Central Florida Short Sales

Hi folks. Recently I was asked by a short sale agent when should they request a “Waiver of Deficiency” for their Seller. My response was to ask at time of submission and then in all lender correspondence thereafter.

An easy way to ask is to use a Short Sale Submission Letter. Below is the format I use. Use this Short Sale Submission letter to outline the terms of the deal and provide any info you want the Lender to consider. I want this letter to be the first thing the lender sees. If you are faxing or emailing your short sale submission package just use this as the first page.

If you are submitting through the Equator system then just add this letter to the front of your contract. That way the lender will be sure to see it.

Here’s mine. I hope it helps.

TUTAS TOWNE REALTY, INC

628 Grand Canal Dr Poinciana, FL 34759

PH:407-873-2747 FX: 407-358-5472

www.CentralFloridaShortSales.com

Email: BrokerBryant@gmail.com

======================================================

3 November 2011

LN# xxxxxxxxxxx  

250 Anywhere Dr FL 33880

Borrower: Mr and Mrs Help Me Please

To who it may concern,

Please find following a complete short sale request with supporting documentation. The borrowers are not able to make payments and have no way of keeping the property. Therefore, we humbly request that this transaction is expedited so we can move towards closing and get this file closed and off the books prior to the new year.

Attached are the following documents:

• Letter of Authorization

• Listing Agreement

• MLS Sheet

• Listing History

• Showing History

• Market Analysis

• Sales/Purchase Contract

• Buyer’s Proof of Funds

• Preliminary HUD 1

• Financial Form

• Hardship Letter

• 30 Days Pay Stubs

• Last 2 Months Bank Statements

• 2010 Tax Return

• 2009 Tax Return

• 4506-T

• Dodd Frank

My comments:

Mr and Mrs Help Me Please hired my company in October 2011 to assist with their short sale. The property was placed in the MLS and fully marketed on over 500 websites including Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com and Homes.com

The property is currently vacant, however, it is being maintained by the borrower. Property values in this area are continuing to decline. The agreed contract price of $140,000.00 is spot on with current market values. Please see the attached Market Analysis.

The buyer is paying cash and can close quickly. We can close this transaction in November if you can give a quick  approval. 

So…on behalf of the Mr and Mrs Help Me Please, I humbly request that Wells Fargo accept this short sale request and relieve them of any future liability.

We are requesting a full Waiver of Deficiency and that this sale be reported to the credit agencies as “Full Satisfaction of Debt”.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or additional information that you may need.  Thank you in advance for you attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Bryant Tutas

Bryant Tutas

Broker/owner

Tutas Towne Realty, Inc

407-873-2747

BrokerBryant@gmail.com

DO YOU NEED SHORT SALE TRANING?

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

 Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.

Hi folks. Do You Want To Close More Short Sales? Of course you do. Here are some tips that may help.

• Educate the Sellers at time of listing. Make sure they fully understand the process and what is expected of them. Be sure they understand cash contributions, promissory notes, tax ramifications and what happens to the deficiency.

• Price the property at market value or more. Negotiate the cleanest contract you can get with a price that you can defend to the lender.

• Know the type of short sale i.e. FHA, VA, HAFA Non GSE, HAFA Fannie, HAFA Freddie, USDA..... and know why this is important.

• Be sure any major repair issues are addressed at time of listing. These could put limitations on the type of Buyer you are looking for. For example: If it needs a new HVAC system a Buyer will not be able to use FHA financing.

• Be in complete charge of the transaction. Know what you can and can’t do then make sure the lender understands that you know.

• Make sure the BPO agent has the information you need them to have PRIOR to them doing the BPO. And know what that information is.

• Make sure you are aware of ALL liens on the property prior to taking the listing.

• Understand that the Seller is not always the Borrower. That works both ways. Example: Child owns the property but the borrowers are the parents. Or...the Seller assumed a mortgage when they purchased the property but the loan is still in the original borrower’s name.

• Stay focused on the transaction. Don’t let “drama” cloud your vision.

• And most importantly, understand that “Short Sale Denied” means....this time. Find a new buyer and try again. And keep trying until you get the job done.

