Helping a good friend locate, negotiate, and close on their first Waterfront Home in Jacksonville, we were just finishing up our final walk thru the day of closing and witnessed a spectacular scene.  

This picture is just off the back of their new waterfront home overlooking the water, and that’s a Bald Eagle hunting a seagull! (which he caught and flew off with).  You just don’t see this everyday!

Views from the Waterfront originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on April 25, 2013.

 Citi Mortgage Short Sale Success!

One of my favorite banks to work with on Short Sales has to be Citi Mortgage.  Fast, responsive, and realistic.  

Too often we get counter offers from banks that are 2006 prices – knowing the house will never appraise at such a blown out price, we have to go through the lengthy value dispute.  Citi hasn’t done this as much, and they seem to be realistic on values.  

This particular short sale was another fast sale.  The home was on the market for just a few weeks and the 3rd showing went to contract.  Buyers were very fast with all addendum request and the Sellers were super fast with all updated documents as requested by the bank.  

We received the approval letter and full release from the deficiency balance!

Do you need to short sale your Citi Mortgaged Real Estate?  Contact a Short Sale Specialist today.

Citi Mortgage Short Sale Success originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on April 22, 2013.

A great article by Donna Fuscaldo, @donnabail on Twitter, for FoxBusiness.com.  The article covers How To Speed Up The Short Sale Process.  Not only well written, but they used a very credible source:  Brad Officer  of RE/MAX & a Redfin Broker out of Phoenix, Marcus Fleming.  

How to Speed Up The Short Sale Process

1. Start with Professionals:  This is probably the largest Debt you have -therefore work with a Short Sale Specialist.  Every agent has jumped on the bandwagon of becoming a “Certified Distressed Expert”, but come on?!?!  Research your chosen agent, make sure they have a clue and not just a 3 hour class.  
2. You must use an Attorney:  Forget what your bank told you about it being as easy as submitting a few documents.  It’s not that easy.  If you go down the path of you doing the back and forth with a bank or your real estate agent doing the short sale processing, you could be looking at 6 months + to get an approval from the bank (which there’s only a buyer or two on the face of the planet that will wait that long).  Once you get an approval, who are you going to have check it to make sure you aren’t getting a bad deal – your real estate agent?  NO!  Get a short sale attorney in Jacksonville!
3. Understand Buyers:  A buyer isn’t getting a ridiculously good deal on your home compared to today’s market value – those days are over!  Therefore, you have to attract a buyer.  If your home is in horrible condition, we’ll price it low as even your bank will recognize it needs work.  If your home is in normal condition – Start Cleaning, trimming your hedges, fixing all those little annoying things.  Your home has to attract a buyer – and hold onto a buyer.  
4. Speed Kills All Deals:  This should be my motto.  It should really be “no speed kills deals”.  Throughout the short sale process, your attorney and bank will constantly request updated docs, i.e.. bank statements, pay stubs, a new addendum,etc.  The longer you take to get these in, the compounding affect it has on the time line.  Get every doc request in within 24 hours of request – and preferably same day.  
5. Maintain your Property:  Power and water stays on.  Lawn care and maintenance continues.  The house stays in top condition via hired cleaners, AC running, etc.  Naturally, every buyer has buyer’s remorse regardless of the house they purchase, but you don’t want to help them with that!  Keep your stuff in top shape and your buyer will stick longer!

How to Speed Up the Short Sale Process originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on April 18, 2013.

WHOA we are in business!  The floodgates have re-opened and the buyers have finally gotten off the fence.  I’m sure the low interest rates combined with the fact that homes are priced lower than what they should be (cheaper to own than rent) has this market on fire.  

The biggest problem right now is inventory.  Homes are still worth less than most people owe ….. about 40+% of Jacksonville home owners with mortgages are in this position, however there aren’t enough homes on the market.  Buyers are in the market, but the homes are not.  

WE NEED LISTINGS!!!

Latest chart showing the Jacksonville Real Estate Market:

Check out the Waterfront Homes For Sale.

Jacksonville Real Estate Market Update April 2013 originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on April 3, 2013.

We are seeing some signs of progress for rising prices.  Albeit a few percentage points increase from the drastically depressed values – but hey – positive is better than flat and a whole lot better than declines in value!

News is everywhere of the housing pick up.  Here’s a good video:

Real Estate Market Upbeat 2013 originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on February 14, 2013.

Odd trend in the market.  The inventory of homes available to purchase in Jacksonville has plummeted.  I’m talking full on nose dive and it hasn’t started pulling up to level off yet.  BUT – the average number of days on market has actually increased.

My theory:  Lower priced homes are being snatched up by investors in record numbers.  I have several very large, institutionally large, investment firms that I market properties directly to.  They are buying site unseen and cash closings.  As fast as we can get them on the market……within their pre-set parameters.  That handles the lower priced market.  HOWEVER, the middle priced and up are still sitting.  $400,000 + seems to be sitting and waiting just like a few years ago.  I’d like to see this trend end!  Less lower priced homes to choose from and more middle to upper priced homes and I believe this is causing this increase of days on market.

