If you want to listen to how many ways can I say no, ask me about repairs on a short sale. Or, price renegotiations after short sale approval. There are at least 50 ways to say no to renegotiations after short sale approval.

As a Sacramento Short Sale agent, I try to be explicit when I send the approval letter to the buyer. Often I explain to buyer's agents, just in case they've been living under a rock, that their transaction is an AS IS short sale. There are no repairs. No additional credits. No adjustments to price for unforeseen conditions. If they find something wrong during a home inspection, they can fix it or live with it or cancel. That's the 3 choices.

Pick one. Quit whining.

The bank will not lower the price. It would have to be a major defect, making the home completely unsaleable for the bank to consider a price reduction, so in 99.9% of the cases, it's just not gonna happen. Still, that doesn't stop buyers from whining about it or their agents from trying to change the terms after receipt of the short sale approval letter. That crap comes with the territory. But Mommmm . . . NO. The answer is NO. No, no, no, a thousand times NO.

But Mommmmmm . . . why not?

Because it's stupid. It's pointless. It's a waste of time. It ain't gonna happen.

It's at these moments I see the failed attempts in my rear-view mirror, streaming like ones and zeros. I know the buyer's agents don't see that vision. They haven't been there. They haven't walked in my shoes over the years.

Yesterday's exercise in futility occurred after waiting almost 6 months for approval. Those buyers want a price reduction. Is nobody home minding the store? For starters, it means they can live with the defect because they aren't asking for it to be fixed. The defect? They can't figure out how to turn on the heat or the AC. Their home inspector says it's broken.

The occupants don't seem to have a problem. And if the AC turns out to be defective in some way, who cares? Bottom line is a buyer will buy this home even if the AC unit is ripped out of the yard. Be happy that hasn't happened, I want to say. But I don't, because words seem to fall on deaf ears.

Even a very simple word like the word NO.

---

Certified HAFA Specialist

 

My Sacramento Real Estate Listings

Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.

Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.

The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.

Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.

 

Fannie Mae came out with new underwriting guidelines for borrowers who have a history of pre-foreclosure, deed-in-lieu foreclosure, and short sales.

The guidelines make it easier for some to get financing on a new home ... but more difficult for others.

 

Deed-in-Lieu

Those who previously went through a ‘deed-in-lieu foreclosure’ ... i.e., turned in the keys of their house before the bank could officially foreclose ... have it easier by being able to buy a new home in as little as 2 years. Before, they would have had to wait 4-7 years.

Pre-Foreclosure Sale

It looks like there’s no change for pre-foreclosure sales, i.e., those who were able to avoid final judgment by selling first. Two years before and 2 years now.

 

Short Sale

The biggest punishment comes for those who did a Short Sale without ever defaulting on their loans. Before, there was no waiting period to qualify for a new purchase per se, though most lenders had been reluctant to approve new loans. Now ‘Short Sellers’ must wait at least 2 years, no exceptions.

 

Many, though, have also been stating that those who have gone through a Foreclosure with a capital ‘F’ can also purchase in as little as 2 years. This isn’t true.

It’s important to delineate between the words ‘pre-foreclosure’ and ‘foreclosure’.

• ‘Pre-foreclosure’ means before the foreclosure or final judgment has happened.
• ‘Foreclosure’ means the house has been taken by the bank and title has transferred.

As you’ll see in the Fannie Mae Announcement, only a ‘pre-foreclosure sale’ is addressed.

• A pre-foreclosure sale is one in which the homeowner defaulted and foreclosure proceedings had been initiated ... but a successful Short Sale stopped final foreclosure.
• A Short Sale, it would appear, is a short sale in which the homeowner has not defaulted.

Confused yet? So are we all!

Since these new guidelines do not address Foreclosure with a capital ‘F’, former homeowners must still wait at least 5-7 years before they can purchase a new home.

