Tag Archives: San Jose Short Sale Agent

The list of celebrity short sales is increasing

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They say celebrities are just like us, except richer, better looking and skinnier.  Perhaps.

 

What is indisputable, however, is that they are not spared from suffering through falling property values and other economic hardships so many Middle Americans are suffering through today.  Many of these athletes or celebrities bought when they received their big paychecks, then fell behind on their payments when times became more difficult.  The amount of money involved may be greater, but the situations of underlying economic hardships are similar.

 

The list of celebrities who are utilizing short sales to avoid facing foreclosure is increasing; it includes such names as:  Terrell Owens, R.Kelly, Jamarcus Russell, Chris Tucker,  Carnie Wilson, and several Reality TV stars.  The list continues to grow.

 

Most of these highly paid athletes or celebrities have business managers, lawyers and accountants advising them and otherwise looking out for their financial interests.  If celebrities are doing short sales on their multi-million dollar homes because that is a better outcome than foreclosure, why wouldn’t it be good for the average homeowner?  What’s good for the goose must be good for the gander, right?

 

The chasm between the lifestyles of celebrities and those of Middle Americans seem to be shrinking.   Just as not every homeowner is facing foreclosure, not every celebrity is in the same situation.  However, just like Middle Americans, now celebrities who have fallen on hard times are choosing short sales over foreclosures.  A reversal in trend, where celebrities are now doing things Middle Americans  first made popular.      

 

Knowledge can avoid tragic foreclosure outcomes – so share that knowledge

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The San Jose Short Sale Agent  shouted with glee today to celebrate the victorious outcome of a family which was able to successfully fight its battle against foreclosure today, as I was feeling proud and victorious.  The family which had endured the humiliation of being turned down for a loan modification by their bank, feeling they were without recourse, had come to me only two months ago to try a short sale as their last hope.   They felt they were at their wit’s end.   They came beaten and  humiliated.  It was bad enough they had to live through the indignity of unemployment which triggered their horror story, but their bank had refused to modify their loan or otherwise assist them.

 

But today they were victorious because the same bank which refused their loan modification request, had approved their Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) short sale and were willing to pay them $3,000 to help with their relocation costs and also had going to pay nearly $4,000 to pay off their HOA delinquencies and additional funds to pay off their delinquent property taxes.   Unlike two months ago, now the family felt they were getting vindicated.

 

That joyous feeling lasted a few hours as I read this  article today describing a different outcome for a person with a similar hardship which is headed towards a different outcome.   I obviously do not know the full details of Darlene’s situation besides what was described in the article below.   However, what I do know is that she was unemployed, suffers from cancer and fell behind in her payments which led to her foreclosure.

 

Typically three things have to be present to qualify for a short sale approval:  1) hardship (typically economic hardships) ,  2) monthly income short fall (meaning more goes out than coming in)  and 3) insolvency (meaning no assets).   In Darlene’s case, she certainly would have met the hardship (cancer plus unemployment);  the article mentions she is living on pension, social security and unemployment so I would assume she had a monthly short fall and probably did not have much assets set aside.   She certainly sounds like she would have been a good candidate for a short sale.

 

Additionally, if  this were her only home (primary residence), and as she was obviously delinquent on her mortgage payments and her unemployment and other income sources would probably have resulted in her paying more than 31% of her monthly income, there is a good chance she would have qualified for a HAFA short sale as well as Wells Fargo participates in that program.   If she qualified for a HAFA short sale, then she would have received $3,000 relocation assistance and up to $6,000 to pay off her second loan, if she had one.   Rather than being evicted with nothing to  her name or perhaps a small stipend – otherwise known as cash for keys – to get her out, Darlene could have saved herself the humiliation of being evicted from her home of 41 years and walked away knowing that she would have settled her debts with Wells Fargo and other lien holders.   She could have walked away selling her home with the bank’s blessing plus money in her pocket, rather than having the bank evict her and her neighbors of 41 years watching this happen.

