Puget Sound Short Sale Blog

Buyers, What to expect during a short sale transaction

James Burton — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:46:13 +0000

As usually the focus of my blogs is to distressed home sellers I thought it may be a good time to write something to the home buyer out there. Odds are if you are looking to buy a home anywhere here in the Puget Sound, whether it be Kent, Renton, Tacoma, Puyallup, Burien or Seattle, you are going to be forced into the decision of whether you want to consider buying a short sale. What to do, oh what to do.

First off, it’s not like your dealing with a leaper and shouldn’t touch. This can be a good way to get a little bit of a deal and possibly a little bigger or nicer home than you would normally have been able to. Don’t get me wrong, banks are definitely not giving away these homes but a good deal is possible.

The thing to remember is be PATIENT. Good things often come to those who wait. I know it isn’t easy but they take a bit of time. Also, I know sellers don’t like to hear this but most of the time real estate contracts are written in such a way that you can back out of the deal before the bank approves the deal. This means that even though have a contract written on a short sale listing you can keep looking. Now you should not be out there putting 50 different offers out there on short sale listings but you should keep your eyes open.

What else should you expect? Expect the bank to counter. So, when you make your offer don’t write it for your maximum as you should leave a little wiggle room.

It is important to work with a real estate agent who has experience with short sale (listing and selling) so they give you informed details of where you are at in the time line of a short sale approval as you get information or requests from that bank.

Random Posts

How long does it take to get a short sale approved?

James Burton — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:28:07 +0000

It would be very nice if I could say it was only 1 month but that is not the case. I would say on average it is 90-120days. Now there are exceptions and a lot of the banks are getting a lot better about moving things along quicker but they just don’t happen overnight like we would hope. I am hearing more and more success stories. In fact this summer I had a Covington Short Sale listing where the loan was with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and when we first got in touch with them they told us they would have approval in 37days. Honestly, I laughed. I thought there is no way they will move that fast but they did. I believe they were slightly over but they were pretty close to their time-frame. Now my group just recently submitted an offer on a Algona Short Sale and they said they will not even look at the documentation we sent for 45days. To make matters worse they won’t accept fax or email, so we had to mail them all the documentation they needed to approve the sale.

All in all I think things are better in working with the banks, especially compared to a few years ago. A lot of the banks are now using the “Equator” system which seems to work pretty good.

The key is to using a skilled and trained Short Sale Negotiator who knows what documentation will be asked for before it is even requested. Missing documents the banks need to make their decision is a big cause for the process taking so long. I have been through a few Short Sale negotiators and I have to say I think I have finally found “The One”!

Random Posts

Article from DFI and Washington State Dept of Licensing

James Burton — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 21:55:17 +0000

The Wa DFi (Dept of Financial Institutions) and WA Dept of Licensing has just recently come out with a consumer publication for for home sellers called the “Short Sale Seller Advisory“.

If you think you may be needing to sell your home soon and you think you owe more than your home is worth this advisory has some good information for you.

As always I am here to help answer some of your specific questions.

Click here for a copy of the document from DFI and Dept of Licensing

Random Posts

Are we at the bottom yet?

James Burton — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:45:05 +0000

Are we at the bottom yet?

Well…. This is a tough question to answer and the truth is that only time will tell. But…. we can sure have fun looking as some statistics and make a good guess. As much as it pains me as a licensed real estate agent to say it but I use Zillow.com sometimes to get into. Not for home values as of course as a professional I think I am the best at that! I do use Zillow for statistics as they are a great source. I randomly checked a few different areas: Kent, Federal Way, Tacoma, and Maple Valley. Most all of them showed a year over year drop in median sale price but when you looked at some of those cities specific communities some of them were actually showing and up-tic!

A little disheartening was looking at home much values have come down from September 1, 2007 to October 1, 2010. Between those cities there was an average median sale price drop of approximately 15-27%, ouch!

As an real estate agent out there regularly showing homes to my clients I have to say that I think a big factor in the fall of our median sale price is the condition of a lot of the homes out there for sale. There just seems to be a lot of homes that need a lot of TLC. I am hearing more about banks actually spending a little bit of money fixing up some of the homes they foreclosure upon before they put them back up for sale and I think that will definitely help the numbers.

So back to the question are we at the bottom yet? In my very rough estimation I think we have got to be very close if we have not already seen the bottom and are very very slowly creeping our way up or at least getting things stabilized. With prices and interests rates being as low as they are it will help move inventory as buyers are able to get a good home for close to or the same as what they are paying for rent on a single family home.

Unfortunately if you are needing to sell your home and you purchased your home in the last 5 years and did not put a whole lot into your down payment you may have to look at selling your home as a short sale.