This is in no way a comprehensive list but it will give you some things to think about. Any questions?

DO YOU NEED SHORT SALE TRANING?

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

 Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.

How do we get the banks and asset managers to notice us?

This was a question asked on the CDPE forum site from this morning. It was part of a forum post wanting to know if the Short Sale lenders prefer the CDPE designation over the NAR SFR designation.

Here’s a clue: The lender doesn’t give a squat about your designations! Nor should they.

So.....how DO we get the banks and asset mangers to notice us?

Here are a 10 tips that will help.

1. Submit complete and organized short sale packages with contracts that make sense.

1. Fully understand the Short Sale process and treat the negotiators with respect.

1. Only escalate when all other avenues have been exhausted.

1. If you are a blogger, or spend time on Facebook or Twitter, be sure to write POSITIVE stuff about short sales. Lenders do “Google” agents. If you are constantly writing about negative short sale experiences they will notice you...just in a bad way.

1. Be a “step above”. Help the negotiator have a good experience working with you. If you do have to escalate don’t bash the negotiator. Make them look good in the eyes of their superiors.

1. Be a problem solver not a problem creator.

1. Be able to support your stance with facts and in writing.

1. Work WITH the lenders to get the short sale approved.

1. Build a reputation as one who gets deals closed.

1. Never stop learning and being open for new ways to handle short sales. Know the difference between a regulation or law and a rule or company policy. And know why this matters.

Remember, contrary to popular belief, Lenders prefer doing a short sale over foreclosing. Our job is to make sure we are giving them what they need to make the decision we want them to make for the advantage of our sellers.

If you do these things often enough you WILL get noticed by the banks and asset managers. And when they start dishing out short sale listing this year you will be in a better position to get you some of that business. I know I will.

Do you need Advanced Short Sale Training?

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

(CLICK THE IMAGE IF YOU NEED LENDER CONTACT INFO AND SHORT SALE PACKAGES)

Hi folks. Here we are at the end of 2011. I spent some time this morning reflecting on short sales and these are some of my thoughts, observations and predictions.

• In 2012 Banks are going to have even more control over our real estate businesses when it comes to Short Sales.

• “Pre-approved Short Sale” really means the Bank will now dictate how you market, how you are paid and who you can sell to.

• Examples are:

• Last week I received an email from BofA, for a Co-op Short Sale listing, stating that they require the listing agent to hold 3 open houses and have at least 1 broker caravan.

• I saw an email from a different lender requiring the listing Broker to split the commission 50/50.

• I have had lenders refuse to sell to a corporate entity even though they are NOT the Seller.
  

• Banks are outsourcing more of their Short Sales to 3rd party vendors and are requiring the listing broker to pay for these services out of their commission.

• Loan mods are rarely given. One reason for this is that Mortgage Insurance doesn’t pay out on a loan mod but will on a foreclosure or Short Sale.

• I need to up my game as I did not help enough people avoid foreclosure in 2011.

• I want to help 100 people avoid foreclosure in 2012.

• If you think you are a Short Sale expert...you are wrong. You may be experienced but you are not an expert.

• Short Sales will increase for 2012 in the hardest hit areas.

• You may not need a hardship to sell your property as a Short Sale.

• You may not need to miss payments to do a Short Sale.

• Needing to sell but not being able to due to your mortgage balance being too high IS a hardship.

• Since more lenders may start to dictate how we split the commission on a Short Sale I need to think of alternative ways to get paid and generate income.

• Collect advance commission at time of listing.

• Have the buyer pay part of my compensation.

• Charge the seller and/or lender for clean outs and maintenance.

• Increase our buyer side commissions and fees.

• Hire more agents.

• Cut costs.

•  My partner Wendy Rulnick and I have grown http://ShortSaleSuperstars.com to over 8,000 members and have made it the number one place on the web for folks to get reliable short sale information. We now have almost 50,000 unique visitors per month.

• Lenders “google” the agents involved in a Short Sale. Remember this the next time you go to write a negative article about a lender or a Short Sale.

