Short Sale Strategies

<p> When I was told today that Countrywide no longer authorizes a 6% commission, I thought.. what a great discussion topic. How DO YOU hold the line on your commission? What arguments for the various banks work in your experience and what banks are useless to argue with? I&#39;ve had great success with holding onto commission except for B of A and WaMu. How about you? </p>

<p> Has anybody had any success asking for a credit towards closing costs when representing a buyer in a short sale situation? </p> <p> I have a buyer who is pre-approved for an FHA loan and has sufficient down payment for that but insufficient to cover the closing costs. </p> <p> Bernard G </p> <p> </p>

<p> I&#39;m working on on some Short Sales and there are recurring concerns from the sellers. I kinda know the answers but would like something more definative. </p> <p> 1. Question - I understand that the lender&#39;s loss on my loan is considered as income to me and the lender will send me a 1099. Will I have to pay taxes on this? </p> <p> 2. Question - The property I&#39;m in trouble with is income property. Can my lender come back and make me sell my home? Can they go after any other assets? What if I own another income property... can they come after that? </p> <p> 3. I heard that the lenders might ask me to sign a promisory note for their loss. Will this happen? Can you protect me from this? </p> <p> If any of you out there have some good replies, I&#39;d love to hear them. Of if you&#39;ve run into any other seller concerns, please present them. </p>

<p> Could you tell me why I would or would not want to use short sale companies such as BG3.com </p> <p> </p> <p> Shelby Hull </p>

<p> I have a prospective client in the Bay Area who just took a job in Southern California. He is now working down there. His home here is probably worth around $900K but at that he would need to bring $80K to closing, This does not consider closing costs (which his new employer will cover) and the reason for his situation is that he bought the home with 100% financing. </p> <p> He knew some of this when he accepted the job and was prepared to borrow from his 401K to make up some of the shortfall (he expected around $50K) but obviously his choice to move to Southern California was freely made. He had a good job here at the time. </p> <p> Is this a viable short sale candidate? He has not missed any mortgage payments of course. </p> <p> Bernard G </p>

<p> I&#39;ve gone through much of the discussions and am not seeing anybody comment on negotiating with a banks counter offer. After 2 months of waiting for an answer., so far we&#39;ve gotten only a &quot;verbal&quot; counteroffer communicated by the listing agent from the bank on the price. </p> <p> I have a second pending short sale offer waiting approval which I am being told the lender is countering only in writing and taking 7-12 days in which to send it out to the seller. </p> <p> Has anyone had any luck negotiating with banks on their counters or advise the buyers if they are unwilling to budge on their terms to move on. </p> <p> Christy Bishop<br /> Associate Broker<br /> Raimondi, Realtors, MD<br /> <a href="http://www.CBMOVING.com">www.CBMOVING.com</a> </p>

<p> Here in Michigan if you borrowed more than 80% to purchase your home within the last four years you are more than likely upside down, with our 25-30% market correction over the last two years it has been tough. Highest unemployment in the nation. </p> <p> Therefore, I have been working alot of short sales as a result, even if they do not start out that way. Some consistant information the banks are requesting: 1.) Letter of Authorization 2.) Hardship letter (search google on Hardship letter for Short Sales. Great outlines and examples) 3.) Two year tax returns 4.) Two months bank statements 5.) Last two pay stubs 6.) Pre-HUD-1 7.) Purchase agreement 8.) Pre-Qual for Buyer. </p> <p> If the loan is underwitten by Freddie Mac they will also want a Freddie Mac Financial workout sheet. </p> <p> The sooner you can put all of this together the better so that when an offer comes in you can submit a complete package all at once to the lender. We seem to have greater success and shorter wait times doing this. </p> <p> Great group, look forward to learning from and sharing info with you all, </p> <p> Regards, </p> <p> Dave Walker e-PRO REALTOR </p> <p> Foreclosure Avoidance Specialist </p>

<p> Anyone have any success stories about how they got the MI company on board to complete a short sale? Also, would love any suggestions that you think might work! :-) </p> <p> <strong>VITALS</strong> </p> <p> BPO 229K Offer 220K Owed 266K; buyer is completely ready to close; Contact: AHMSI (AKA Option One) file was complete bank said yes PMI company said get more money if we foreclose... </p> <p> Thanks in advance Everyone! </p> <p> Christina </p>