 

The unfortunate aspect of this tragic story is that Darlene probably did not know that the HAFA option was available to her.   People in Darlene’s demographics do not often have the benefit of being able to research alternative options to foreclosures on the internet and take advantage of those solutions and the accompanying benefits like my clients did when they reached out to me two months ago.  Both of these people had similar hardships – unemployment (but Darlene’s case was worse because she also has cancer which was probably rapidly draining her bank account) – yet the outcomes will be dramatically different and each of these families will be celebrating the Holiday Season this year  in different states of minds.   It did not have to end this way for Darlene except that she was unaware and regretfully no one around her had given her the requisite  information.

 

If you are reading this blog entry, please share what you have read, so that people like Darlene do not have to suffer through foreclosures due to lack of knowledge regarding alternative options.   Please tell your grandparents, parents, neighbors or others who may be unable to surf the net for answers that there are alternative options to foreclosures; they don’t have to endure the humiliation of an eviction.  Please share with them that there is a Federal Government designed program to help out people facing foreclosures by offering them different alternatives.

 
San Jose Foreclosure Case is Both Tragic and Complicated

Bank of America streamlines HAFA short sale process in Equator.

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Starting today, December 1, 2011, Bank of America (BofA) makes the HAFA short sale process run easier and smoother by permitting them to be processed through the Equator system. The use of the Equator system made the entire short sale process at BofA go much smoother. It was only a couple of years ago, that BofA was often deemed to be the worst lender to deal with in the short sale arena. As the San Jose Short Sale Agent who has handled countless number of short sales with BoA prior to their transition to Equator, the changes in their service after converting to Equator were almost immediate. BofA went from the worst to best in a matter of months by a BBB (Better Business Bureau) survey. Unfortunately, the benefits and the efficiency of Equator were unavailable for those who were seeking HAFA short sales with BofA.

 

Until this announcement was made, all HAFA short sales had to be taken out of Equator and handled through their third party vendor call centers and fax machines. This meant things took longer and the inefficiencies of faxing documents to various fax numbers and non-employees came back into play. (But to be fair, even Wells Fargo which also uses Equator, takes the same approach with HAFA short sales and removes them from Equator). But with the announcement today that HAFA short sales can be processed through Equator, all is right with the universe. Now only if Wells Fargo will follow suit.

 

Bofa Announcement

Don’t let your unsellable home bring down your financial future.

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If you have been following my blog, you know that I am personally offended by these scam artists out there who are preying on homeowners going through difficult times right now.  I try to warn people about scams and point them in the right direction.

 

If you are one of the 10 Million Homeowners who is behind in mortgage payments and have come to the difficult conclusion that you can no longer afford to keep your home but also cannot sell it either and are looking for a way out, there are dignified solutions available to you.  Foreclosure is not the only course.  You may not be aware, but there are alternative solutions which may not only allow you to sell your current unsellable home, but may also provide you with  thousands of dollars to make it happen, if you qualify.

 

The HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) program is a Federal Government sponsored program to help homeowners in distress.  IT COSTS NOTHING TO THE HOMEOWNERS.   Real Estate agents can help you with the process, but the homeowners do not pay the Realtors; their commissions are paid from the proceeds of the HAFA sale.

 

Unfortunately, many homeowners are not aware and are being duped by swindlers who claim to be able to help.    Below are 10 signs of Mortgage Modification Scams.
Mortgage Payments Weighing You Down Report

Do you like the Apple or Microsoft approach to short sales?

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How do you know someone has the technical, marketing and negotiational know-how to successfully help homeowners fight the devastation of foreclosures? Practice and experience are the keys to success; everything else is secondary or simple marketing gimmicks.

An expert does not merely engage in puffery regarding receiving nice titles and designations, they also bring about actual experience in favorable methodologies like short sales to help negotiate settlements to successful closings for clients. Real life experiences along with the incidental designations and certifications to bring about a complete skill-set which is actually beneficial to the homeowners. Some happy clients will even write up reviews about your service.

Unfortunately, practitioners in distressed real estate markets have been falling into two categories lately. There is one camp where the practitioner actually learns and take classes and builds experiences for the benefits of their clients. They do everything, like how real estate used to be. I fall into this category. When clients hire me, they know who will serve them from beginning to end; they know exactly who is representing their interests.

