Posts tagged as:

Milford MA Short Sales

Make Sure You Get Your Massachusetts Short Sale Debt Released!

by Bill Gassett on April 16, 2010 · 14 comments

Massachusetts Short sale debt
If you are an avid reader of my Massachusetts Real Estate blog you probably have guessed that one of my passions is to help out those that are in need of completing a short sale.

Massachusetts home owners struggling to make mortgage payments are often turning to doing a short sale as a means of escaping their debt.

If you are not familiar with the term, a short sale is when a bank or mortgage lender agrees to discount a loan balance because of a financial hardship on the part of the borrower. The home owner sells the mortgaged property for less than the outstanding balance of the loan, and turns over the proceeds from the sale to the lender.

One of the most important considerations when pursuing a short sale of your Massachusetts home is to make sure that the debt has been canceled!

As a Massachusetts Realtor that has been representing a number of home owners in a short sale, I can tell you there is always a sense of great relief when a short sale approval comes from the bank. Often times it is months of waiting and the uncertainty can wear on anyone that has gone through the process. Short sales are anything but short!

For the past few years I have been successfully completing short sales all over the Metrowest Massachusetts area. So far the success rate has been 100% for short sale approval. Given the fact that nationally the success rate is very low, this is an accomplishment I am proud of.

All of my short sales are completed with the help of a local attorney who works with me during the short sale process. The relationship has been tremendous and my seller clients have been the beneficiaries of our team work.

One of the things I have been able to count on is the fact that the attorney has gotten a release of debt from the lender.

This point is crucial for you to understand because there are lots of Realtors out there who are representing sellers in short sales that do not know anything about debt removal.

Short Sale Debt Removal

What has been coming to light recently is that a number of lenders are selling unpaid mortgages to collection agencies which in some states have years to come after you for a collection of this unpaid debt. Some of these collection agencies have been able to win court judgments where they can collect through repayment plans and even garnish your wages if necessary!

Can you imagine hiring a Realtor to get a short sale approval for you only to find out years later that there was no release of your debt. I am sure you would not be a happy camper!!

These short sales where the debt has not been released is opening up opportunities for companies and investors that specialize in preying on people who did not know any better. This is big business and is known in Real Estate circles as “scratch and dent”.

There is some relief in sight for some folks under the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) that started April 5th. This new short sale program aims to prevent banks that hold second-lien loans from pursuing collections from homeowners after the short sale.

Under this HAFA program sellers will receive notice that their service company has steered part of the sales proceeds to secondary lien holders in exchange for release and full removal of their liens. It is important to understand however, that this release would apply only to short sales done through the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program. Not all lenders will be participating in this program.

Above all else if you are doing a short sale make sure your representative gets the lender to sign off on a complete removal of debt on your property!

If you are considering a short sale here are some other short sale articles I have written that would be worthwhile to read:

Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor Mistakes to Avoid

Massachusetts Short Sales

Questions to ask a short sale listing agent as a buyer

Stop Making Mortgage Payments During a Short Sale

Do you need to complete a  short sale of your home or condo in Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.  Get in touch I would love to interview for the chance to represent your best interests.

I am successfully completing short sales through out the Metrowest area. So far, knock on wood, I have a 100% success rate for short sale approval.!

If you are not in the Metrowest Massachusetts area and need to do a short sale please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to refer you to a Realtor in your location that handles short sales and knows what they are doing!

_________________________________________________________________

About the author: The above Real Estate information on Massachusetts short sale debt removal was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 14 comments }

Questions to Ask a Short Sale Listing Agent as a Buyer or Buyers Agent

by Bill Gassett on April 7, 2010 · 49 comments

Failure or success in a Massachusetts short sale

There is no doubt that a short sale is not your run of the mill Real Estate transaction. Anyone who has ever been involved with one as a listing agent knows there are a lot of hoops to jump through! On a national level there is a very high percentage of short sales that never make it to closing.

If you have ever gone online and done any research on short sales you are bound to see articles and blog posts written blaming the lender for any number of things. In many circumstances the Realtors, sellers, and buyers that are complaining have a right to be angry.

There are however, a number of cases where the reason the transaction does not fly is because of the sellers REALTOR! Unfortunately there are a number of Realtors that have never  done a short sale before and have limited knowledge of the process yet are taking listings from home sellers that do not know any better. What is so sad about this is that the seller will usually be at foreclosures door step without getting a successful short sale done.

If you are a buyer or a Real Estate agent representing a buyer I am going to give you some interview questions you should ask the short sale listing agent in order to determine if you have a legitimate shot of getting the short sale completed.