<p> RaytheRealtor asked on another thread the question below related to gaining business in the short sale niche. I thought it deserved its own topic. </p> <p> <em>&quot;I&#39;m just to the point where I feel confident to get into Short Sales. Any advice as to how to get the sellers? I&#39;ve been passing the word around like crazy. Are newspaper ads successful? What works? &quot;</em> </p> <p> For me, its about blogging. Yes, become the expert in your area on short sales. Almost 100% of our business has come from the blog, and in fact then, I get questions from others around the country. Write articles within you expertise, just start writing. You&#39;ll probably learn a lot of information even here, topics to blog about. You can set up a realtown blog, or (oops, sorry!) I used wordpress for my short sale blog. Some of our listings have come from referrals from our friends, family, clients who know us now as the short sale &quot;go to&quot; agents. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.CCShortSales.com">www.CCShortSales.com</a> </p> <p> Anyone else care to share how they&#39;re getting so much business? I know some go after the NOD&#39;s filed... next? </p>

<p> Does anyone know if the bank obtains a judgment against the borrower for the amount of the deficiency at foreclosure can they then place a lien against the borrower&#39;s primary residence? Thanks. </p> <p> Christina </p>

<p> My customer has his mortgage with the same bank he has his checking and savings. The bank froze his savings and checking accounts. I didn&#39;t think they could do that. They also took money out of his account and paid the taxes. So much for keeping all eggs in one basket. Anybody know the law in Florida? </p>

<p> Part of doing the right job on a short sale is knowing your numbers. I find that most agents doing a short sale just list it at a price where they think it should sell without knowing if the lender will (or should) accept the offer. </p> <p> Acceptance depends on the loss to the lender. As I understand, if the loss is less than 30%, then the transaction is handled by a low level person and is very likely to go through. At higher losses, the acceptance has to be escalated. The lower the level, the better the chance in getting acceptance. </p> <p> I had the opportunity to see the web site of Short Sale Genius. As part of their package, they have a calculator which you can enter the appropriate info and the program will give you the numbers both for a short sale as well as what the lender can expect to get if they foreclose. </p> <p> Question: Does anyone have such a calculation in like an Excel or FileMaker format? </p> <p> Question: Does anyone know how to compute what the lender should expect if they foreclose? </p>

<p> As evidenced by some here , doing short sales also means learning how to manage your clients in distress.... It is heartbreaking for many to lose their homes. Others have resolved themselves to the fact and can move on. How do you respond and approach a homeowner you know is very emotionally fragile...and near the edge.... they have no money for counseling or insurance or their insurance does not pay or pays very little. </p> <p> Some are not only losing their homes they have lost jobs...making their situation even more critical....... </p> <p> We have one client in particular who is really struggling and appears to be near the edge. We know she has friends but all most every time we speak to her she is in tears and/or appears hostile. We do not take it personally. We needed some additional documents from this person so I emailed from a different approach. After requesting again what we needed and why ,I asked her is there anything that Catherine and I can do to help you through this time....If we were to offer you a certificate for massage or facial would you take it and go do something nice for yourself? </p> <p> She called me this AM to say she has the documents were available for pick up and her voice seemed more calm. Whether she will take us up on our offer I do not know. </p> <p> Another facet of learning and enhancing our skills in meeting clients needs in these times........ </p>

<p> HI.. thanks so much for the new group! Hopefully we can all reduce the amount of time from agreement to approval! I have a current client who is facing foreclosure with Wells Fargo. She has a second with TCF. TCF has agreed to give her 3 more moths before they persue foreclosure but she needs Wells Fargo to do the same. Anyone out there have a stellar Wells Fargo contact or tips to get them to agree? We are being agressive on price--- however this is a bank-owned neighborhood at this point. </p> <p> Thanks! </p>

<p> I have been trying to avoid getting involved with short sales but now accept that it will become a necessary part of my business as it doesn&#39;t look like they are going away any time soon. At least the lenders seem to be figuring out how to cope better than they were. </p> <p> A question I have regards qualification though. When a seller is upside down but has enough money in the bank to bring cash to the closing, what is the likelihood of the lender approving a short sale? The seller says he would rather just be foreclosed on than bring cash to closing. </p> <p> And then what about the seller who was willing and able to bring cash to closing (around $60K) if we got the list price for his home but it now looks like it will end up selling for maybe $40K less. This is $40K he doesn&#39;t have so what is likely to happen then? </p> <p> I think it was Catherine that said we need to take a consultative approach with our clients and remember that a short sale is not always the answer for them. Certainly I will always tell them that they need to discuss the implications with their tax advisor and/or attorney even though I know many of them won&#39;t. I also suspect that although their tax advisor can tell them what the tax implications are, they often know less than us about the short sale process. </p> <p> Bernard G </p>