Today’s headlines are filled with stories about homeowners going through financial hardship and having to face a lender’s foreclosure on their Orlando property.
The majority of loan modification programs fall short but there’s another way out. It’s called a short sale. It’s when a lender agrees to a sale of a property for less than what the property owes. But you need an experienced short-sale realtor to make sure everything gets handled correctly in a professional way.
We specialize in doing Orlando short sales. The short sale realtors on our team have proven to be the best in Orlando at what they do. Through years of experience, our agents are very well equipped to handle any situation when it comes to processing a short sale from start to finish.
Are you or someone you know facing foreclosure? Come in and speak with one of our short-sale experts. Or you can visit us at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/
Don’t believe things you may hear about short sales being impossible to close and about how they can take forever. Short sale timelines are getting faster and lenders are starting to get their act together.
Find out who the top short sale agents in your area are. Our agents close 99% of their pre-foreclosure listings. This is more than 3 times the national average.
We have buyers for these properties and know how to get these offers accepted quickly by the lenders and get the deal closed. Over the years we’ve helped thousands of Orlando homeowners get out of upside own mortgages and move on with their lives by doing a short sale on their homes.
There’s been a lot of buzz about the current housing recovery in Orlando, many real estate agents feel that these developments mean the end of Orlando short sales. Speaking as a realtor that specializes in doing short sales, I completely disagree with that, and I’ll tell you why:
Has The Orlando Real Estate Market Fully Recovered?
It’s true that we are now facing a housing market that’s less heated and moving towards normalcy. Home price increases are driven by market demand as well as inventory shortages. And as far as pricing goes, according to CoreLogic, there was a nearly 12% growth in 2013. However, halfway through 2014, we’re already experiencing a cooling trend overall in Orlando with lower-priced properties in the lead with just 2% growth. All these things can be attributed to rising interest rates, a drop in investor participation, ever-changing short sale rules, as well as increased inventory.
Any active real estate agent can tell you that decreased inventory will lead to higher prices. Then when housing prices increase, it gets people feeling good about the market again which helps to convince homeowners that were on the fence about selling, to put their house back on the market. However, while price increases are encouraging, we still have a long way to get to erasing equity losses from the last decade.
In my opinion, the restart of any housing market is directly related to inventory and that’s why I feel that the current rebirth of the Orlando real estate market is an illusion. If you haven’t heard the term “shadow inventory”, it basically means real estate inventory that’s not yet reflected on the market.
There are several reasons why shadow inventory exists. Here are the most common:
Loan modifications- This is a foreclosure workout program that’s designed to modify the terms of the loan making it more affordable to the homeowner
Homeowners in litigation- These homeowners are in actively litigating foreclosures with their lenders causing the property to be tied up for up to several years in some cases.
Short Sales that have fallen short- Those people that have just given up trying to short sale their home because of an incompetent agent that couldn’t get the job done or a lender that just won’t budge.
Foreclosed properties- This is when a property has gone to foreclosure and taken back by the lender. I believe that this is the biggest reason for shadow inventory. When the lenders take back these properties it can sometimes take up to several years for the property to be put back on the market. Once it’s put back on the market for sale, it’s then considered an REO [real estate owned] property.
Unrealistic Property Values Not Helping Things
Another major factor that affects housing recovery is the perception of property values. Dealing with hundreds of BPO agents and appraisers [sometimes known as Deal Killers”] I know how much someone’s price opinion can vary from someone Else’s. It’s not uncommon to find very high and very low comps for most properties. This can be problematic because, with a short sale side, buyers will always try to use the lowest comps to justify buying a distressed property. Unfortunately, in the real estate industry, you just don’t know how things will play out in any transaction which is why you have to be prepared for everything.
Orlando Short Sales Will Be Around For A While
All of the things mentioned previously in this article all play a role in why I think that short sales are here to stay…at least for the next year or two. 91% of our clients are short sale clients and I can truly say that a short sale represents a way out for people, a way to get out of a bad situation and help people to move on with their lives. I also believe that lenders will start to wake up and smell the coffee when it comes to short sales vs foreclosure. Lenders benefit far more from a short sale as opposed to spending valuable time and money on a foreclosure. By allowing more homeowners to short sell their homes, they won’t have to deal with the hassle of getting the property back on the market and hoping to recoup a portion of their money.
Most people are under the assumption that a loan has to be in delinquent status in order to be transferred. The truth is that any loan can be transferred at any time the bank wishes. Remember the fine print that you speed read through at the closing?
Somewhere in that fine print, it states that your mortgage company reserves the right to sell or transfer your loan at any time they wish after the closing. That means that the lender has the right to sell your loan to another lending institution without your permission.
Usually, mortgage companies will give you a written notice in the mail informing you that your loan has been or will be transferred to the new lender or servicing company.
However, I’ve had many clients tell me that they were made aware of the transfer only through a welcome letter from the new lender. Sometimes loans get transferred multiple times. Just because your loan was transferred once, it doesn’t mean that it won’t get transferred again…and again, etc.
Unless you pay off your loan in full, you will never have control over who controls your mortgage.
For real estate agents like myself that specialize in doing Orlando short sales, this can be an extremely frustrating situation. You can have hours, days, weeks, and even months invested in a short sale file then… WHAMMO!! Out of the blue the loan gets transferred to another lender. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if they would just transfer the complete file over to the next lender so that we could just pick up where we left off. But that’s not the case……that’s never the case!
The new lender requires the agent to submit the entire short sale package again from scratch. The only thing that does transfer over it seems is the pending sale date. So not only are you forced to waste a lot more time submitting the new file, getting a hold of the negotiator, etc. but the sale date doesn’t usually get delayed.
This has happened so many times to me that you wouldn’t bother me any more right? Wrong… this has to be the most frustrating thing that can happen to a short sale realtor especially if you’ve been working the file for several months. However, sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise if you’re lucky enough to get a lender that’s more flexible with their terms or guidelines other times homeowners end up with a lender with a much stricter set of rules.
This is the story of an Orlando homeowner that was losing her house to foreclosure. Through a frantic Google search, she found our company, Orlando Realty Consultants after typing in “Orlando short sale experts”. Jenny Zamora, Broker for ORC met with Ms. Porter and explained the situation, and went through all the different options available to her in detail.
When Ms. Porter realized that she just couldn’t afford to keep the home, she opted for an Orlando short sale. We then went to work immediately with the lender to minimize any chance of the lender setting a foreclosure sale date. Within two short weeks, we were able to get an offer approved on her home and three weeks later we closed on it. We also managed to help Ms. Porter receive $3,000.0 from the lender so that she can move into another house.
We were very happy to help Ms. Porter get out of a bad situation and move on with her new life. But don’t take our word for it, watch her video testimonial and hear it in her words.
If you or someone you know is in need of doing a short sale on their home. Feel free to contact us at 407-902-7750 or visit us at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/ for a free consultation where we will explain all the different options available to you.