Then there is the new trend: practitioners take the short cut and hire a “third party short sale servicer or negotiator” to help them negotiate and settle with the lenders. Often times, the clients have no idea that someone else they never met or agreed to, is handling the most important aspect of the short sale transaction. I don’t know about you, but if I hired someone to do a job for me, then I expect that person to complete the entire job, not hire out someone they can hire for the least amount of money to do the hard part. I believe in quality control and I cannot control the quality of a person who takes on dozens of other agents’ workload. How much of their heart will they put into one of those files? Probably no more than the counterpart negotiator who is overloaded with files of homeowners at the banks. That is why I do not use; nor hire my skills out to lesser experienced agents for money.

With my clients, they know exactly who is doing everything from the marketing to final negotiating to sitting with them at the signing table at the closing. I guess I share the same philosophy as Steve Jobs at Apple: vertical integration of both hardware and software to control quality and end user experience. I control the full experience that the client has with my service: both the marketing to sell the house and the negotiations with lenders to have them release the liens and deficiency claims for less than what is owed. Conceptually, you can have two approaches: the Apple approach or the Microsoft approach. I just happen to believe in the Apple approach as being more efficient and effective. If you believe in the Mircrosoft approach your selection if fine, as long as you were informed others would be doing the negotiations.

So back to the question about how do you know someone has the necessary practice and experience? Ask for proof of successful closing to demonstrate their experience.

Dual track foreclosure by lenders is alive and well in Silicon Valley.

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I am mad as hell as I write this entry.  Once again, dual track foreclosure has proven to be alive and well and being practiced by one of the large banks in Silicon Valley.

 

What is dual track foreclosure?  Simply put, it is when the lender agrees to work with homeowners on a loan modification request, but also continues its foreclosure effort  simultaneously.  If the homeowners are being given the chance to work on a loan modification, why not stop the foreclosure effort until the resolution of the modification request?   The problem is that by permitting the homeowners to work on a loan modification, it gives them the false impression that the foreclosure action has halted during the loan modification process.   Those homeowners whose loan modifications are rejected are discovering that their homes are being foreclosed soon thereafter, often not giving them enough time to prepare to deal with the loan modification, let alone the foreclosure.     In even worse scenarios, the homeowners are being foreclosed on while they are anxiously awaiting answers to the loan modifications.  Homeowners are given false hopes of saving their homes through a loan modification, but while they are working through the process, their homes get unceremoniously snatched away without warning.    

  

Legislative efforts were made earlier in the year in California to try to stop this deceptive practice by the lenders, but it never passed.   The lobbying efforts of the lending institution were sufficient to get the bill killed in the California Senate.  The despicable practice is still not illegal and being widely practiced.

 

Being the San Jose Short Sale Agent, I received a call from a prospect today who was referred to me by a recent client for whom I completed a successful short sale.  He wanted me to help him because he spoke with someone at Wells Fargo who kindly informed him that they denied his loan modification and by the way, they are going to foreclose and sell his home (court house auction) next week.   Here is an example of a dual track foreclosure at work.

 

This homeowner had trouble making his mortgage payments because his wife had lost her job.  They went from a two income family for which they qualified their loan to a single income family.  They had been working with Wells Fargo since April of this year to get qualified for a loan modification.   After months of providing documentation, they were told a few days ago that their loan modification was being rejected.  And also, by the way, the foreclosure auction (Notice of Trustee Sale) had been scheduled for next week.  When the homeowner asked if he could get a 30 days extension to hire a Realtor to do a short sale, they rejected that request as well.

 

I would love to help this homeowner, but the problem is, with less than a week to go before the auction date, I cannot stop this trustee sale from taking place.  Even if I had a viable offer in hand, most lenders and Wells Fargo, specifically, will not stop the sale if the sale is scheduled to take place in less than 7 days.    Had the homeowner called me a week or two ago, I could have worked some magic, but now with less than a week to go before the sale date, he is out of options.   Had he not relied solely on the bank to and taken other steps, we could have prepared him for a HAFA short sale and probably gotten him $6,000 to pay off the second lien and another $3,000 in relocation expenses.  Instead, he will get nothing for months and months of waiting.