I think it’s sad, though, that homeowners who have borrowed and scraped and gone into debt to keep those foreclosure papers from being served are being lumped together with homeowners who defaulted. The distinction is a fine line but a valid one.

Adding to the woes of ‘pure’ Short Sellers is Fannie Mae’s requirement that they must be in default at least 30 days before the Short Sale can be approved. Doesn’t this punish the homeowner who is just trying to do the right thing? And doesn’t this deplete the available number of homebuyers ... homebuyers that the real estate market desperately needs for a recovery?

With 3 million homes predicted to be foreclosed this year ... and maybe next year ... and  maybe into 2012, at the end of this long road, there won’t be any homebuyers left.

 *  *  *  *

JUDY CHAPMAN | “Your House ... Your Future ... My Job”

 

HOMES OF DISTINCTION  | WATERFRONT | GOLF COURSE

NORTH SUBURBS | DOWNTOWN ORLANDO | EAST ORLANDO

NEW HOME CONSTRUCTION

 

Oviedo · Winter Springs · Winter Park · Maitland

Baldwin Park · Lake Nona

Downtown Orlando · East Orlando 

 

Ask the Queen of Short Sales about ...

The #1 Way to Avoid Foreclosure

or "How to Sell Your House in an Upside-Down Market"

 

 

 

Coldwell Banker Residential | 521 E Mitchell Hammock Rd | Oviedo FL 32765 | Judy@OrlandoHouseSales.com | (407) 227-7763           

© 2007-2010 www.activerain.com/blogs/OrlandoforSale by Judy Chapman ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Portions of this content may be used with attribution.

Every year as part of the new edition of the Swanepoel TRENDS Report the 160 page Report also looks back at the passing year and lists those events that transpired during the year that made headlines and captured the industry’s attention and imagination. The 2010 edition is due for release on February 8, 2010.

Here are the top events that during 2009 made headlines in the residential real estate brokerage industry.

 

 

#10 Houston Becomes #1 REALTOR® Association

In August 2009 the Houston Association of Realtors® (HAR) officially became the largest local Realtor® board in the United States following a recent rise in membership and a decline in membership at the Long Island (New York) Board of Realtors® (LIBOR). HAR, with a membership of 23,354 surpassed its long standing rival for the top slot by 118.These two have long been the largest local associations by far, with the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors® holding the third spot with nearly 10,000 fewer members. Congratulations to Bob Hale and his team.

 

#9 Metro Brokers Switches Franchise Brands

With 2,000 sales associates the brand switch Metro Brokers made in December 2009 from GMAC to Better Homes & Gardens recorded the largest move of one brokerage company from one franchise brand to another. The departure away from the #1 GMAC franchise in the world to become the #1 BH&G franchise in the world was a major move and strongly refutes the high value many franchises have attached to their brands. Many observe this move as the beginning of more swaps to come as franchisees increasingly look for more than just a name. They want visionary leadership, quality training, technology, Internet and social media savvy solutions and, above all, a dependable partner.

 

#8 RE BarCamp Sets Event Benchmark

RE BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering of people (real estate professionals from different facets of the business) that share and learn in an open environment. It is widely referred to as an “unconvention” with no pre-determined programs or invited guest speakers delivering PowerPoint presentations from a stage. Rather the structure follows a round table of open discussion concerning topics sourced from the registrants and as a result of interaction between attendees. It may only have started in August 2008 but in 2009 it exploded to over 20 major cities across the country and is currently one of “the happening” events in real estate.

 

#7 RVM’s & AVM’s Become Strategic

AVM (Automated Valuation Model) is the term widely used to describe providing property valuation by using a mathematical algorithm based on the data. In real estate AVMs calculate the value of a specific property by analyzing the value of comparable properties sold and registered. The newly announced RVM (Realtor® Valuation Model) follows the same mathematical analysis but hopes to aggregate the information available from 700+ MLS' (Multiple Listing Service) across the country. The NAR, the driver behind the RVM, hopes that this model will become the default valuation method for all financial institutions nationwide. If achieved, this will be a major industry game changer.