If you are a Massachusetts homeowner and need to do a short sale I would encourage you to read picking a Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor and need a Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor besides the questions below.

Are you going to be negotiating the short sale for the sellers or is there an attorney or short sale specialist involved?

If the answer coming back on this one is the Realtor is going to be representing the seller you MUST find out if they have ever successfully completed a short sale transaction before. If the sellers Realtor has never done a short sale before you might as well have your buyer move on to another home! The probability of the sale ever getting to the closing table is slim. If they have completed a short short sale before ask them their success rate. In other words of the short sales they have listed, how many did not close?

Have you requested the short sale package from the lender and has the seller filled it out?

In order to complete a short sale every lender requires various documents that must be filled out and returned to them. They include:

  • A completed authorization form allowing communication directly with the lender.
  • The lenders name, account numbers, and customer service phone number.
  • A hardship letter discussing the exact reasons why you are not able to pay the mortgage going forward. This letter must be dated and signed.
  • A copy of the listing agreement from the Real Estate agent.
  • Proof of income ~ The lender is going to require a financial statement including copies of your two most recent bank statements, copies of your last 4 pay stubs, or if you are self employed, a copy of your most recent profit and loss statement. Lastly, you will need copies of your last two tax returns.
  • Also are there any other debts on the home or condo such as past due water and sewer bills, condo fees, outstanding taxes, IRS or other liens.

Who are the lender/lenders servicing the loan?

This is a basic question that they better know the answer too. You need to ask them their experience with this particular lender. There are some lenders that are very difficult to deal with most notably Bank of America (BOA). If BOA is servicing the loan you expect to be on the longer side of getting to the closing table. It is not crazy to think the transaction could take 6-12 months. I know you are probably thinking to yourself how is this possible? Believe me it is!

How many loans are on the property?

If there is more than one loan the transaction is more than likely going to be harder to complete. The agent is now going to need to have negotiation skills beyond just dealing with one lender. When there are two lenders both need to be satisfied. There are some lenders that will only allow a 2nd mortgage holder to get X amount of dollars. The agent representing the seller needs to know how to get past any difficulties that could arise between disagreements with the two lien holders.

How is the listing agent going to handle submitting offers to the bank?

Clueless Massachusetts short sale Realtor

This is an extremely important question to ask. The correct way to handle a short sale transaction is to have the seller sign an offer that makes sense and submit that to the lender. It should be no different than any other sale. The seller owns the home and they either accept or reject an offer that comes in.

If the listing agent tells you that they will be collecting offers and submitting all of them to the bank you might as well tell your buyer client not to get involved. This is a very big red flag! It shows that the agent is clueless and has no idea how to correctly represent a seller in a short sale. Without a signed offer neither the seller or the buyer has a contract. There is no obligation on the buyers part and the seller could be left with nothing. The bank does not want to be in a position of reviewing multiple offers either.

The other mistake I see short sale sellers agents making is submitting any offer to the lender for approval whether it makes sense or not. One thing you need to understand is the lender is not going to accept a short sale if the accepted sale price by the home owner is way under market value. The offer amount submitted to the lender needs to make sense! The lender will send out an appraiser to verify the value and if it does not meet the parameters it will be rejected.

How far away is the owner until foreclosure proceedings?

You obviously need to find this out for the sake of your buyer. There is no point in them spending money on inspections, lenders fees and other things if the sale is going to end up in foreclosure. Someone representing a seller in a short sale is going to need to make sure that foreclosure proceedings are put on hold.

These are just a few but very important questions that could help you determine if you have a shot at getting short sale approval. Ideally I would tell you that if an attorney with short sale experience or other type short sale specialist is handling the sale you probably have a better shot at getting the deal done.

Enjoy the short sale video below and work with a short sale Realtor who knows what they are doing!

_________________________________________________________________

About the author: The above Real Estate information on questions to ask a short sale listing agent as a buyer or buyer’s agent was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 49 comments }

Need a Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor? Don’t Pick a Short Sale Buffoon!

by Bill Gassett on March 24, 2010 · 19 comments

Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor

One of the biggest mistakes I see being made over and over again by those that need to short sell their Massachusetts home is picking the wrong Real Estate agent to work with.

Don’t make this mistake and turn into Realtor road kill!

The are an abundance of Realtors that are listing short sales and don’t know the 1st thing about what they are doing! Who suffers the most from this? YOU…the seller!!

When you need to do a short sale on your home it is not like selling your home in a traditional fashion. The Realtor you choose to work with can have far reaching consequences for you. If you don’t get the short sale right you are more than likely going to end up in FORECLOSURE. The very thing that you are trying to avoid at all costs can often times be the direct result of a Realtor that has no business representing you.