 

Some of you skeptical readers out there may be wondering if I may be exaggerating how often dual track foreclosures may be occurring in the real world?  More often than  you would like to believe and sometimes with confusing results.

 

 

Family Fights to Keep Home After Accidental Sale – Local News – Sacra Men To, CA – Msnbc
For homeowners out there who are  working on loan modifications, do not put all of your hopes into that one basket.  The chances of homeowners getting successful permanent loan modifications are small to begin with, most receive a temporary modification or are summarily rejected like the person who called me today.   So protect yourself and  consider multiple options, do not make the mistake of believing that the lender will have your best interest at heart.

 

 

 

 

Get 50 Gigs of Free Cloud Storage for Life

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For those of you who follow this blog, I thank you for reading.   I have come across an amazing free offer that I feel compelled to share with you.  50 Gigs of space in the cloud for life.   You may have heard about the 2 Gigs of free space or 5 Gigs of free space from Apple or Amazon, but www.box.net  beats them all by offering an amazing 50 Gigs of cloud storage.  That’s a $50 option from Amazon and $100 option from Apple. 

This is a limited time offer.  If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you can activate an account using iOS 5 and get 50 Gigs.  Even if you don’t know how you will use it now, it makes sense to grab the offer before it expires and then figure out how you will use it later.  It can be a photo album or a movie collection in the cloud.

I’ve been using it to backup my client files over the net and it works like a charm.   I can use iPad, my android smartphone and my laptop and have access to all of the same files.  If you are familiar with Dropbox, it is similar in concept, except obviously with 25x more capacity.  GRAB IT WHILE IT IS AVAILABLE.

 

You can read about the promotion below.

http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/231900862/box-net-one-ups-apple-icloud-with-50-gb-free-cloud-storage.htm?itc=refresh

What is a short sale?

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I try in this blog to reach out to and deliver to the public , who may be looking for information, material that may prove useful to them. However, sometimes it is a challenge to try to verbalize the information in a manner that is easy to read and to comprehend. Writing proves to be a difficult challenge for your truly.

Sometimes, rather than reading about something, it is much easier to absorb the information by watching a video. Fortunately, the CDPE organization has published some videos which are short and to the point. Since they have made the effort to produce these little gems, I feel it is only right that I share them with my readers. Enjoy.

This first one answers the question: what is a short sale?

Another successful Wells Fargo short sale approval

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Another short sale approval came in today.    Another young family can now move forward and use the $3,000 check to help them relocate.  This was a HAFA short sale and another $6,000 from the proceeds were given to the second lien holder to help settle their claim.  After submitting the offer, it took less than 45 days to get the final approval.   This approval again, contradicts the rumors floating around out there that HAFA automatically causes delays in short sales.   HAFA deals with deadlines and was designed to speed up the process.

It was good for the bank, the seller and the buyer.   The house may not have sold for the amount borrowed, but we received a fair market value offer that was sufficient to pay monies to all parties involved to get them all to settle.   A happy day for all.  A good day for all.
Wells Fargo Approval

Silicon Valley Homeowners, Chase is offering incentive of up to $25,000 to short sale your home.

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The word is getting around.  JP Morgan Chase and other large lenders are actively encouraging homeowners who are in distress and not able to make their mortgage payments by offering them incentives of up to $25,000 if they are successful in short selling their homes.  So far this has only been information from third parties and other sources whose clients were solicited by mail.   Today, I learned that one of my colleagues had a client reach out to him because Chase had wanted the borrower to do a Short Sale with a CDPE designated agent if they wanted to receive $25,000.   Silicon Valley Homeowners, if you receive this type of letter, you need to contact a CDPE designated short sale specialist like myself.

I need to point out that not everyone is automatically extended this offer.  You must be the recipient of a letter specifically offering you the money.     But one thing is certain: this is no joke, this is happening because the lenders like Chase have figured out that they can still make more money by permitting short sales to be completed than go into foreclosure.   Banks never do anything unless they can make money as the end result.