 

#6 Realtor® Credit Union Celebrates First Year of Operation

Exactly one year ago at the 2008 Realtors® Conference & Expo in Orlando the NAR announced that it had received regulatory approval and a charter for Realtors® Federal Credit Union (RFCU). The Rockville, Maryland-based Credit Union works in partnership with the NAR as a Realtor® Benefits Program Partner, but it operates totally separate from the NAR with its own board of directors and management team. Now, one year later, RFCU has 3,000 members, $25 million in assets, $16 million in deposits and $8 million in loans, making it larger than 60% of all credit unions today; impressive. With a stated goal of being in the top 5% of all credit unions within 5 years the RFCU is definitely a sleeping giant.

 

#5 Keller Williams Climbs to Third Largest Real Estate Franchise

In March Keller Williams Realty Inc. announced at its 2009 annual convention that it had moved ahead of RE/MAX International to now claim the third-largest real estate franchise in the U.S with 72,794 associates at the end of 2008. This was according to a study by Steve Murray of REAL Trends. According to Keller Williams the growth gained momentum during the last three years of the down turn where it outpaced most other real estate franchises that had lost agents. During the period from 2006 to 2008 KW increased its associate count by an astonishing 52%. Watch out Century 21 and Coldwell Banker. You have someone coming up fast in your rear view mirror.

 

#4 Short Sales & Foreclosures Maintain High Visibility

After increasing more than 30% per year for the last four years, some estimate that foreclosures will drop to about 1.75 million in 2010/11. The Treasury Department continues to place pressure on mortgage lenders to make trial loan modifications permanent. Furthermore in December the Treasury set long-awaited guidelines designed to simplify and speed up the short sale process through its Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program. Until now the short sale process has been cumbersome for all involved; taking as long as eight to ten months to get a transaction to close. The program goes into effect April 5, 2010.

 

#3 Brookfield RPS Acquires a Great Solution

Announcing their second largest acquisition in November 2009 Brookfield RPS became the owner of Real Living Network Services. Combining all the residential real estate brokerage companies Brookfield now owns in Canada and the U.S., they are one of North America’s Top 10 leading residential real estate franchises with more than $20 billion in annual home sales and an estimated 30,000 agents. The reason the Ohio-based Real Living acquisition is such a great solution for Brookfield is that the GMAC franchise they acquired last year was lacking momentum, a CEO and contractually had to replace the name. This acquisition provided them a solution for all three challenges with very little duplication.

 

#2 RPR Becomes the NAR Convention Buzz

Squeezing in a botched (who was invited and who wasn’t) and a confusing (intermingling a B2B and B2C initiative) talking head video press announcement a week before the NAR convention was surprising. However, the timing was great as the buzz propelled the Realtors® Property Resource (RPR) into the most discussed and debated topic at the convention. Billed as the largest single source of real estate information in the world and the “ultimate” member benefit it is also ridiculed as a threat to MLS' across the country. One thing is certain, it is the most significant project undertaken by the NAR in years.

 

#1 Extended Tax Credit Helps Boost Housing Market

In the hopes of sustaining the real estate market's recent momentum, President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 in November, extending the FTHBC until April 2010. The legislation includes language that significantly expands the popular first-time homebuyer tax credit to more than two-thirds of current homeowners and nearly all first-time buyers. This, in its own, will not save the housing market but it sparked a rush to buy homes before the extension was approved in November. This resulted in an increase of 7.4% over October for a record 545,000 housing units sold. With rising unemployment and a sluggish economic recovery, let's hope that the incentive created by the Tax Credit carries the housing market through to the summer of 2010.

 

To reserve you advance copy of the 2010 Swanepoel TRENDS Report at the special pre-publication price visit www.RealEstateBooks.org today. This Report is widely regarded as the leading annual Report detailing the most important business, profitability and technology trends impacting the real estate industry.