Real Scottsdale Living isn’t just a site about real estate in Scottsdale.  It’s not only a place where you can search for properties, learn about the Short Sale process, or research what the community has to offer.  It’s also a site about getting REAL in Scottsdale.  The name Real Scottsdale Living was born after seeing Steve Belt’s success with Real Phoenix Living.  Steve Belt, formerly a real estate agent and property manager with Realty Executives, now owns and operates a successful coffee shop at 78th Street and Thomas called Echo Coffee.

Me Too, Me Too

At the time I discovered Steve’s real estate blog, being part of a blogging community was more important to me than working on real estate, which essentially is working on relationships.  True, blogs provide a way to develop relationships, but when I first began this venture, it was all about being noticed as a blogger.

We Can’t Focus on That

Boy was I on the wrong track, and thankfully, I believe the purpose of this website is evolving into something that means more than I ever thought it would.  What that is, I can’t exactly place yet, but I know that I have a higher sense of purpose in mind, and I think it may have something to do with the hidden meaning in the name of this site.

What It Boils Down To

True, the name is good for search engines, and it’s good for indexing based on common real estate phrases, but I think I got lucky with the name, because the higher purpose of this site is to help people realize (REALize) their financial dreams through the process of personal refinement.  I’m on a mission to help people who are ready to get REAL about life in Scottsdale, their life in Scottsdale.

I’m a pretty straight forward guy.  I say what I think when I think it as long as I can debunk the myths that I tell myself, and I’m okay if you don’t like it.  There are plenty of people who do, and I work with them to help them achieve their real estate results.

What Prompted This Post

I came across the following statement that is a clear myth we all buy into from time to time.  “I can’t do it.” I nothing more to say to someone who says that “I can’t do it.” I find myself believing more and more that I can do it as I pick myself up over and over again to continue through something even after I fail at it.  “Until you try, you can’t possibly know what you can or can’t do.” – Gary Keller, Keller Williams Real Estate.

Coming from a mastermind of the real estate world, a statement like this sinks in and does its work in my heart and in my mind.  But what about in others’ hearts and minds?

The Daily Risk

I have found that it is so much easier to be pulled down by people who live inside of “I can’t do it” than it is to pull myself up and out.  If you surround yourself with people who believe they will never succeed, or that they have reached their limit, it’s likely that you’ll follow along with them because you’ll be afraid of going against the grain, because going against the grain means discovering something new, which means change will happen.  When change happens, old relationships pass, and new ones begin.  So the daily risk of surrounding yourself with people who don’t believe they can do it, is a very high risk activity, and the risk is never creating new relationships that can help you achieve your goals.Similar Posts:

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• The Debate Continues: One User’s Opinion on Renting vs. Buying
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It’s all dependent upon the interpretation of the term, “The Right Time to Buy.”

For a pushy sales person, the right time for you to buy a home may be RIGHT NOW!  TODAY!  Don’t WAIT…can’t you smell the steak on this grill?  But the truth of the matter is, the right time for you to buy a home is when you are able to, financially.  There aren’t any programs, tax credits, special incentives, or “great deals” that should make you feel as though you’re losing out if you don’t buy, especially when you’re not ready to handle the responsibilities associated with owning a home.

That includes when the market is down.  In fact, I would submit that the fluctuation in the market is going to affect only a few things for the buyer who is ready, and those things are location, location, location.  True, a down market (or a market where real estate is on sale, like it is now) it would be the best time to buy for someone who is ready to buy.  But, it may not be until the market has climbed a bit before you’re prepared.

Your finances should be in order before you consider such a commitment.  You should have 6 months of reserves based on the prospective home’s costs to survive if you experience an emergency.  You need health insurance.  You need to be generating income.  You need to budget and plan your retirement and your children’s college funds.  AND you need to be in the mindset that you won’t enter into a purchase contract on a home until you can put 20% down and take out no more than a 15-Year fixed rate mortgage that carries no more of a payment than 25% of your net take-home pay.  You need to have all of your debt paid off, have no car payments, no credit card balances, and no student loans.  If you’re about to get married, wait until you’ve been married for a year before buying, even if you’re financially ready.

Sound like an unreasonable proposition?  It’s very possible, provided you’ve made some good decisions along the way.  If you haven’t, and you’ve gotten yourself deeply in debt, don’t buy a house yet.  Wait.  I don’t care how “good of a deal” it is, and how “down” the market is.  You may not be ready to buy that house until the market is up, in which case, you’ll buy something a bit smaller, perhaps in a different location, but with the goal of owning the home free and clear as fast as possible so that you can pursue the next venture.

The right time to buy a home is when you have a plan that will lead you to not having payments on it.Similar Posts:

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Since the introduction of photo tagging in Facebook, there have been those who would rather not be associated with certain photos, quickly removing their tags from your unflattering or embarrassing photos.  My argument has always been to give the photographer the option to make a tag private, so nobody but the author knows, simply for the sake of “tagging” as it’s intended…to index your photos by who is in them.

Now, with the release of Facebook Places, a location based “here I am” feature much like Yelp, Gowalla, and Foursquare, it is possible for you to tag someone else in your “here I am.”

