FOR REALTORS

With the market today a lot of buyers will be attracted to properties offered under a short sale negotiation with a lender. Problem is, if you deal with an incompetent listing agent who has no clue regarding short sales you risk wasting your time and maybe losing your buyer.

Call us if you have a truly qualified prospect buyer who can wait up to 60 days and is looking to purchase a good property at a discount over present market values. We are true professionals experienced in different types of short sale negotiations with lenders... We understand this market as we lived it in Southern California during that state's real estate melt-down of the late 1990s.

You will be dealing with a professional who knows the word integrity, professionalism and who will present your offer to the lenders packaged how they want it... this is very important so that you get a positive response in a reasonable time. A word of caution: be careful to create false expectations in you buyer regarding price. Lenders for the properties in desirable areas such as Weston are less likely to accept a low ball offer than if property is in less of a desirable neighborhood. It is all a matter of math. Good areas will have higher bidders when it comes to foreclosed or 'short sale' property.

FOR BUYERS

FORECLOSURES
In today's real estate climate a buyer can actually find terrific deals listed right in the Realtor's Multiple Listing Service. These may not be foreclosures but homes where families need to move and are willing to price their property very competitively. Furthermore, these homes will be in better condition than most foreclosures out there. However, if you are willing to search through the hundreds of foreclosed property, have the ability, money and patience to repair these homes when damaged, you may find a good deal among foreclosures as well.

Basically a property becomes a foreclosure when a loan is in default and no one has come forward to buy property or bail lender and/or home seller out through a short sale. The property is then foreclosed upon and offered at an auction where if there are no buyers because amount of debt is larger than the actual property's value the lender ends up owning the property.

If you are the home owner read below. If you WANT TO BUY THEM at the auction sale keep in mind that with everyone and their dog bidding on the same properties, the margins on foreclosures are paper-thin. When someone finally ends up with the property, all the equity that once made the property a good deal has been chewed up in the process. Not to mention that now you need all the cash up front in order to buy a foreclosure, fixing all the damage usually found in these types of properties, making it next to impossible for the average person to get started buying and selling foreclosures. You need a very deep pocket and nerves of steal.

We Realtors do get some of these foreclosed properties listed once the bank has taken them back when no one else bought them at the auction sale. However, these homes will typically be listed at a price close to market value or just slightly under as banks by then have dropped even more money to repair them and will try by all means to recover as much of their losses as possible. Therefore, in some instances these homes are no better deals than other property around. Some lenders will actually sit on their REOs (lender owned real estate) for a while trying to recover most of their loss.

'SHORT SALE' (PRE - FORECLOSURE)

A short sale is a negotiation done with the lender(s) of record (prior to a foreclosure) when the value of a given property is below the loan amount and the property owner cannot pay his obligations thus facing imminent foreclosure. If the property is sold at market value there will not be enough money to pay the loan amount nor the closing costs in most instances. At this stage a bank may be willing to discount the amount of the loan that is owed so that the home owner can sell the property at a lower price rather than to go through a foreclosure. For a buyer this is a good opportunity to pick up their dream home at below market price.

To buy under a 'short sale' agreement with the lender of record for a property in distress a buyer needs to be fully pre-approved for a loan and ready to close on the property immediately. The offered amount has to make sense to the lender or else the property will end up being foreclosed upon and buyer loses any chance of getting it at all in pre-foreclosure. Since all offers at this point are subject to the bank's Loss Mitigation Department's approval buyer may not actually receive a counter from the bank if offer makes no sense to them. Therefore, it is important to try your best offer the first time out or some one else will and scoop the deal right from under you before you get another chance.

Buyers looking to purchase under a 'short sale' need to know that a bank may take anywhere between 45-60 days to finalize a short sale approval. Some times, especially if the offer is too low it could sit at the bank's asset manager's desk without a response for weeks. For this reason you need an experienced Realtor to handle the short sale negotiations and be on the banks case to respond as soon as possible. The procedure to present the offer is simple yet it needs to meet the bank's criteria.

If you do not have the time to wait and need to be in a home by a specific date you could be losing valuable time waiting around for a bank's approval. In that case you are better off finding another home among the many to be had in this market.

WARNING:

A 'SHORT SALE' IN NO WAY IS A MEANS BY WHICH SELLER CAN DEFRAUD THE BANK OR BUYER CAN EXPECT TO LEGALLY ROB IT EITHER. IT IS A COMPROMISE WHERE THE PROPERTY, THE QUALIFIED HOME OWNER AND A SAVY BUYER STRIKE A BALANCE IN A SALE PRICE THAT JUSTIFYS TO THE LENDER NOT TO FORECLOSE AND WHERE THE BUYER GENERALLY GETS A GOOD HOUSE AT A VERY GOOD PRICE! --

BANKS, HOWEVER, ARE NOT INCLINED TO ACCEPT ABSURD OFFERS NOT MATTER WHAT A BUYER MAY HAVE HEARD FROM REAL ESTATE AGENTS OR THE MEDIA.. A 'SHORT SALE' IS NOT AN AUCTION SALE AT THE STEPS OF A COURT HOUSE BUT A WAY TO MITIGATE THE LOSS FOR THE BANK WHICH IN TURN RESULTS IN A GOOD DEAL FOR THE RIGHT BUYER!

for a FREE consultation
please call (954) 531-8100

Richard has over 25 years in the real estate business and lived through the California real estate melt-down in the late 1990s. He represented countless homeowners and buyers dealing direct with lenders regarding short sales and foreclosed property which accounted for most of the sales back during one of the toughest markets California has ever seen.

IF YOU ARE FALLING BEHIND ON YOUR PAYMENTS call him as soon as possible for a courteous evaluation of your situation as time is critical if you were to need a short sale.

Call Rich	954- 531-8100

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