Sacramento Expert Short Sale Real Estate Agent

Posts Tagged ‘Short Sales’

After being asked about FHA refinancing from numerous friends,  I decided to do some research on my own.   Here is some great information that I can bet many people do not know.

Everyone at this time is under the impression that you need equity in your home to refinance into another lower interest rate loan.  Yes this is true for the most part, except for FHA Loans.  Homeowners with existing FHA financing on their current home are able to refinance their current mortgage without having equity.  This is a different program called FHA Streamlined Refinancing.

 The new loan would not require to have the home appraised.  This is great news. A normal refinance without FHA, would require a new appraisal and would show the true value of the property which would not entitle them to refinance.

 Of course there are a couple draw backs to this situation, but if the rate will save you a considerable monthly amount, then I advise you to check it out at the link above for more information.

• To refinance a current FHA Mortgage into another one, the homeowner can not take out more of a loan than what is currently owed on the property.
• The homeowner also may not refinance the current loan if they have been delinquent in any mortgage payments in the last year.

 Terri Wisecarver

Sacramento Real Estate

Being upside down seems to be the case with most sellers in Sacramento these days.  Short Sales, Short Sales, Short Sales….. This home was listed as a Short Sale because of course the seller was in a financial situation that forced the sale of the property.  I was lucky in a sense that I was only dealing with one lien holder on the property.  This makes it so much easier to negotiate the sale.  Actually there were two liens that I worked with, but one was for the new window’s that were put in a couple years ago.  Of course Smud financed these windows which enabled them to become a lien against the property. This lien would have to be paid off by the first lien holder on the property no matter if the house went to foreclosure, or was sold as a short sale.  The seller seems happy to avoid the word FORECLOSURE on a credit report, but sad that their once purchased dream home is gone.

Now a home that was once a dream for one person became a loss, but turned around and became a dream again for another first time home buyer. Now this home will get all the new touches the new buyer has to give to make their new home their own.  Of course this buyer is also happy to get get the Tax Credit that is almost ready to expire. As it seems buying  Short Sales is becoming more  popular in Sacramento as REO’s ( foreclosures, real estate owned, bank owned).

Terri Wisecarver

REALTOR®

Prudential California Realty

916-201-4007

Sacramento Real Estate

DRE# 01429634

A down hill spiral is inevitable, therefore I often have a lot of sellers asking me whom pays the back taxes I owe, and do I have to pay for you to sell my home as a Short Sale??   Of course I then begin a conversation that will hopefully give the seller more knowledge in which to base a decision on selling the home or just walking away from the mortgage.

There are of course many people that make money on the sale of a Short Sale, just like they would if anyone else was buying or selling a home.  But in the case of a Short Sale the seller does not pay the commissions, or back taxes.  Sellers are always concerned about if they are having to come up with any money at the close of escrow. At the time of the listing agreement I do ask my sellers if they owe for delinquent water,sewer and garbage because the lien holder will not pay this at closing. If it is a large amount this could be an issue. I always ask the seller to keep the utilities on because it is hard to sell property if nothing is on. This also helps when the buyer goes to do their inspections, as they will need to test the water and electric.

Everyone that is involved in the sale of any property or home will make money somehow. 

• Listing Agent, Buyer’s Agent
• The Current Lender ( They avoid the high cost of the foreclosure process )
• Title Companies ( Title Insurance for the seller and buyer)
• The buyers new Lender ( generates new interest income )
• Appraiser’s ( required by the new lender )
• Homeowner Insurance Company ( required by the lender to protect the property )
• Tax Consultants or Attorney’s ( legal advise and tax consultations )
• Buyer ( purchased the home somewhat below market value therefore gaining equity )
• Escrow Company ( processing the legal paperwork )

If you have any questions regarding the possibility of selling your home because you can not make the payments or you have a financial hardship, please contact me and I can hopefully be able to answer any questions you might have.

It never hurts to ask, it only hurts you when you don’t have all the facts or answers you were needing and wish you did.

Terri Wisecarver

Whitman Metropolitan Inc.

Sacramento Real Estate

I received a call from someone on Friday asking if a short sale  is still possible after a Notice of Default has been filed on the property.  Of course it can be done, but time is of the essence here.  At this point this means that you only have a limited time to get offers on the property submitted to the bank ( lien holder) and accepted before the home goes to foreclosure sale at the court house. 

I have actually had short sale listings submitted to the bank and passing through the hands of negotiator after negotiator awaiting an acceptance right upon until 3 days before auction sale date.  The banks want you to wait to ask for an extension on the sale date up until 3-5 days before they will extend the date, because they usually only will grant extensions up until 30 days at a time. On all of my extensions requested I have had them actually extended  ( postponed )out because of the offers submitted to them were to the point of acceptance and approval.  

The banks sometimes want to see the activity of the listing from the beginning up until an offer is submitted.  The sooner you get the Hardship Package together with the offer and submitted to the bank, the better.  Remember you only have 3 months 2o days  ( after NOD has been filed) to get the bank to accept a short sale offer before going to auction sale.

Definition of an Notice of Default:

•  Notice of Default is an instrument (legal document) filed in the public records (county records) giving constructive notice to the public that a seller is behind on their mortgage. If the payments are not made up, then the bank will foreclose on the property.
• NODs ( notice of default ) are public record for 90 days, then a notice of trustee’s sale is published in a newspaper once weekly for 20 days and on the 21st day, the property goes to auction.

If you are behind in payments and know for certain that you are unable to catch up on those payments, then I would suggest talking with an attorney to discuss your situation and what would be the best choice to make at that time to best fit your situation.  These are a few choices you should discuss with an Attorney.

• Modification of current loan
• Short Sale
• Sign over the Deed to the bank
• Foreclosure
• Bankruptcy

Again speak with someone that knows the law as Real Estate Agents do not and should not give advise pretending that they do.

Terri Wisecarver

Sacramento Real Estate