Essentially, this is the same as photo tagging, but it’s really tagging the person in real time, but there’s no evidence that it’s actually true.  In the photos, the tagged user is obviously there.  In a Places tag, I could say someone is there who isn’t.  That could cause problems.

For the transparent, who lives his or her life on the up and up, having someone tag you as being somewhere you are shouldn’t be an issue.  After all, if you don’t want to be seen somewhere, why would you live in secret and hide it from others?  There are certainly valid and healthy reasons you would want your location not to be disclosed.

Thankfully, you have control over this, but like most other privacy settings, the default is for the ability to tag you to be enabled, not disabled.  If it wasn’t enabled by default, people wouldn’t know about it.

How To Prevent Others From Tagging You

1. Login to Facebook.
2. On the Account link (upper right hand corner), click Privacy Settings.
3. Click Customize Settings.
4. Scroll down to “Things Others Share.”
5. Under “Friends can check me into places” select Disabled.

There are two other settings related to Places that you can set in the “Things I Share” section.  Set these according to your personal preference.

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• Get Off The Couch and Look Out Belay

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

Escrow:  1590s, from Anglo-Fr. escrowe, from O.Fr. escroue “scrap, roll of parchment,” from a Gmc. source akin to O.H.G. scrot “scrap, shred” (see scroll (n.)). Originally “a deed delivered to a third person until a future condition is satisfied;” sense of “deposit held in trust or security” is from 1888.

A simple example:

You agree to buy a car online for $10,000.  The car is on the other side of the country.  You entrust your money to an escrow company, and the seller entrusts the title to them as well.  Upon delivery and inspection of the car, you decide that everything is in good order, and you report to the escrow company that all is well.  The escrow company releases the funds to the seller, and the transaction is complete.

The Life of an Escrow

This section explains the life of an escrow during a real estate transaction, and the very first step begins with an experienced real estate agent’s ability to negotiate the right purchase price on a home.  Once that happens, the following process kicks off.

The Buyer

• Provides the Title/Escrow company with an offer to purchase (or acceptance of counter offer) along with a good faith payment called the Earnest Deposit, which is negotiable, but typically 1% – 2% of the purchase price.
• Approves and signs the escrow instructions and other related instruments required to complete the transaction.
• Approve the preliminary report or title commitment and any property disclosure or inspection report required in the purchase and sale agreement.
• Approves and signs new loan documents and fulfills any remaining conditions contained in the contract, lender’s instructions and/or the escrow instructions.
• Deposit funds necessary to close the escrow, such as the remaining down payment or renegotiated earnest deposit, etc.
• Approve any changes by signing amendments in the escrow instructions.

The Buyer’s Lender

Obviously not considered if the sale is all cash (yes, it happens, and it happens a lot.)

• Accepts the new loan application and other related documents from the Buyer(s) and begins the qualification process.
• Orders and reviews the property appraisal, credit report, verification of employment, verification of deposit(s), preliminary report and other related information.
• Submit the entire package to the loan committee and/or underwriters for approval. When approved, loan conditions and title insurance requirements are established.
• Informs Buyer(s) of loan approval terms, commitment expiration date and provides a good faith estimate of the closing costs.
• Deposit the new loan documents and instructions with the settlement agent for Buyer’s approval and signature.
• Reviews and approves the executed loan package and coordinates the loan funding with the escrow officer.

The Escrow Settlement Officer

• Receive an order for escrow and title services.
• Place order for the preliminary report or title commitment for the subject property from Fidelity National Title.
• Acts as the impartial “stakeholder” or depository, in a fiduciary capacity, for all documents and monies required to complete the transaction per written instructions of the principals.
• Prepare the escrow instructions and required documents in accordance with terms of the sale.
• With the authorization from the real estate agent or principal, orders demands on existing deeds of trust and liens or judgments, if any. For assumption or subject to loan, orders the beneficiary’s statement or formal assumption package.
• Reviews documents received in the escrow: preliminary report or title commitment, payoff or assumption statements, new loan package and other related instruments.
• Review the conditions in the lender’s instructions including the hazard and title insurance requirements.
• Present the documents, statements, loan package(s), estimated closing statements and other related documents to the principal(s) for approval and signature, and requests the balance of the buyer’s funds.
• Receive the proceeds of the loan(s) from the lender(s).
• Determines when the transaction will be in the position to close and advises the parties.
• Assisted by title personnel, records the deed, deed of trust and other documents required to complete the transaction with the County Recorder and orders the title insurance policies. Depending on the property location, the recordation of the documents may occur after the closing date.
• Close the transaction by preparing the final settlement statements, disbursing the proceeds to the Seller, paying off the existing encumbrances and other obligations.
• Deliver the appropriate statements, funds and remaining documents to the principals, agents and/or lenders.

