Central Florida Short Sales: July 2009

A few months back Baby Bear called Broker Bear to see about placing his home on the market as a Short Sale. Baby Bear had not made payments in about a year.

Being the good little Broker that he is Broker Bear went over and met with Baby Bear. During the meeting Baby Bear mentioned that Papa Bear lived next door and Grandma Bear lived two caves down. Baby Bear wanted to know if either Grandma Bear of Papa Bear could purchase his cave at a reduced Short Sale price.

Hmmmm......it sounded like a great idea but unfortunately the Lender, Country Cave Bank, said "No, they can't do that. It must be an Arms Length Transaction".

Oh well....Country Cave Bank sucks!!!

So Broker Bear placed the cave on the market and worked towards finding a Buyer. After a few price reductions and several months later a Buyer Bear made an offer on the cave. Country Cave Bank had a mortgage on the property for $175,000 and Buyer Bear made an offer of $50,000!

This offer was very much in line with what caves on this side of the mountain were selling for so Broker Bear suggested to Baby Bear that he should accept Buyer Bear's offer. 

BUT......Baby Bear said "NO". Baby Bear, after talking to Papa Bear, decided to take the cave off  the market and let it be foreclosed on. Then once it comes back on the market at a  foreclosure price Papa Bear will buy it back for Baby Bear.

Broker Bear gets squat. Country Cave Bank will lose more money.

Baby Bear, Grandma Bear and Papa Bear can live happily ever after on their side of the mountain.

I wish I could say this was a fairy tale....but it's not. Smart Bears or Scamming Bears? What say Pooh?

www.ShortSaleBasicsSuperStars.com

Copyright © 2009 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Bryant Tutas
Broker/Owner
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker
http://www.brokerbryant.com/

***The content of this blog is solely my opinion***

Hi folks. Having success with Short Sales requires being in charge of the situation from the get go. Buyers and their agents MUST have realistic expectations about Short Sales or...........well just read this.

I have attached the counter offer from the Seller. Only the pages with changes have been included. If the Buyer is agreeable have her initial the changes and then I will send the entire contract to the Seller for signatures and initials.

This is a Short Sale. It will require MINIMUM 60-90 days to get closed. If the Buyer is not prepared to wait this long then this property will not work for her. We will require the deposit to be placed once the contract is signed by the Buyer and the Seller. Once under contract the Buyer cannot just walk away. If they do the deposit will be forfeited to the Seller.

The purchase price has to be a price I can justify to the bank or we are all wasting our time. Recent sales place the value of this property in the $240-$250 range. Therefore the counter offer of $239,000 is firm. This is a very good price for this home.

If the Buyer is agreeable to these terms then the Seller and I will do everything we can to get the lender to agree to the Short Sale. The property will go into pending status and we will provide the lender with all the documentation they need to have this Short Sale approved in a timely manner.

Please let me know within 48 hours your Buyer's decision. I'm looking forward to working with you to achieve a successful closing.

If they agree chances of the Buyer lasting through the Short Sale process are very very good. If they don't........NEXT!!

Want to learn more? Our next Short Sale Basics webinar is Saturday, July 18, at 11:00 Eastern. All five sessions will be available on MP3 if you cannot attend live or miss any. Session 3 we will be covering the short sale listing, price reductions (one of my favorite subjects) and more. See you then!

Are you a Florida REALTOR(R) looking for a change? Check it out. http://TTRealtyNet.com

CENTRAL FLORIDA REALTOR(r) OPPORTUNITIES

Copyright © 2009 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

OK so Wendy and I completed session 2 of Short Sale Basics today. It was awesome!!!! If you want to get in on Short Sale Basics it's not too late. All classes are being recorded and are available on MP3.

So if you have the desire to learn how to handle Short Sales come join us!! It's only $97 for the entire 5 part Webinar IF...you get in now. Once the sessions are completed....the cost WILL be going up.

Wendy and I are spending many hours putting these together and can guarantee you that at $97 we are practically giving them away.

Anyway....check out Wendy's recap of today's class. You just wouldn't figure that a financial work sheet could be so important.

CENTRAL FLORIDA REAL ESTATE SHORT SALE INFORMATION

MAKE AN OFFER ON ANY  FLORIDA PROPERTY LISTINGS HERE

MORE INFO FROM BROKER BRYANT... THE SOURCE FOR CENTRAL FLORIDA REAL ESTATE

Copyright © 2009 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Richard Zaretsky’s recent post..........

"WALK AWAY FROM THE PROPERTY - STRATEGIC MORTGAGE DEFAULTS GROW TO 26%"

got me thinking. His post is talking about the amount of people who are making the "Strategic” decision to default on their mortgages.

TheTruthAboutMortgage.com site had this  to say about the topic.

“A new survey conducted by the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago suggests that more than a quarter of mortgage defaults are strategic, especially when negative equity exceeds 15 percent.”

Some of the comments on Richard’s post were calling this a moral issue. As in “It is morally wrong to strategically default on your mortgage”.

So…….my question is…“Is deciding to default on your mortgage, or not, a moral issue?”

Here are my thoughts: "Strategic Defaults" are rampant in my area. People are living in their houses as long as they can for free and saving their mortgage payments so they can move on with their lives and have a little bit of a nest egg.

These are people with families that have mortgage balances over $200,000 on homes that are now worth $60,000. Foreclosures and short Sales make up 90% of the market in Poinciana Florida and are still dragging prices down.

There is no chance in hell of these properties EVER being worth $200,000 again. At least not in the next 10-15 years..

These borrowers are so far underwater they will NEVER be back on top again. So…. whether they make payments or not, at some point they will have to sell, due to life circumstances i.e. job relocation, divorce, marriage, death.....it makes sense to take the hit now and start rebuilding.

To compound the issue....folks see all of the "bailouts" for the banks and start thinking "Where's mine?" So they create their own bailout.

Is this a moral issue? I don't think so. As much as I hate to say it…I think it’s a sound financial decision. What say you?

Are you a Florida REALTOR(R) looking for a change? Check it out. http://TTRealtyNet.com

CENTRAL FLORIDA REALTOR(r) OPPORTUNITIES

 Copyright © 2009 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved