders will be the ones giving us the HUD and requiring us to make the deal fit.

My advice is to quit playing games with transactions. Learn how to be a better Short Sale Negotiator. You're kidding yourself and taking the easy way out by thinking "Padding the HUD" is needed.

What say you?

Hi folks. One of my passions is helping other agents with their short sales. Everyday I spend time answering questions on Short Sale Superstars and other forums I participate on.

One of the questions I frequently see is from agents wanting lender contacts so they can have a foreclosure stopped or postponed. My standard response is that the borrower needs to speak with an Attorney and they need to do it ASAP.

It is not our job, as agents, to get involved with stopping foreclosures. Last I checked our licenses are for selling real estate not practicing law. Foreclosure defense is a legal issue not a real estate issue.

Usually the response I get when I answer like this is “Well I’m just trying to help these people out”. No. You. Are. Not.

You are harming them by trying to do something you are not qualified to do.

As Short Sale agents we have to know what we can and what we can’t do. Stopping a foreclosure is one of the things we can’t do. Now we may get lucky every now and then BUT it is still practicing law.

Sellers with a looming foreclosure date need an Attorney. As a Short Sale agent be sure to align yourself with an Attorney that you know and trust so you can feel comfortable referring your Sellers to them when needed. 

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Clermont Florida Short Sale with Wells Fargo. This was a FHA Pre Foreclosure Sale.

The property:

Primary Residence. 3 bedroom 2 bath single family home located in the Savannas in Clermont Florida. This home has 1,848 sq ft of living area and was built in 1999. It was purchased new in Septemebr of 1999 for $114,900. It Sold 4/6/2012 for $87,500. That's a decline in value of 23% in 13 years. This property was never refinanced and had the original 13 year old mortgage. Yet still......underwater.

Liens:

• 1st Mortgage with Wells Fargo for $96,000

Hardship:

• Job transfer out of state.

Summary:

The property was placed on the market 11 December 2011 for $108,000. This was a pre-approved FHA Pre Foreclosure Sale. The price was reduced until we placed it pending at $87,500 on 5 February.

Issues: When the sellers contacted me about placing the home on the market they were under the impression the property was listed with another agent. Turns out the other agent had listed the property and then turned everything over to a title company to handle the short sale. The property had a buyer but they couldn't get Wells Fargo to agree to the price. Wells Fargo gave a pre-approved price of $108,000. The buyer walked and the listing expired. The seller was never informed of any of this.

In fact Wells Fargo also thought the property was still on the market. One of the requirements of the FHA PFS is that the homeowner have the property on the market. They have 120 days to sell it. When I took over the listing the property had never been on the market during this 120 day period. The PFS approval was 21 days from expiring.

Immediately I put in a value dispute and was able to get the value down to $94,000. This enabled us to find a buyer and get an extension on the HUD PFS to allow us time to get it closed.

Tutas Towne Realty closed the transaction on 6 April 2012. 117 days from listing to closing!!

Wells Fargo accepted $79,850 or .83 cents on the dollar for the 1st mortgage.

 ***The Seller received FULL WAIVER OF DEFICIENCY and received $750 from HUD FHA for relocation incentive.

Testimonial:

Bryant contacted me after my daughter in law spoke to her realtor about the selling of our home.  We live in Cali. my daughter in law and sons realtor researched and found Bryant.  They contacted him and told him of our situation.

I have to admit when I was told that I would be contacted by another realtor I was quite skeptical.

We placed our home on the market as a traditional sale February, 2011.  After no offers we decided a short sale was the best option.  After the house being reduced quite a bit and still no offers.  I was at the point of throwing up my hands.

Then Bryant called me.  He gave us hope.  He had our house on the market for less then 6 months, had multiple viewings and an offer.  I closed on my house

April, 2012.

He is honest!  He is caring! But most of all he follows through on his word!!!!

Thank you Bryant!!!!

C. London

Do you need help with your Lakeland Florida Short Sale?

   Tutas Towne Realty has already successfully negotiated Short Sales with the following Lenders and Investors.