• Lenders will be hand selecting more Short Sale agents for their distressed borrowers in 2012. (see my last bullet point)

Well folks, that’s it for now. I hope I have given you some food for thought. Please go out and help folks avoid foreclosure. If you don’t want to handle Short Sales send them my way. If they are in Florida I will take care of them personally, if not, I will refer them to one of our Short Sale Superstar. We cover all 50 States.

And if you are in Florida we can co-list and work the Short Sale together. You have options. Just don’t walk away from the Short Sale listing. You owe it to your community to help folks avoid foreclosure.

I will help you in any way I can. Fair enough?

NEED TRAINING? SHORT SALE WEBINAR STORE

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

Hi folks. One of the biggest myths with Short sales is that it takes a lot of time to work them. I have been asked numerous times why I don't outsource my files and use a 3rd party negotiator instead of handling the process myself.

Well it's simple........I enjoy working short sales!! I like doing paperwork and I love negotiating with the lenders. Short sales fit my skill set perfectly.

Time wise I spend about 30 minutes per week per file unless I have something out of the ordinary going on. I can handle about 35 files without too much of an issue and I handle ALL of it. The most time is spent at time of listing during document collection. After the property is under contract I follow up with the lenders once a week and preferably by email if able.

My sellers are updated simply by copying them on all correspondence. The buyer's side get's a weekly update via email.

If I ever reach the point where I can't do it myself the first thing I would do is hire a virtual assistance to do the paperwork. I would still want ot be in charge of the entire process because I truly feel that no body is going to look after my sellers as well as I do.

The majority of my short sales are listed over the internet. Because of that, I rarely meet with sellers.  I hire runners to do photos and set up lock boxes (or the seller does it for me). In fact, I have a closing tomorrow where I have never seen the property, never met the seller and never met the buyer. And I'm on both sides of the transaction! How sweet is that?

Currently I have 30 Florida short sale listings either active or pending. I work from home and go to my office by 6am. I never work past 5, go to the gym 3 days a week (during work hours), cook lunch and eat with my wife everyday. I don't work on Saturdays and Sundays except for a couple of hours early in the morning to tidy up emails.

My title company handles my searches, the preliminary HUDs and all closings. I've worked with the same closer for 16 years and have complete confidence in her abilities to deal with my sellers and buyers. I don't attend closings but I am available if there are closing issues. There rarely are since everything has been reviewed and approved prior to going to the closing table

My sellers and I rarely speak on the phone after the initial consultation. This is a huge time saver plus it eliminates confusion by having all communications in writing. However, I do communicate with them several times a week.

BPOs are scheduled through my showing service and prior to the BPO agent going in the property I email them all of the comps, pictures, repair estimates and justification for the purchase price.

Short sales are nothing more than a process. Short sales do not need to be complicated or time consuming. Know what you are doing and have systems in place and you may surprise yourself with how many Short sales you can handle.

Are you under water on your Florida mortgage?

Hi folks. Whether you like short sales, want to do short sales or want to avoid short sales, short sales are here to stay. Short sales are a major part of the market and in my opinion will become even more so. Lenders WANT to do short sales. A successful short sale cuts losses and keeps the lender from owning a declining asset. 

This post is about taking control of the short sale situation from the get go, knowing what we are doing, preparing the Seller in advance of what to expect and being strong enough in our negotiation skills so we do not have to accept whatever bone the banks want to throw us.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• With a short sale we are submitting CONTRACTS, not offers, to the lenders. We are not asking them to accept an offer we are asking them to accept a "short" payoff so a contingency can be removed from the CONTRACT and the deal can close. Anyone who submits an offer to the lender to see if they will accept it does not know how to handle short sales and is wasting time and clogging up the system. Hopefully we have moved beyond this already.

• The lender is NOT a party to the contract(s)(listing or purchase). They do not control the purchase price and the commission. They do have control over how much they are willing, or able, to accept as a payoff. If this payoff figure is too high then a solution needs to be found. The solution may be to have the seller sign a promissory note, raise the purchase price or lower the expenses of the deal(commission etc...). However, lowering the commission in the deal does not mean the seller is off the hook for paying the FULL commission as agreed in the listing agreement. They can bring cash to closing to pay the difference and/or they can sign a note to the Broker. 