The Seller(s)

• Accept Buyer’s Offer to Purchase and initial good faith deposit to open escrow.
• Submit documents and information to escrow holder, such as: addresses of lien holders, tax receipts, equipment warranties, home warranty contracts, any leases and/or rental agreements.
• Approves and signs the escrow instructions, grant deed and other related documents required to complete the transaction.
• Orders inspections, receives clearances and approves final reports and/or repairs to the property as required by the terms of the purchase and sale agreement (Deposit Receipt).
• Fulfills any remaining conditions specified in the contract and/or escrow instructions; approves the pay off demands and/or beneficiary’s statements.
• Approve any final changes by signing amendments to the escrow instructions or contract.

The Title Company

In Arizona, title and escrow are one in the same.  They perform both functions.

• Receive an order for title service.
• Examines the public records affecting the real property and issues a preliminary report or title commitment.
• Determines the requirements and documents needed to complete the transaction and advises the escrow settlement officer and/or agents. Reviews and approves the signed documents, releases and the order for title insurance, prior to the closing date.
• Records the signed documents with the County Recorder’s office and prepares to issue the title insurance policies.

Once recordation takes place, the home has transferred hands and the keys can be given to the new buyer.Similar Posts:

• What is Escrow?

A short sale is not a bargain by default. Sometimes a lender will accept an amount below the Broker Price Opinion which could equal savings over the long term, in a market that’s increasing in value, obviously. If the market prices are still on the decline (more supply than demand), then buying a bargain below market value only assures you’ll be above board for a short time.

So, when it comes to offers on homes, the offer is too low when the bank says no, and on a regular sale, the offer is too low when the seller says no. In a short sale, since the parties to the transaction are still just the buyer and the seller, technically, the seller is the one who says no, but that’s based on common sense. Nobody who knows what they’re doing in the short sale arena is going to recommend that a seller sign a low-ball offer. Until the listing agent has navigated the bank’s personnel to acquire an approval for the seller, there’s really no way to know when the offer is going to be too low. If the seller signs a low-ball offer, it could tie up that property for a few months, which is not what you want to do when your seller is facing foreclosure.Similar Posts:

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That’s really not a question that I can answer for you.  But, what I can tell you is that there are investors who hold notes on homes who will absolutely refuse to consider you for a short sale unless you’re past due by at least 30 days.

My initial response to this is complete rejection.  Logically, there’s not going to be much of a difference between a seller who has decided not to pay who presents a short sale offer, and a seller who has actually stopped paying who presents the same offer.  The only difference is 30 days.

Most creditors are NOT going to negotiate with someone who is actively paying their bill.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a home mortgage, a credit card, or a personal debt.  Short Sales, however, often have been an exception to this rule, as many investors see the value of cashing out as soon as they can before the values continue to fall, if in fact they fall.  But recently, they’ve started to tighten the reigns.

If I loan you $100.00, and you agree to pay me $10.00/month for 10 months, and you continue to pay, I’m probably not going to be likely to agree to accept a settlement until it’s proven to me that you aren’t going to pay me anymore.  If you pay me $50.00, and then stop paying me, then you approach me a few months later offering an additional $20.00 to settle the entire debt, I may be likely to simply take it and write off the remainder because I’ll want to get what I can when I can, rather than gamble losing it all in the end.

So, I cannot advise you to stop paying your mortgage, because I’m acting on behalf of your best interests, and your best interests include anything and everything that is non-destructive.  When you stop paying, it will affect your credit negatively.  What I can tell you that if you do stop paying, it will show your lender that you’re serious. Of course, if THEY tell you to stop, that’s a different story, and in my opinion, loony on their part.

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If you’ve exhausted all other options, or those options are something you don’t qualify for, such as loan modification, refinance, etc., and you’re on your last leg, then that is the time to start the short sale process.

After all other options are exhausted, you have only one remedy to prevent foreclosure other than paying your back-mortgage payments.  That process is the Short Sale.

We received a trustee sale notice, what now?

Well, you’ve waited far too long, but it’s not too late.  Once your lender hires a trustee to sell your house at auction, you have approximately 91 days to remedy the situation.  You’ve probably received your trustee sale notice about 15-30 days after it was actually filed, so in reality, you probably have about 60 days or so to get the house on the market, approved for short sale, and sold.  Here’s the big news:

MOST SHORT SALES TAKE LONGER THAN 60 DAYS

I can’t stress enough how important it is that you begin the short sale process at the right time.  The right time is when you determine that your resources are going to run out, and you’re going to be forced to sell your home.  If you’ve already come to that conclusion, it’s time to get the home on the market.  Don’t wait until it’s too late.

But I need to consult my attorney and CPA!

Yes, you probably do, but while you do that, let’s get your house on the market so we can bring an offer to the bank.  You won’t need your attorney’s advice until the lender has agreed to sell the house for less than you owe, at which point you’ll be able to back out if the implications are unfavorable to you.

It takes time to find buyers for your property.  It also takes time to submit offers to the lender and have a negotiator assigned.  It takes time to have the bank evaluate the value of your home.  It takes time to handle the ups and downs of the process.  The key here is that IT TAKES TIME. So you don’t want to waste any if you want to prevent foreclosure.

Foreclosure is a nasty beast, and you don’t want it on your record.  It doesn’t just lower your score, it destroys it.  You can either choose to rebuild your credit history from scratch (foreclosure, 5-7 years) or minimize the damage (short sale, 2-3 years.)