Working as a Massachusetts Realtor, I constantly see things being done that just make me furious when it comes to short sales.  Below are some examples of things that Real Estate agents are doing that very well could spoil any chance of getting a short sale approval:

Presenting Multiple Unsigned Offers to the Bank

This is by far one of my biggest pet peeves. When you are doing a short sale you DO NOT send multiple unsigned offers to a lender. Inexperienced Realtors who don’t work with shorts sales routinely make this mistake. A short sale is NOT a foreclosure and should not be treated as such. As the seller you still own the property and still make all the decisions with your home.

As the home owner of record, you see the process all the way through to the closing just like any other transaction. The lenders function is to approve or not the contract you are providing them.

When you don’t sign a contract you don’t have a buyer! Lets say your home is on the market and you get 3 offers. They all look pretty decent and your Realtor submits all of them to the bank unsigned. If you have done any research on short sales you probably know that they can take quite a long time for approval. As crazy as it sounds, there are some cases where short sales are taking between 6 months to a year to get approved. On average the time for approval is around 4 months.

How many buyers do you think get frustrated and walk after a few months of waiting? The answer is A LOT!! When you don’t have a signed contract there is no consequences for a buyer walking. It is say la vie  and you have just wasted an enormous amount of time. Enough time that perhaps the foreclosure proceedings could be at your door step!

When I am representing a seller in a short sale it is a REQUIREMENT that the buyers waits for at least 90 days for short sale approval.

When you have multiple offers, it is just like any other transaction. You pick one offer and go with it. As a seller you should be picking the offer that has the greatest chance of getting approved. Along with the price and all the rest of the terms, you need to know the buyer is committed to your home and is willing to see the short sale process to conclusion. In addition, the bank is looking to work with an offer that makes sense. Their function is not to become the judge and jury for a Real Estate transaction.

Having a Seller Sign an Offer That Has No Chance of Being Approved

This is problem #2 and one that I also run into quite a bit. This is just the opposite of submitting all the offers to the bank unsigned. While this has happened recently while I was working as a buyers agent, I am going to relay a story about a buyer who is not my client but called me for advice because he has read a number of short sale articles I have written.

This gentleman was interested in purchasing a short sale in the Boston area that was listed for a little over $400,000. He told me he did his research and felt the home was worth close to the asking price. He met the listing agent at an open house, liked the property and thought about it for a few days. He called back a few days later and told the agent he wanted to make an offer for $400,000.

The agent told him “I am sorry but someone put in an offer yesterday and the owner accepted it”. The buyer asked the agent what the offer was that the seller accepted. She told him $300,000! On so many levels this Realtor is a complete moron. As anyone in the business knows, it is a violation of the code of ethics to reveal what a seller has accepted for an offer on a property. Beyond the fact that the Realtor does not follow the code of ethics, this short sale is more than likely going to be flat out rejected by the lender.

Massachusetts Short Sales

This guy told me that the seller said to his agent “the 1st offer is almost always the best so I think we should take it”. The home was on the market for ONE DAY! A Realtor that knows what they were doing would have told the seller he can not accept this offer because it will not be approved by the bank.

When lenders are evaluating whether to approve a short sale or not one of the steps they take is to send out an appraiser to verify the value of the home. The accepted sale price needs to be within the ball park of the market value. In the above scenario what you can expect is a SHORT SALE rejection.

It is such a shame because this buyer wanted the home and was willing to pay 100,000 more than what was accepted.

If this Realtor had done their job there would be one less seller that may not end up in foreclosure. Sadly, there will probably be another short sale that will never make it to the closing table because of pure stupidity. This is not some random story. This kind of thing goes on all the time in Real Estate.

Don’t let the joke be on you! Do your research on selecting a short sale agent to work with. They should have experience closing short sales and have a complete understanding of the process.

Thinking of selling a short sale home or condo in Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.

Get in touch I would love to interview for the chance to represent your best interests. I am successfully completing short sales throughout the entire Metrowest area. So far, knock on wood, I have a 100% success rate for short sale approval.

Click on the links below to see other important information related to a Massachusetts Short Sale:

Massachusetts Short Sales

Picking a Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor

Ethics in a Short Sale

If you are not in the Metrowest Massachusetts area and need to do a short sale please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to refer you to a Realtor in your location that handles short sales and knows what they are doing!

_________________________________________________________________

About the author: The above Real Estate information on Massachusetts short sale Realtors was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 25+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 19 comments }