• Chase Short Sale
• Sun Trust Short Sale
• GMAC Short Sale
• Wells Fargo Short Sale
• Bank of America Short Sale
• USA Bank Short Sale
• PNC Bank Short Sale
• Citi Short Sale
• HomeEq Short Sale
• Fifth Third Bank Short Sale
• ING Direct Short Sale
• GreenTree Short Sale
• Capital One Short Sale
• ASC Short Sale
• First Horizon Short Sale
• E-Trade Short Sale
• Transland Financial Short Sale
• US Bank Short Sale
• IBM LBPS Short Sale
• Nationstar Short Sale
• BAC Florida Short Sale
• Real Time Solutions Short Sale
• Fannie Mae Short Sale
• FHA Short Sale
• Selene Finance Short Sale
• Indy Mac
• One West Bank
• DTA Solutions LLC Short sale
• Aurora Short Sale
• Ocwen short Sale

Can we add you to our list of successful Short Sales?

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Davenport Florida Short Sale with Bank of America. This was a Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale.

The property:

Investment Home. 5 bedroom 3.5 bath single family home with pool located in Highgate Park in Davenport Florida. This home has 2,459 sq ft of living area. It was purchased new in March of 2006 for $377,000. It Sold 4/12/2012 for $165,000. That's a decline in value of 56% in 6 years. 

Liens:

• 1st Mortgage with Bank of America for $235,000

Hardship:

• Loss of value
• Reduction in rentals
  

Summary:

The property was placed on the market 11 January 2012 for $177,600. After 21 days it was reduced to $169,000. We placed it pending at $165,000 on 22 February.

We received Short Sale approval 15 days later and moved towards closing.

Issues:

None

Tutas Towne Realty closed the transaction on 12 April 2012. 96 from listing to closing!!

Bank of America accepted $151,250 or .64 cents on the dollar for the 1st mortgage.

 ***The Seller received FULL WAIVER OF DEFICIENCY.

Seller testimonial:

To Short sale my house was a very painful decision to begin with, losing the big down payment and all these years investments all together is already something very heavy for me to bear with,  not to mention the thoughts of finding an offer, negotiate with bank for short sale approval, tons of document requests,  many paper work...etc. However after talking to Bryant Tutas initially and working with him for while, I felt like the original pain and pressure was alleviated somewhat. Knowing that he is putting himself in my shoes and trying his best to minimize my suffer from the short sale process gave me great comfort. It turned out that Bryant made the whole process of selling fast, smooth and much less painful than I originally thought it would be.  Furthermore, Bryant negotiate with bank to save me some money on some unpaid dues, even though those are not a lot, But in the situation we were in, any small money helps big. With Bryant's knowledge and experience, he saved me $3000 by separating the sale of the property and the furniture I bought for the house. I just want to say BIG thank you for everything you have done during my short sale experience. You are the best!!! E. Wang

Do you need help with your Lakeland Florida Short Sale?

   Tutas Towne Realty has already successfully negotiated Short Sales with the following Lenders and Investors.

• Chase Short Sale
• Sun Trust Short Sale
• GMAC Short Sale
• Wells Fargo Short Sale
• Bank of America Short Sale
• USA Bank Short Sale
• PNC Bank Short Sale
• Citi Short Sale
• HomeEq Short Sale
• Fifth Third Bank Short Sale
• ING Direct Short Sale
• GreenTree Short Sale
• Capital One Short Sale
• ASC Short Sale
• First Horizon Short Sale
• E-Trade Short Sale
• Transland Financial Short Sale
• US Bank Short Sale
• IBM LBPS Short Sale
• Nationstar Short Sale
• BAC Florida Short Sale
• Real Time Solutions Short Sale
• Fannie Mae Short Sale
• FHA Short Sale
• Selene Finance Short Sale
• Indy Mac
• One West Bank
• DTA Solutions LLC Short sale
• Aurora Short Sale
• Ocwen short Sale

Can we add you to our list of successful Short Sales?

OK....so there are advantages in working from home!!! My 5 year old granddaughter said I looked very pretty. Does anything else really matter?

Folks, as we all know, there are many things that are wrong in the Short Sale world. And in my opinion there is one thing that is very right. The Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale. The Bank of America Co-op is what Short Sales should be.

• Low to no documentation from the Seller.

• Pre-approved pricing with aggressive price reductions.

• $2,500 cash to the Seller at closing.

• Full Waiver of Deficiency.

• 6% Commission..

• Can be an investment property.