I have seen many home owners lose their home to foreclosure because they simply waited too long to make a decision about what to do.  Don’t be that person.Similar Posts:

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There really are only a few qualifiers that place you in the Short Sale category.  The most obvious would be that your home is worth less than you owe on the note.

The real question you want to ask yourself is:  “Is there a reason we need to sell our house?”

Whether or not you qualify for a short sale involves simple reasoning.  Whether or not your lender will approve the sale of your home for less than you owe is a different story, and only because of all of the red tape that you’ll run into through the process.  That’s why you want an experienced agent on your side to help work through the red tape.

Your average bank employee is instructed to look at a myriad of documents in order to consider your short sale.  Bank statements, paycheck stubs, tax returns, a hardship letter, etc., will be required before a negotiator is assigned to negotiate a fair market value for your home with the investor.

When it comes to the meat of the matter, the investor who owns the note on your house cares only about two factors:

1. What is the market value of the home.
2. How much is the offer?

There’s nothing else that matters to them.  Oh sure, there are plenty of obstacles to overcome, but I’m thoroughly convinced that these obstacles are designed to filter the work-load that the bank is experiencing, and to drag out the process as long as possible to break everyone’s spirits.  Miss that dotted “I” or that crossed “T” and the bank moves on to the next file.

The collection of information through that your payment servicer or lender puts you through is a process that they use to gather as much personal information about you as they possibly can.  It’s not necessarily what they use to determine whether or not you qualify for a short sale.  Remember, the investor only cares about two things.  Your servicer cares about four billion things.

But Let’s Be Real About This

Back to the original qualifier:  “Is there a legitimate reason we need to sell our house?”

If you are in a financial position, or a position in life in which your home is worth more than you owe and you will be needing to move at some point, due to whatever legitimate reason (death in family, deployment, loss of job or income, relocation, etc.) then you automatically qualify for a short sale, and you need to do everything within your power to find someone to help you prevent the possibility of foreclosure.

If your attitude is to “screw the bank” because “they screwed you” then I’d argue that you don’t have a legitimate reason to sell your home.  You signed a note to pay the balance of your loan, but there’s nowhere on your note where it says, “only if my home has equity.”

If you’re going to walk away, you owe it not only to yourself to save your record from being tainted by foreclosure, but you owe it to your neighbors to try to prevent accelerated devaluation in your neighborhood.  Every foreclosure affects the value of surrounding homes negatively.

Don’t walk away without a plan, and more importantly, don’t wait until it’s too late to take action. The BEST time to begin the short sale process is when you recognize that it’s a possibility.Similar Posts:

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There are no doubt an abundance of obstacles.

Most of the problems we face through the process of short selling your home are directly related to two problems, 1) bank employees following policies and procedures, and 2) work load.

In order to manage any large number of low-wage employees, which is what we’re dealing with, like any other corporation, boiler plate policies and procedures are created and employees are expected simply to regurgitate and follow those policies without thinking for themselves.  This causes friction, typically enough to drive the average home owner nuts.  It’s simply not worth your time to worry about it.  That’s what we do for you…oh, and at no cost, by the way.

Since the dawn of the Short Sale age (It’s still 8:30AM there,) banks have not been prepared to handle the work-load.  Servicers are literally stacked to the ceiling with requests for approvals to sell properties for less than they’re worth.  Don’t worry, they will do it, as long as the offer meets their policies and procedures *sigh*.Similar Posts:

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• We Don’t Own the Data

True, I once thought certifications made a difference.  What an accredited organization claimed they could provide you, which was basically human approval and recognition that you can pass a series of tests, once appealed to me and was even believed to be needed in order to succeed.

I suppose they could make a difference to someone who doesn’t know the difference, and in some industries they do matter…but I can tell you from personal experience, there are two things that realtors seem to hold dear to their hearts for no good reason.  1)  The brokerage they are with, and 2) the little letters that follow their name.

In this business, the experience you bring to the table, and the trust relationships that you build with your clients is what matters.  I don’t need a four-letter designation trailing my name to prove I can do what I do.  I also can’t condone putting a designation behind my name that represents a few hours of video conferences and the ability to answer 50 questions on a fairly simple test.

Designations are proof of one thing.  They are proof that the person holding them paid someone else to tell them they’re important.  It frustrates me to no end that someone can take a little test and claim they are a short sale expert when they haven’t completed a single short sale.

If we want designations to carry more weight, we should make them much more difficult to attain, and require apprenticeship under a seasoned veteran.Similar Posts:

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Barren. A small neighborhood subdivision that was never completed is where you’ll find rental opportunities that are priced in the sixty one cents per square foot range. There are only two massive homes in this area which overlooks North Scottsdale and Cave Creek from atop a mountain preserve just above the North 101 Loop near cave creek road. Sitting here in my car blogging on my iPhone, I find it a bit sad to see the lingering remnants of a badly injured economy. One day these homes will have companions when the bludgeoned builders start developing again.

However, if you are looking for a home to rent, you can know the value per square foot that’s out there!

Compare a 3200 square foot home under 2000.00/month to the now-leasing project at Sotelo in Tempe and you’ll wonder why they would be booking tenants at nearly $1.00/ft.