• If the lender, investor or PMI company ask the Seller to sign a promissory note, a good short sale negotiator, will be able to negotiate the amount of this note downward or may even be able to make it go away. The PMI companies almost always ask for a promissory note to be signed when the seller can afford to make payments. Be prepared for it. If the Seller has funds in the bank, IRA, mutual fund and/or decent income chances are they will be asked to pay a promissory note. This should be ascertained at time of listing. Get a complete financial package from the Seller prior to listing the property. 

• Our job is to do the best we can to help qualified short sale sellers salvage their credit. It is the Sellers sole decision on whether or not to sign a promissory note. Their willingness to sign a note needs to be established at time of listing so we don't waste our time trying to help Sellers who are not willing to help us.   

• When a PMI company, Investor or Lender comes back requesting the seller sign a note I take it as an acceptance of my short sale request. Now all I have to do is negotiate the note. I have had a note request of $135,000 negotiated down to ZERO and one for $50,000 settled for $1,500 at closing. BUT the reason I was able to negotiate is because the Sellers truly could not afford to pay. Sellers who are doing a strategic short sale shold be prepared to contribute to the loss.

• Commission should not be an issue in a short sale. A Broker/agent should know before listing the property what lender is being negotiated with and how much commission they will "allow" almost all are 5% to 6% if there are two Brokers...and 4% if there is only one Broker.

Folks, agents are getting screwed on short sales because they don't know what they are doing. Sellers are getting screwed because they are hiring these agents.

Short sales are serious business and need to be treated as such. Sellers need to seek legal and tax advice and then hire a Broker/agent that understands the process.

My biggest frustration is the lack of education of folks trying to handle these transactions. The public is being harmed and that goes against every thing being a REALTOR(R) stands for. Let's take the time, to learn what we need to know, so we can help folks get on with their lives. Let's all step up to the plate. Not only can we help people but we can get paid for doing so!!! Are you ready to get serious?

IF YOU NEED SHORT SALE TRAINING MAYBE WE CAN HELP

 DISCLAIMER: I am a Florida Licensed Real Estate Broker. This article is my opinion based on years of experience and the laws of my State. All Sellers are urged to seek competent legal and tax advice. I am NOT qualified to give advice in those areas. 

Are you under water on your Florida mortgage?

Hi Folks, I read an article from a Realtor(R) about the struggles she is having and how she has reached a crossroads and has to decide whether or not to stay in the business (I'd link to it but it's a private post).

Her article got me thinking about my own situation a few years back. The market in my area crashed in mid 2006. My income dropped over 80% in 2008. In the middle of it all my wife had major medical issues. 

Giving up real estate never even entered my mind. I'm way too independent to work for anybody else. Plus I was 50 years old at the time and only have a high school education (barely). With the entire economy in the pits my options were limited.

So, I had to make my real estate business work. I had to make some drastic changes. The first thing I did was eliminate as much debt and as many monthly bills as I could. I took it down to the bare minimum in a very short period of time. This required selling all of our real estate including doing short sales on 2 of our properties.

We became tenants for almost 2 years while I hunkered down and revamped my entire way of doing business. I focused on growing and expanding my business online, learned how to list and negotiate short sales and started focusing on attracting investor buyers with cash.

I worked on my health. I changed the way I ate and started working out.

I also started meditating every morning for an hour and thinking about where I needed to be as if I were already there.

Success is a mindset. Without the right mindset there is nothing you can do that will change your situation.

Success also requires taking action. We can't hope, wish or pray for business. We MUST go get it. Especially in this market. The days of business coming to us are over and may never be back.

It's now been almost 4 years since we really hit bottom. We have a new home (albeit much smaller) in a great community. I have 2 agents that work for me. I've lost 45 lbs in weight and almost $800,000 in debt. My income needed per month has dropped from about $12,000 to roughly $3,500. I co-own the most active short sale network in the world. My wife is healthy. And life is very good.

