Suncoast and Sarasota Real Estate Circus!

Sarasota, Florida

Real Estate Market statistics, buying, selling strategies, financing, insurance for Sarasota, Siesta Key and the barrier islands from Ann & Mike Winger, REALTORS with REMAX Tropical Sands.

Favorite Links

• Our Website: RingTheWingers!

• Jack Taylor, Financial Planner

• Luxury Modular Developer

RealTown Blogs

Blogs Homepage

Featured Entries

Site Feed

RSS Feed

Suncoast and Sarasota Real Estate Circus!

Could There BE a Silver Lining to the Chinese Drywall Story?

Apr. 23, 2009

Tagged with: chinese drywall, foreclosures, sarasota short sale specialist, short sale

Hard to Believe Chinese Drywall Could Help You with a Short Sale!

This is a true and funny story and the names have been changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent!)

First if you do not live in Florida you may not have HEARD of Chinese Drywall. During the go-go years of 2004-2006 with the building boom on, US manufacturer's couldn't keep up with demand for drywall for new construction. So we began importing it from China. Now a lot of homes built with the product are having "mysterious" problems with wiring and plumbing corroding behind the walls and air handlers turning black and dying. The culprit SEEMS to be a sulphur gas being outgassed by the drywall. OK that being said - today the Sarasota Herald Tribune had another front page article about the problem and how the various builders affected are handling the situation (or in some cases NOT handling it!) Here's a link to that article:

www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090423/ARTICLE/904231089/2055/NEWS

OK so that puts this in context for you. Now as anyone who reads this knows, we do a fair amount of short sales, and not surprisingly one of them is in one of the communities where one of the builders in the article above built homes. I have been being frustrated with one of the lenders on the home who has been stalling hoping that they would get MORE money out of the short sale. Today I am speaking with their loss negotiator and asked where does she live. She was in a northern state. I asked have you HEARD of Chinese Drywall? Well she had not - so I mailed her the following note with a copy of the article:

"Attached is an article from today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune concerning what is happening here regarding Chinese Drywall. Note that the article specifically mentions XYZ Builders as one of the builders with problem. The subject property was built by XYZ Builders and is in XYZ Builders (name of community) and XYZ has acknowledged this IS one of the affected communities. The value on this property could drop like a stone if we lose this buyer."

And Hey PRESTO - she called back and told me - she is reccommending the bank ACCEPT the current Short Sale and I should have my acceptance letter shortly!!

I may have to incorporate this into my strategy for ALL short sales built after 2003! Guess they really don't WANT to own THOSE houses!

- Mike W.

Permanent Link | Comments (0) | Write a Comment | Send Link

Foreclosures - Rising - Ranting!

Nov. 13, 2008

Tagged with: florida foreclosures, florida short sales, foreclosures

AP Article on Foreclosures Gets Me Thinking...

Below is a link to an AP Newswire article saying that foreclosure rates are up 25% year over year for October of 2008 back to October of 2007. As folks who read this blog know, in a way our real estate practice has benfitted from the spate of short sales and foreclosures but the last two years have been a real eye opener for us as well - on a lot of levels.

My heart goes out to folks who truly have financial misfortune and find themselves upside down and unable to stay in a home they thought they could afford but that is only one piece of this group of underwater properties.

More and more I am going into homes that were built by speculators and investors, they never lived in the home and they did 100% financing on the home - and now they cannot sell them for the outstanding loan balance and they end up in foreclosure. And here I'll use a specific to describe a general, never a good thing, but we have one where someone, AFTER they tried to sell the home themselves and before the home ends up in the property of the bank, literally REMOVED the KITCHEN from the building. Went in with a sawzall, cut the plumbing back to the wall, took every cabinet, appliance, counter, EVERYTHING. Now I can't say for sure WHO did this but the home shows no sign of forced entry. IF the previous owner did it, exactly how does one square the idea that although the bank financed EVERY dime of the home, if it's headed to foreclosure and the bank is going to lose 100's of thousands ANYWAY, then this person can in good conscience take a 50 to 60 thousand dollar kitchen with them as well??

We see it all the time, people are mad at the bank and destroy the home as they are leaving. SOOOO they leave all their NEIGHBORS with an eyesore that cannot be sold and when it does it severely depreciates values all around them and somehow they "punish" the "Bad Ol Bank" for loaning them money they probably shouldn't have borrowed to begin with! I guess I don't understand that logic at all.

I am no advocate for banks who made loans to people who had no business borrowing more than they can afford but conversely I feel if the bank financed the home, all of it, then if you give it back to them you should give it back, INTACT.

What do you think?

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n2-111308.cfm

- Mike W.

Permanent Link | Comments (1) | Write a Comment | Send Link

Foreclosed homes bring stinky pools and health warnings!

Jun. 10, 2008

Tagged with: florida foreclosures, florida short sales, foreclosures

Foreclosed homes bring stinky pools and health warnings!