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Upon receiving an offer from a seller, the seller’s lender sends someone out to provide a price opinion of the property’s value.  This number is stacked against the current offer, and if it falls within a certain range, the bank will approve the file.

In our current Phoenix market, we’re expecting another round of defaults due to the extensive number of Option ARM mortgage products that are resetting, which means the supply will increase again.  Any time you increase supply, the median price falls.

As we see more inventory hitting the market, it’s going to be more and more difficult to transition from our recent and relatively flat price trend where speculation of price increases have fueled false hope into a time where prices are expected to continue to fall.

As a result, broker price opinions (BPO) which the banks use to determine if the short sale offer is enough, may become more and more inaccurate.

When the offer is actually too low

So what happens if we run comparable analysis in a neighborhood and we determine that the BPO performed on that property is probably right on, and the offer isn’t high enough?

The banks don’t provide their BPO value directly to us unless we can wrangle it out of them.  The BPO agent cannot disclose the amount, so we come to a point where it’s the lender’s word against ours (unless we analyze the market and come up with the same information.)  If we find that our BPO matches the bank’s evaluation, it’s likely that an experienced agent was used to provide the BPO, in which case we can trust that the bank is telling us what to expect.

The problem we have is that we have to go back to the buyer’s agent and tell them that the price is too low, and if their client wants the property, they’re going to have to raise the price.  There’s nothing in writing substantiating these requests.  The buyer’s agent must use his or her expertise to provide their client with their own broker price opinion of value to show the buyer that we aren’t just making up numbers, and the increase price is warranted.

Sometimes this isn’t the case, and the seller may be trying to reduce their deficiency with the lender.  What I’ve found in the short sale market is that homes really end up finding a sales price closest to a fair market value than they do being over priced or a “steal.”

The whole deal hinges on the BPO, and sometimes when the offer is too low, it actually does need to be increased.Similar Posts:

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The economic crisis as we have experienced it thus far has been rather devastating.  I have close friends who are out of work, who have been forced to sell their homes for less than they owe, and who have lost everything they have.  I’m thankful that I’m able to be there to help them through this time.

All but one of the homes that I have sold in the past 2 years has been under water.  I also haven’t placed a buyer in a non-distressed home (short sale or foreclosure) in the same time frame.

Some said that we would be out of this mess by now.  Reality dictates otherwise, and it’s been that way for a while.  We can continue down a road of denial steeped in a bog of irresponsible optimism, or we can open our eyes and see the housing market for what it is.

If you’ll recall, when the market shot through the roof sporting unsustainable prices, it was a direct result of lenders offering incentives (free money) to people who weren’t in a financial position to buy stamps, let alone a house.  When you give money away, you are effectively stealing future business from the marketplace.  In other words, millions of people who would have otherwise not purchased a home until a future date were lured into buying.

The consequences of those purchases resulted in a surplus of homes, and if you know anything about the laws of supply and demand, when there’s too much supply, the price of the product naturally falls because the suppliers (home sellers) are forced to compete against each other, which means lowering their prices to be competitive.

Many economists share the opinion that the free market can take care of itself without intervention.  One example of intervention is minimum wage.  Minimum wage is an example of a price floor.  In other words, we artificially set a price for the supply of labor regardless of the demand.  It’s manipulation of the basic laws of supply and demand, and it doesn’t work.

In the real estate market, we recently went through a period where the government offered $8,000 to anyone who entered into a purchase contract to buy a home before April 30th.  Sound familiar?  By offering money to people who would have otherwise not purchased stamps, let alone a house (see the pattern?) we have yet again borrowed from the future to acquire buyers to buy now.  Naturally, when the dangling carrot is revoked, sales fall off, and the market begins to correct itself.  Unfortunately, like any swing, it will over-correct by swinging past the balancing point, and this will lead yet again to more foreclosures, more short sales, and more unemployment.

It’s 2010.  We are nowhere near recovering.  In fact, we are in the midst of a wave of mortgage rate resets that are going to devastate the 2nd batch of unsuspecting home-owners who had no idea what type of loans they were getting themselves into back in 2005 and later.

So what makes me think there’s a problem?

Option ARM mortgages.  These are miserable products, and there are billions of dollars worth of Option ARMs (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) that are resetting over the next 2 years.  Option ARM mortgages have a very low rate of interest in the beginning, and even allow for the borrower to go negative on their mortgage.  In other words, their payment can be so low that the balance of their loan increases instead of decreases as they may payments.  What a bargain!  In the midst of declining market values, your loan balance is going up.

The risks of an Option ARM place you on a very slippery slope akin to betting your life savings on one company’s stock.  Most borrowers will suddenly be hit with “payment shock” as their payment is reset after a period of time has passed.  Option ARMs can negatively amortize up to 110-125% of the home’s appraised value at the time of purchase.  Once this happens, it caps, and the payments are amortized based on a normal 30 year period, or other similar terms.  Either way, most mortgagors (home owners) suddenly see their payments skyrocket to an unaffordable level.  That means distressed home-owners, which leads to loan mod applications, short sales, and foreclosure (in that order.)