Random Posts

Short Sale vs Foreclosure – 2 home loans

James Burton — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:14:52 +0000

Short Sale vs. Foreclosure – Part 2

Another big reason to pursue a short sale vs letting a home go to foreclosure is if the home owner has two loans. A lot of home owners have two loans on their property. With the rising values a few years ago a lot of US (yes me too) got home equity lines of credit on their homes or second home loans. If your first mortgage were to foreclose your second mortgage you had on the home would get nothing and could come back and try to get a deficiency judgment against you for the amount you owe. In a short sale both of the lenders get a piece of the sale amount and it is possible to prevent the lenders from pursuing the borrow for the deficiency in the amount they got from what was owed.

Is this getting a little complicated?

Feel free to email or call me to discuss your specific situation. Or, Click here to send me your info

Random Posts

Short Sale vs. Foreclosure

James Burton — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 01:33:23 +0000

Short Sale vs. Foreclosure – part1

This is a big question! As a real estate agent it pains me to admit but sometimes it is better for a seller to let a property foreclose than sell it as a short sale. Most of the time however it is always worth the effort to try to short sale. Why? Well……..

First I think it is a honorable thing to do. Just as a personal belief I think the borrower who takes out the loan even after falling under hard times should do the best they can repay the most they can from the loan commitment they took out. In most cases it seems that a bank gets more in repayment of their loan from a short sale vs the amount they get from a foreclosure sale.

Second, it is better on your credit report to not have a foreclosure. After a short sale a borrower could be back able to be getting a new home loan in two years or less. After a foreclosure it could take 3-5 years before being able to get a new home loan.

If you think you need to consider doing a short sale on your home click here.

Random Posts

Renton, Wa Short Sales Listing Statistics

James Burton — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:20:34 +0000

After seen then numbers for Kent on my previous Blog post I just had to check on what the numbers for Renton looked like also. As I personally specialize in the South King County area I thought it would be good to know. Remember, this is the numbers for stick built homes $400,000 and under.

Total Active Listings: 511 of those 141 (27.6%) are short sales
Total Pending Listings: 194 of those 94 (48.5%) are short sales
Total Sold Listing (last 180days): 441 of those 54 (12.2%) were short sales

Roughly these are close in percentage to Kent. Just another reminder that if your are needed to short sale your home, it is not enough to just get it listed. You need to get a professional short sale agent who will get it SOLD. Way too many listings sit for sale and need a professional to help them get the bank to agree to work with them as a short sale. You need to qualify your listing agent to make sure they know how to navigate a short sale and what their strategy will be.

See the Short Sale Tab if you yourself are needing to discuss selling your home as a short sale.

Random Posts

How many Kent Short Sales are getting Sold?

James Burton — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:20:01 +0000

Out of curiosity I did a check on the number of Kent short sales price under $400k that are listed in our local MLS and thought the numbers were pretty interesting. So using the parameters of Active, Pending and sold (in last 180days) and being noted as a short sales, here are the results.

Active: 167
Pending: 99
Sold: 56

What does this mean? To understand what this means you need to know the FULL Kent residential numbers, meaning everything (hardship listings, normal, and bank owned). Here are the Results:

Active: 493 (33.9% are short sale listings)
Pending: 237 (41.7% are short sales)
Sold: 445 (12.6% were closed short sales)

The first thing that stood out to me was seeing the number of sold listings that were short sales verses the total number of total sold properties. Seeing how many active and pending short sales there are and how few are sold makes me see how important it is for a seller to use a licensed real estate who specializes in short sales vs. using and agent who is willing to list a short sale. I think there are a fair number of short sales that are listed, maybe even pending but not getting closed and sold, which leaves the seller in foreclosure.

This information leads me to believe that you do not just want an agent who is willing to list your short sale home but need an agent who specializes in short sales and has a method and strategy to get it closed!

If you are in the King or Pierce county area and need a referral to an agent who specializes in CLOSING short sale listings click here to send me your information and I’ll get you in touch with one of my professional short sale listing agents who can help you and answer your questions.

Random Posts

Short Sale Bank approval!

James Burton — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:18:49 +0000

My team has just this week received bank approval this week to sell our clients home at an approved price of $160,000. What does this mean to a homeowner and seller? Well…… some buyers and their real estate agents do not like to go out and see listings that may be short sales because there might be a lot of waiting to find out if the bank is going to accept their offer. In this case this home is READY! A buyer can come make an offer on this home at the approved price and close in a normal time period. This home has already had the waiting game removed. My team strategizes the best way to get the home approved as quickly as possible and be able to capture the greatest amount of the buyer market interest.

Here is a video of this home if you may know of anyone who is ready to buy!

See this and other listing on the Current listings tab at the top of the page!

Random Posts

Creative Loan Modification

James Burton — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:17:06 +0000

It is exciting to get this first blog underway as I just got done meeting with a local Kent attorney had he had some creative ideas. This firm is using a bankruptcy filing to push a lien-holder into modifying a loan. The very neat part about this is that if the homeowner has a second mortgage that’s value is above the value of the home they are able to get the second mortgage wiped away and so the homeowner is only left with the first mortgage and so they are not only enjoying the benefit of having their first mortgage modified to better terms they now longer have a second mortgage to pay on as well! It is always interesting to ask around and meet other professionals and see how they are tackling the issues we are coming up against!