In my expert opinion, this leads me to believe it is a great time to shop for Waterfront Homes in Jacksonville FL and the surrounding areas!  As the Sellers are sitting with homes on the market for longer than desired, you just might be able to pick up a home under market value……..and those days are fleeting!

Jacksonville FL Real Estate Market Update 2013 originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on February 7, 2013.

I believe we are well into the Optimism side of this chart here in Jacksonville!

Real Estate Market 2013 Jacksonville FL originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on January 31, 2013.

Bank of America Short Sales are getting faster!

The speed up is happening as they’ve finally developed some internal systems and processes that make sense.  Oh yea, and they’ve stopped changing them every 10 days, which helps.  They are still struggling with the massive incoming volume of short sale applications, contracts, and inquiries, but hey – that’s to be expected for the largest holder/servicer of distressed mortgages.  

One great new addition to the Bank of America short sale system has been the ability to apply for a HAFA short sale BEFORE we have the property listed for sale.  The benefit of this is that the bank will actually provide you with a written document that states the terms of sale, i.e., approved listing price!  This is great for Realtors and for buyers of a short sale, but this is even better for Sellers.

Sellers who get accepted into the HAFA short sale program through Bank of America have a lot less anxiety than the traditional short sellers.  Another huge benefit is the speed in which we can sell the house.  The most recent HAFA short sale via Bank of America that I put on the market was sold in 3 days flat!  It’s a win win across the board.

One last thing, don’t try to get approved for HAFA or a pre-approved short sale without first identifying your listing REALTOR of choice and getting your short sale attorney in place.  They’ve made the process a little smoother, but it’s still layered with red tape and “getchas” along the way that only a seasoned short sale attorney in Jacksonville and experienced Bank of America short sale REALTOR can help you navigate and stay on path.  

Happy Short Selling!

Bank of America Short Sale Fast originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on January 24, 2013.

A new study just came out on how home buyers shop for a home.  This study was a collaboration between Google and the National Association of Realtors.  A couple of interesting statistics were found.  (interesting to me).

As anyone who is currently alive can tell you, home buyers shop for homes on line.  Actually only 9 out of 10 use the internet as their primary shopping tool, and that’s mind boggling to me.  I just can’t understand what the other 1 out of 10 does.  ???

Another interesting stat from the study:  Days of research on the web before a potential home buyer “takes action on the site”.  That would lead me to believe before they request information about homes they’ve found or sign up to keep up with their favorites, etc.  The stat finds 40% will shop online for 120 days+ before taking that action!  That’s 4 months of pre-shopping!

And lastly, is the % of shoppers who used the web to search for “categories” of homes for sale.  To me, this would be waterfront homes, condos, golf communities, etc.  93% of vacation home buyers search by category!  This is awesome news and confirms the number of out of state home shoppers who contact our office on a very regular basis.  

In the end, the results of the study just confirm what we’ve known for 10 years.  The real estate industry has changed from the old school of having to contact an agent who holds the book of homes for sale in an area to now being able to shop for all homes for sale on line.  

ONE LAST KEY POINT:  Even with all the great information on the web that exists, home buyers are using agents to help find and purchase property as much or more than ever.  88% of buyers used an agent.  By the way, even the guy who owns one of the largest national for sale by owner companies used an agent to list his property.  

Home Shopping on the Internet originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on January 15, 2013.

Who prices a short sale listing?  

Your Short Sale REALTOR

Will the bank give a listing price?

Nope.  95% of the time, the bank request we submit an offer.  Very very rarely, we encounter a pre-approved list price through a seller who has an FHA loan or sometimes through Bank of America’s short sale cooperative program.  However, even then it’s dicey to say the least.  

Making it as difficult as possible to price, sell, get short sale bank approved, then buyer’s bank approval of price for closing, there are several prices that seem to always come up:

1. Property Appraiser’s Market Value:  I’ve found these numbers to be very high and very low.  However, they do have an algorithm producing this market value.  
2. Zillow:  Ahh Zillow, the beast.  Never accurate, but amusing non the less.  
3. Seller’s opinion of value:  Always higher than true market value.  Hey, I do it too!
4. Realtor’s List Price:  Usually dead on or just a hair above or below true market value.  
5. Buyer’s opinion of value:  Always lower than list price regardless of list price accuracy.   
6. Contracted price:  The exact true market value for that day.
7. Short Sale Bank’s Valuation:  Usually well over the contracted price and hinged on a really crappy system of the “BPO”, Broker Price Opinion.  
8. Buyer’s Bank’s Appraisal:  The first actual certified appraisal in this entire process.  (Shouldn’t we be getting these MUCH sooner in the process?  Try getting your bank to order one without a short sale bank approval in hand!)
9. Closed Purchase Price:  A meeting of the minds on what is the actual agreed upon value for that house, that month, in that condition.  

Pricing A Short Sale originally appeared on Jacksonville Waterfront Homes | Short Sale REALTOR Jacksonville | Brad Officer on November 15, 2012.