What’s the Solution?

It’s time to get real about your money.  It’s time to get real about the future of our economy.  In the most uncertain economic times that we have known, with speculation that we’re entering the Greater Depression, and being witness to some of the most heinous fiscal decisions our federal government has ever considered, it’s time to get to work.  It’s time to start going without those little luxuries that you’re accustomed to.  Adjust your lifestyle to fit a greater vision of how you see yourself in the future and save your butt off.  Stop spending other people’s money with the justification that “it’s a low rate of interest,” or “it’s only $7.00/month extra,” or “I’ll just pay it off the next time I get paid.”  You may not get paid again, and then where will you be?

Don’t be fooled by what the optimists are saying.  We are not out of this mess yet, and it will be a long while before we ever see what we used to know as “normal” appreciation in the real estate market.  Bottom line?  This is going to hurt, for a while.Similar Posts:

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What?

Yep.  That’s the conversation I just had with a customer service representative at Nationstar Mortgage.  “The investor will reject all attempts for a short sale if the seller is not delinquent on their mortgage payments.”

As of Wednesday, August 25th – A quick follow up note on this: The loan servicing company is hired by the investor who owns the note on your house and therefore dictates the terms of the short sale. Fannie Mae has in fact begun requiring that home owners be 30-days past due before they’ll even look at the prospect of a short sale.

Oh really?  That investor is Fannie Mae.  Fannie Mae told you that?  I don’t think so.  Fannie Mae backs most of the mortgages in this country.  Nationstar is simply a servicer.  Look, I understand that policy and procedure is designed to streamline processes, but we are human, and most of the time the policies and procedures are future-solutions to current problems.  In other words, this is a living and breathing system of short sales that is constantly changing.  The system doesn’t respond well to policies that out-date themselves the minute they’re written.  There’s nothing more aggravating than dealing with someone who follows ridiculous rules.  I’m okay with following rules that make sense, but whomever handed down this policy is attempting to accomplish one thing.

Banks will tell their customers that they have to be behind on payments in order to trigger fear of damaging their credit so the customer will continue to make the payments when it’s impossible for them to do so.  It is a collections practice, and it’s deceptive.

So, according to Nationstar, it would be in their best interest for me to recommend to my client that they stop paying their mortgage, thereby reducing Nationstar’s income, allowing them to live freely in their home, until Nationstar incurs the expense of filing a trustee’s sale notice, and potentially losing a buyer and going to foreclosure.  Makes sense to me?!

This could be a multi-thousand dollar mistake on their part.  As a short sale specialist, it’s my job to break through the front lines of ignorance by locating the person who actually makes decisions.  That’s what I intend to do, because I will not be advising my client to damage their payment history.

This is a prime example of someone saying no in an environment that needs solutions, not roadblocks.  It’s also one of the reasons short sales take so long.Similar Posts:

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I’m not sure what makes Starbucks so appealing to so many people, aside from the rinse/repeat consistency across the entire franchise. It’s more like a candy store than a coffee shop. When I picture a coffee shop, I can’t help but revert to memories of the old Brookshires, Bob’s Big Boy, Cocos, and Denny’s atmospheres. Granted, some of those are still around, but they’re no different than they were before. I would guess that the amount of coffee that these shops serve has dropped off dramatically since the introduction of mass-marketed franchise coffee houses.

Dating all the way back to the late 80′s early 90′s I can recall the bohemian atmosphere that Coffee Plantation offered with that edgy, young, artsy feel. Of course, I was younger, just leaving my teens when the majority of my play time was spent on Mill Avenue in Tempe, AZ, which is where the Coffee Plantation was, and is no longer. There are two locations remaining, but they’ve lost their appeal. I know that the owner is working on remodeling, but I have found a new place to lay my iGadgets.

Now that we have Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Coffee Plantation, and a myriad of gas stations with “gourmet coffee” being served daily, where is one supposed to turn?

Scottsdale finally has a great place to go to sit quietly with a genuine cup of coffee, individually dripped right in front of you to ensure consistency and a perfect experience.  The name of this place is Echo Coffee, owned and operated by Steve Belt, and he’s done it right.  From the roasting to the decor, this comfortable, easy-going, socially vibrant coffee shop is the perfect solution to a stale work-at-home environment.  And if you’re looking for lunch, you’ll be treated to an amazingly simple selection of healthy, organic salads, sandwiches and pastries created specifically for Echo Coffee by Carylann Wooten, formerly of Liberty Market in Gilbert, Arizona.

If you’re someone who enjoys a mellow atmosphere with good coffee, a young professional clientele, and ne’er the sound of a blender, then Echo Coffee should fit well into your day.Similar Posts:

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This is one of those misunderstood technicalities that I face every time I work with a potential short sale candidate.  The common mis-understanding has been that when a home is sold short of what is owed, the lender or lien-holder pays the associated costs of closing the transaction such as broker commissions, seller’s closing costs, HOA dues and transfer fees, 2nd lien-holders, etc.