Saw this article today from Florida Association of Realtors and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the number of dirty pools in Florida due to foreclosures and it struck home.

From what I've seen it is not just foreclosures that end up with that as an issue. As you know if you read this blog at all, we now do a large number of short sales and distressed properties and it seems like the VERY first thing to go when homeowners are cutting back and considering having to short sell is....the pool guy!! :-) And a lot of the property management companies that banks use to sell their REO property may have the lawn mowed but never hire pool care.

The OTHER thing I have learned is that, particularly down here in Paradise, you stop putting chemicals in the pool and even if you run the pump night and day it will be green in about a week to ten days. When they let the electricity go off and then the pool doesn't run - well the pool looks like pea soup in as little as 4-5 days. And if there is no cage then it starts looking like a science project with polliwogs and toads and snakes and mosquitoes pretty darn quick.

I AM amazed though that I find home LISTED for SALE where the power is ON but because the owner fired the pool guy no one is putting chemicals into it and even though it's running it's green. What we find is that, regardless of how well priced it is - if the pool is green it is SO much harder to sell. So I am always encouraging sellers, even those upside down on the loan, if they are serious about selling to keep the pool up but quite honestly I now almost always have a bag or two of shock in the back of the car and some chlorine tablets. At the last short sale we closed (and it was for three quarters of a million dollars on Siesta Key) the buyer asked for the number of the pool guy so he could continue on the "contract" with them. I opened my trunk and pointed to my chlorine tabs and said that the pool guys last day was.....TODAY! Me!

Here's the article - the situation really ISN'T funny if this pool is next door to you:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n3-061008.cfm

- Mike W.

Permanent Link | Comments (0) | Write a Comment | Send Link

Foreclosure Versus Short Sale - Foreclosure May Not Be Best Idea

Oct. 22, 2007

Tagged with: foreclosures, foreclosures in florida, foreclosures versus short sale

Maybe Foreclosure ISN'T Right For You!

A very interesting article hit my desk today from the Florida Association of Realtors. It concentrates on the impact on your credit and other risks of allowing the bank to foreclose on property you own that you cannot make payments on. It points out that a foreclosure can drive a person with a mid 700's credit score all the way into the 400's! And may in fact keep you from getting another loan, period. Worse than that - in some states banks have been "coming after" your personal assets after the foreclosure comes up short - even some folk's personal residence. While neither scenario is palatable, folks facing foreclosure might be FAR better served by approaching the lender MUCH earlier in the process and working with a savvy realtor to work out a short sale with the lender. See the earlier entry on Short Sale 101, but be sure to read the article linked below. - Mike W

FORECLOSURES

A growing number of investors are making the drastic decision to walk away from their properties and ultimately send it into foreclosure. But financial advisors say that walking away from a mortgage is almost always a bad idea: You may lose your ability to take out future loans, and the lender could come after your personal assets, depending on state laws and the terms of your loan.

Read the full story:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n5-102207.cfm

Permanent Link | Comments (0) | Write a Comment | Send Link

September Sales Data Shows Foreclosures Dropped

Oct. 10, 2007

Tagged with: foreclosures, foreclosures down from august, foreclosures in florida

Good News for More Than Just The Banks!

That's right, everyone whose a homeowner should be glad to hear the information from RealtyTrac below showing a national decline in foreclosure activity of 8% and 2% for Florida. Foreclosures have a way of driving down sales prices beyond the home in trouble. When you sell your home, if a buyer needs to get a mortgage, and in MOST cases they do, they will have to have your home appraised and it needs to appraise for enough for the bank to feel comfortable loaning money. A foreclosure as one of the comparables (or "comps") will almost surely drive DOWN the appraisal - meaning the bank will loan less money to buyers wanting to put in an offer on your home. Short Sales have a similar effect but it is seemingly exaggerated with foreclosures as while short sales may run to around 75% of the outstanding loan value foreclosures can go much lower. Factor in things like banks NOT wanting property on their books at the end of a fiscal year and rising foreclosures would have driven down selling prices further. So as the article says.... - Mike W

FORECLOSURES DOWN

It's good news - sort of. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure activities (defaults, notice of foreclosure sales and REO properties) dropped 8 percent nationwide in September. And Florida, though second only to Nevada in the number of foreclosure actions, saw a 2 percent drop since August. The downward trend is good news, but compared to year-ago numbers, many homeowners continue to face challenges in paying the mortgage. Nationwide, the number increased 99 percent in one year - since September 2006. Florida reported 33,354 foreclosure filings for the month, up 158 percent from September 2006. "U.S. foreclosure activity experienced a fairly broad-based retreat in September," says James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, though it's too soon to suggest a reason for the slowdown. The drop could be just a lull, says Saccacio, or it could be caused by investors jumping into the market and buying foreclosures if they believe the price is now right.

Source - Florida Association of Realtors Early Bird News for 10/10/2007

Permanent Link | Comments (0) | Write a Comment | Send Link