It’s basically HAFA without all of the paperwork and time delays. I’ve done quite a few of these and have about a dozen on the works right now. One key point is that you want to be sure to go through the Co-op approval process prior to placing the property on the market.

It may take a couple of months on the front end to get approved for the Co-op and get a listing price but once you have these things the process is very straight forward.

1. List the property at the approved price.

2. Sell it.

3. Upload the contract and HUD into the Equator system.

4. Received the final approval. Usually within 15-30 days

5. Close the transaction.

Easy peasy.

From Bank of America

Important information on a Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale

■ If you successfully complete a cooperative short sale, you will sell your home and will be required to vacate the property.

■ You are responsible for all maintenance and expenses on the property until it is sold.

■ Financial hardship and inability to afford the payments on the property are needed to qualify for a cooperative short sale.

■ The short sale must be an “arm’s length” transaction. An arm’s length transaction means that you cannot list the property with or sell it to anyone that you are related to or with whom you have a close personal or business relationship.

■ Bank of America, N.A. will use proceeds from the sale to pay off the balance of your loan, and will work together with your listing agent on your behalf to facilitate the sale process.

■ We may begin or continue the foreclosure process while we review your request. We will suspend any foreclosure sale date until the expiration date of the signed Acknowledgement of Interest or the date of closing of an approved short sale, whichever is later, as long as you continue to abide by the terms and conditions of the agreement.

■ If the cooperative short sale is unsuccessful, Bank of America may offer you the opportunity to participate in a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure program.

■ Once your short sale is completed, Bank of America will report to the major credit reporting bureaus that your loan was completed as a short sale.

Benefits of a successful Bank of America cooperative short sale

■ If the cooperative short sale is successful, Bank of America will pay you $2500 for moving, relocation, or rental expenses.

■ If the cooperative short sale is successful, Bank of America will not pursue the deficiency balance on your loan.

■ If the cooperative short sale is successful, Bank of America will not foreclose on your home.

So folks, if you have a mortgage with Bank of America and need to do a Florida Short Sale,  I can help. I’ll be waiting to hear from you. Any questions?

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Lakeland Florida Short Sale with Bank of America. This was a FHA Pre Foreclosure Sale.

The property:

Primary Residence. 4 bedroom 2 bath single family home located in Lakeland Florida. This home has 2,484 sq ft of living area. It was purchased in July of 2006 for $214,000. It Sold 3/30/2012 for $160,000. That's a decline in value of 25% in a little over  5 years. 

Liens:

• 1st Mortgage with Bank of America for $200,00

Hardship:

• Divorce.

Summary:

The property was placed on the market 25 July 2011 for $230,000. The price was steadly reduced until we placed it pending at $160,000 on 21 October. The first buyer walked in January but we were able to find a new buyer in about a week at the same price. 

We received FHA approval in late February and moved towards closing.

Issues:

None

Tutas Towne Realty closed the transaction on 30 March 2012. 249 days from listing to closing!!

Bank of America accepted $146,500 or .73 cents on the dollar for the 1st mortgage.

 ***The Seller received FULL WAIVER OF DEFICIENCY and received $1,000 from HUD FHA for relocation incentive.

Do you need help with your Lakeland Florida Short Sale?

   Tutas Towne Realty has already successfully negotiated Short Sales with the following Lenders and Investors.

• Chase Short Sale
• Sun Trust Short Sale
• GMAC Short Sale
• Wells Fargo Short Sale
• Bank of America Short Sale
• USA Bank Short Sale
• PNC Bank Short Sale
• Citi Short Sale
• HomeEq Short Sale
• Fifth Third Bank Short Sale
• ING Direct Short Sale
• GreenTree Short Sale
• Capital One Short Sale
• ASC Short Sale
• First Horizon Short Sale
• E-Trade Short Sale
• Transland Financial Short Sale
• US Bank Short Sale
• IBM LBPS Short Sale
• Nationstar Short Sale
• BAC Florida Short Sale
• Real Time Solutions Short Sale
• Fannie Mae Short Sale
• FHA Short Sale
• Selene Finance Short Sale
• Indy Mac
• One West Bank
• DTA Solutions LLC Short sale
• Aurora Short Sale
• Ocwen short Sale

Can we add you to our list of successful Short Sales?