This is actually not true.  The lender is not a party to the purchase contract.  They are an authority whose decision the contract is contingent upon.  A lender’s role is to approve of a lesser payoff than the amount owed.  When the lender takes less, they make room for the seller to pay the fees associated with closing the transaction.  Those fees come from the buyer’s purchasing power, and the 1st lien holder is basically saying, “we’ll allow the funds coming from the buyer to be credited to the seller in order that the seller may cover the associated costs of closing the sale.”

To have a successful short sale with a home owner who has no money to bring to the table, the lender must reduce their payoff enough to allow the difference between the purchase price and the net payoff to the lender to add up to the seller’s closing costs.

It may appear that the lender is paying the costs because they are accepting less than what is owed, but this isn’t actually the case.

On paper, on the HUD-1 closing statement, there is no mention of the lender paying for anything.  The HUD is a document outlining what the buyer pays for and what the seller pays for.

For instance, if the sale price of a home has been negotiated between the buyer and the seller to be $200,000.00, but there is a balance due on the 1st lien-holder’s note of $250,000.00, and there are commissions, closing costs, HOA dues, and taxes to be paid, the lender is going to have to accept less than $200,000.00 by exactly the amount of the closing costs.

Add together the closing costs and the net payoff to the 1st, and you should reach your sales price.  The lenders do not pay for anything in a short sale.Similar Posts:

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2009 has been a long year. It has also been the most prosperous year I’ve ever experienced. It has been a year of shifting perspectives, innovative tools, unexpected hardships, and unexpected blessings. It’s a year that I’ve spent re-acquainting myself with me in order to move forward with a new outlook on life and how I live it.

It’s funny that I should say that I have a new outlook on life because this article is precisely about how I’ve eliminated one outlook that I couldn’t seem to work around. And when I say outlook, I literally mean Outlook…Microsoft Outlook.

For years I’ve used Outlook as my primary communication tool. Calendars, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, and E-mail all contained in one convenient location. For years I’ve cursed at my computer time and time again when what I believed to be the necessary evil (Outlook) would fail to open, crash, slow my system down, you name it. The only reason I stayed with it so long was because of Exchange Server. The two together make for a seamless integration of all of your devices, keeping all of your data in one location accessible anywhere.

Trapped in the confines of Microsoft’s infrastructure has been the only option until recently. And by recently, I mean within the past year or so. You see, the functionality offered by Outlook and Microsoft Exchange is not exclusive to Outlook and Exchange. It is a concept; an idea that all of your information should be in one location and you should not have to do things more than once, and that duplicate information is inefficient.

The problem has been that the only tools available require spending more money than any of us want to spend on these things. How much does a day-planner need to cost? That has changed.

I credit this personal shift to a conversation I recently had between Loren Kutsko, Director of Strategy and Information Management at Food for the Hungry, and Mark Kaech, Grassroots Campaigns and Special Projects, also at Food for the Hungry. It’s inevitable that when you put us together, we’ll talk about the latest tools and happenings in the technology world. When I expressed my apprehension about making some major shifts in how I manage my information, which ultimately translates into a more seamless transaction in the real estate contract process, I was met with the reality that I was still doing things the “Gen-X” way, and not the “Gen-Y” way and that the tools that I need are available at a fraction of the cost.

As someone who considers himself open to change, to be struck with the possibility that I’m not standing at the front of the technology-progress boat anymore caused me to reassess my ways.

The Challenge

I’ll keep this simple. I want my contacts on my iPhone to be identical to my contacts on my computer. When I read a message in my inbox and it’s marked unread, I want it to be universally marked unread so I never have to read it again unless I need to re-visit the message. I want my calendar on my phone to have the same information as my computer, and the same information as my online calendar at Google.

I want complete and seamless synchronization of all of my data so I can get to it anywhere, anytime.

The Old Solution

Microsoft Exchange Server in concert with Mobile ActiveSync, Outlook, and Outlook Web Access. If not self hosted at my own facility with over $6000 worth of hardware and software required, at the very least, paid for on a single-user basis at an exchange hosting company for about $10.00/month.

The New Way

This is so simple it amazes me that I didn’t think of it before. A note of caution. If you aren’t willing to rethink how you manage your information, almost completely, you’ll be very frustrated if you try to do this.  In fact, you may not be able to do this. There are also some pre-requisites that are assumed prior to making this type of change.

• You need your own domain name.  Lose the gmail extension, the yahoo account, the free e-mail identity.  Get your own domain name and start branding yourself personally so you never have to change it.  If your company gives you an e-mail address, use it for company communication only, and get your own identity.  you@yourname.com is far more valuable than you123@yoohoo.lame.com.
• You need a smart phone, and preferably, an iPhone.  More tools will emerge at lower and lower costs, but this is where I am today.
• I matters not whether you have a MAC or a PC anymore.  Entourage and Outlook are no longer needed.
• Please use either Firefox or Chrome as your primary internet browser.  Internet Explorer should only be used if the idiots on the other end of the website you need to use have failed to develop a more compatible site and it requires Internet Explorer to work.  Safari will suffice, but I personally avoid it.  Firefox is my first choice for now.

So What are the Changes I Actually Made?