It turned out almost exactly how I had envisioned it during my morning meditations. Funny how that works.

I'm sure many of you have some difficult decisions to make. You are at the crossroads. Pick a road then travel it with your head held high. And don't forget to make a plan. Then work it as hard as you can. I hope this helps.

***By the way, I means WE. As in TLW and BB :)

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

Hi folks. If you handle Short Sales then you know the importance of the BPO (Broker price opinion). Lenders heavily rely on the opinion of a neutral agent when it comes to placing a value on the short sale property. So it's important that the agent doing the BPO is accurate.

Of course we all know that this is not always the case. Some BPO agents are good at what they do and some suck.

Yesterday I was doing my weekly follow up on a Short Sale file. This particular Florida Short Sale has two liens on it so two BPOs were done last week. As usual when I speak to the lenders I "make nice" with my goal being to get as much information as I can about the file. I was able to get both lender representatives to give me the BPO values.

This particular property was placed on the market priced at $85,000 and a purchase price of $87,750 was negotiated. This purchase price was spot on with recent comparable property sales so I figured there would be no issue at with the BPOs.

Ok are you ready for this? The BPO for the 1st lien came in at $59,000. The BPO for the 2nd lien came in at.............$149,900!!!!!

Is that comical or what? One property. Two different values. How can there be a $90,000 difference from one BPO to another on a property only worth $87,000? Maybe lenders need to get smart and pay the extra cost to have a full blown appraisal done.

****If you want to learn how to dispute bad BPOs then be sure to join us for Short Sale Superstars Advanced Short Sale Training. We'd love to have you.

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

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"Short Sale Superstars

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Our goal is to provide you with best ADVANCED Short Sale Training available. We are not teaching you how to take a short sale listing and put a package together for the lender.

The instructors for Short Sale Superstars Advanced Training are Broker Bryant and Wendy Rulnick......CHECK IT OUT

You forgot!! The FREE Q @ A with Wendy and Bryant was Wednesday the 7th at 4 pm Eastern time.

DiscussionsRepliesLatest Activity

Hardship Reasons other than Financial - Help I am trying to approve a short sale and the bank said the seller has no financial hardship. Seller has never said so and always made full d… Started by Maria Evans	17	5 seconds ago Reply by Bryant Tutas
The New York Times says the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plans to seek billions to reimburse the two mortgage giants for losses in the 2008 financial crisis. WOW, more finger pointing and no one wanting to take responsibility for their actions... http://money.msn.com/market-news/post.aspx?post=a7… Started by Jeff Payne	7	1 minute ago Reply by Bryant Tutas
Another flopping article on MSN http://realestate.msn.com/more-short-sales-bring-new-scam-flopping   More assumptions without facts in this article.  Looks like the buyers… Started by Jeff Payne	43	2 minutes ago Reply by Bryant Tutas
Shortsale then Flip , is this allowed ?    I just took a property off the market after receiving an offer , the offer is a low ball but what the heck , I felt at least it will get… Started by P Nicolas Velecico	13	3 minutes ago Reply by Bryant Tutas
What's up with the Buy and Bail Strategies?? Do some here feel that it's legal?  Unethical? Or, just a downright bad decision?  I'd be interested to hear how lenders feel about this. … Started by Richard	12	4 minutes ago Reply by Bryant Tutas
EMC (Chase) - BPO came in at 119k - But they will only accept an offer of 218k Can someone explain this to me? I have a seller whose going through a short sell with EMC EMC ordered a BPO and that value came in at 119 M… Started by berry.bowen	11	8 hours ago Reply by berry.bowen
HAFA Rule on 2nd lien holder pay out The first is JP Morgan Chase they have approved a 6,000 payout. The second PNC bank wants 10,000 The buyer is willing to raise the price to… Started by Bud Carey	4	9 hours ago Reply by Carol Pease
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Wendy Rulnick and

Bryant Tutas

Brokers of Record

A Licensed Florida Real Estate Brokerage

407-873-2747

628 Grand Canal Dr

Poinciana FL 34759

ShortSaleSuperStars@gmail.com