I moved all of my data from Exchange to Google.  I moved my calendar to Google Calendars, my contacts to Google, and all of my e-mail to Google.  My notes are kept nice and neat using Evernote, my tasks…well, I never used tasks because we still need a good system that supports task dependencies and hierarchical action plans.  My website resides at another hosting provider, but all of the e-mail traffic is bounced to Google and handled by Google in a very easy to use Gmail interface.  No, I do not have a @gmail.com address.

How did I do this?  Well, it didn’t happen overnight.  I have lots of information that needed to be moved, and I’m still sorting out a few things here and there.  My website never went down, but my e-mail was interrupted for a few hours, so if you do this, you should make it a late night event.

All of these steps were accomplished in phases to ensure it was going to work, but there were some leaps of faith involved.  I made sure to get into the forums on Google to search for potential problems, then I dove in.

Before you do anything, backup all of your Outlook data.

Step 1: Establish Google Apps account for my domain.  (assumes you have a domain name already: www.godaddy.com to solve this problem.)

This is so easy.  Go to www.google.com/apps and sign up for Google Apps for Business.  It’s $50.00/year per user.  Go for the free 30 day trial (you can click here for that).

Step 2: Using the MX settings that Google gives you after you’ve setup your account, go to your domain manager at Godaddy.com or wherever you registered your domain, and modify the MX records.  Don’t screw it up and record the settings that were already there.  If you need to call someone there, do so.  They’ll help you do it.

Step 3: Watch the mail start rolling in.  It takes about 2 hours or so to kick in.

Step 4: Setup a new e-mail account on your iPhone using the gmail settings.  Now you have completely synchronized e-mail on your phone and through your gmail interface.

Step 5: Export all of your calendar data from Outlook or Entourage, or from wherever you keep it.

Step 6: Import your calendar from within your new Google account.

Step 7: Export all of your contacts from whatever program you’re using.

Step 8: Import your contacts into Google.

Step 9: Setup a new mail account using the Exchange option on your iPhone.  Follow these simple instructions to do so. Since you have already setup a mail account on your phone, make sure that your iPhone is set to sync only Calendar and Contact items, not mail.  The iPhone only allows one exchange configuration, so having a recent backup is going to make your life much easier at this point because you can delete your current exchange setup (if you have one) without losing your data.

Step 10: This is the last step.  Login to your Google Apps account (http://www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com), click the Service Settings tool bar item and then Mobile at the bottom of the drop-down menu.  Make sure you enable Google Sync at the bottom.

That’s it.  Your e-mail will be delivered to Google, you’ll be able to use the Gmail interface to manage it, and you’ll have it on your mobile device on demand.  Your calendar and contacts will begin to fill up in your phone, seemingly magically, and everything will be synchronized.

Mashable.com recently published these findings regarding Gmail vs. Outlook. I stand with Google now.

Oh, and the very very last step.  Uninstall Outlook .

If you need some help walking through this process feel free to contact me and I can help you through.Similar Posts:

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I recently wrote an article about Coffee Plantation because it’s where I typically go when I need to get out of the house and get on the internet. Today, I purchased my $2.00 coffee (amazing profit margin) and was asked by the Barrista if I had a code?

Me: A code?

Barrista: Yeah, for the internet.

Me: (setting my witty comments aside) No, I don’t. When did you start doing that?

Barrista: Today.

Me: Was there a particular reason you decided to lock the network down? (Thinking it probably makes sense)

Barrista: Well, there were too many people just sitting around using the internet without purchasing anything and it slows down the internet for everyone who is a paying customer.

Me: (thinking initially, That’s not very cool. Coffee shops are supposed to have free internet.) Oh, okay.

The Barrista handed me a little piece of paper with a 10-digit code on it, then clarified that the zero was a zero and not an “O”. Do people really not know the difference between an O and a zero? Anyway…

…so I got my code and I got on the internet, and then I started thinking about the new security measures, and I recalled a few conversations I had recently about how these store-front coffee shops in high rent areas stay in business when the majority of their patrons sit around and cruise the net all day. Prior to today, I could simply sit here, not buy anything, and use the internet. I don’t do that, but it was possible.

(on a side note, Coffee Plantation finally added a flavored coffee of the day since the new owner took over. I like it. Today it’s Irish Creme. Yesterday it was Creme Brulee)

Problem 1

How does the coffee shop police the code that they just gave me? I can post it here, on twitter, and I can staple it to my forehead.

Problem 2

When the code changes, who’s going to let me know about it? It seems like a decision that includes too much high maintenance to actually be effective.

Solution

Here’s where my innovative mind kicks in. Design a wireless router that works in tandem with a networked cash register, yet works like a Guest Gate access point securing the internal network from the patrons. Every day, the wireless router generates a new code after closing. When a patron purchases something, the cash register accesses the router and looks up that code, then delivers the code on the receipt.

Now, that brings up the problem of receipts, which nobody needs to be printing any more. So how would the code get from the cash register to the patron without printing? How about text messaging? How do we get the phone number to the cash register? Not sure, but it can happen.

All in all, I think I’m okay with the network being locked down for patrons only. It makes me feel a bit more important. Now they just need to make it cooler.Similar Posts:

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