Tag: Orlando Real Estate

Orlando Short Sale Realtors outsourcing short sales to unlicensed 3rd Parties

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 “Orlando Short Sale Realtors” using unlicensed negotiators to do the work

It’s recently come to my attention that certain Orlando realtors that claim to be “Short Sale Experts” are actually outsourcing their short sales to  unlicensed third party negotiators. Now, I’ve heard of  real estate attorneys outsourcing their short sales to licensed real estate agents, which to me makes perfect sense especially because by law the property must be listed on the Multiple Listing Service. However, when a licensed realtor marketing themselves as an Orlando short sale expert or specialist goes out and hires a non -licensed 3rd party negotiator it just doesn’t seem right and in my opinion is just downright deceiving to the homeowner.
When a realtor goes to a listing appointment to meet a potential client, they are making a commitment to that client as the realtor that will be representing them throughout the entire short sale process and look out for their best interest every step of the way. Do you really think that they would get the listing if they told the seller “By the way, I will be turning your file over to an unlicensed negotiator for them to work the entire short sale process with your lender and hopefully we can someone to buy it”… No Way!

The truth of the matter is, escrow officers, title representatives, and many of these amateur negotiators are inexperienced and they can cause a deal to fall apart. They lack the proper experience knowledge and care that a transaction of this sensitivity needs. A true Orlando short sale expert knows the urgency of the transaction and possesses the skills, experience and tenacity to get things done. Running a successful Orlando Real estate brokerage requires the outsourcing of many things such as; marketing, lock changing, cleaning crews, posting for sale signs, etc.  However, if a realtor is outsourcing the most important part of any real estate transaction which the processing and negotiating, then maybe that realtor needs to find another profession.

Choosing a Short Sale Realtor that’s right for You

As an Orlando homeowner you deserve the best chance at negotiating a successful short sale with an experienced realtor that’s willing to work hard for you throughout the whole short sale process from beginning to end. That’s why it’s soo important to important to to research a realtors track record as well as ask for testimonials, etc. If you’re in the market for a true Orlando Short Sale expert, read my article “A Typical Work day for an Orlando Short Sale Specialist”. It will help you in choosing the best agent to meet your particular needs.

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Banks are becoming more experienced with Orlando short sales making things easier for realtors

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Banks are getting much faster at the Orlando short sale process

Short sales have had a bad reputation in the Orlando real estate market for several years now. Realtors didn’t want to take on short sale properties either because they didn’t know what was involved and were afraid of getting in over their head or because they knew exactly what was involved and they didn’t want to commit to the hard work that’s involved in completing an Orlando short sale. Buyers didn’t like them because of the time that it would take to hear back from the bank about their offer that was submitted. Sometimes a potential buyer would submit a contract and have to wait three or four months just to find out that their offer wasn’t accepted, and all that time they spent waiting to hear back from the bank could have been utilized searching for other properties. This was extremely frustrating for everyone involved.

Lenders also must have felt frustrated because the truth is they just weren’t prepared to take on all these short sales. They weren’t prepared to handle short sales period… let alone hundreds of thousands of them coming at them at once. I believe that this is probably one of the reasons why loss mitigators would often tell agents that they didn’t receive certain documentation over and over again, or they would say things like we needed these docs in a certain order or a month later they would tell you to send everything again because it needs to be updated. Any experienced Orlando short sale realtors that are reading this post right know exactly what I’m talking about. In my opinion, these were stall tactics because lenders didn’t know how to get these short sales processed in an efficient manner.

Orlando short sales are being fast tracked thanks to experienced negotiators

Short sales are now being processed much faster than was the case just a year ago. Lenders have come a long way in putting systems in place to make things move more smoothly for the homeowner as well as the Orlando realtor processing the whole thing. I feel that the biggest change, however, is because of the short sale negotiators having much more experience in dealing with short sales now. At the end of the day, Big banks don’t run things, people do, and for some people, it’s easier to say that they didn’t receive something or come up with some other type of lame stalling tactic rather than to admit that they didn’t know what they doing.

Lately,  I’ve noticed a huge difference in the way that short sale negotiators handle short sale files. They’ve gotten better in every area; from ordering the BPO to negotiating with their investors and even getting extensions on payoff letters. I have about a dozen or so negotiators with several different lenders that I just love working with because “they get it”, they know how this business works and they will do whatever it takes to get the deal done.  Don’t get me wrong, I still have conversations with some short sale negotiators that frustrate me to no end because they are clueless about the Orlando real estate market or real estate in general yet they still try to tell me how much I should list an Orlando property for, but for the most part it’s gotten much much better.

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Orlando Real Estate remains strong, despite a dip in prices at the end of summer

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 

Summer’s gone and Orlando Real estate takes a drop

Prices of Orlando real estate dropped slightly last month for the first in a year. Don’t panic Orlando homeowners, this happens every year at this time. The reason for the drop is mostly due to the end of the peak of the summer buying season. Two facts remain true, Orlando real estate inventory is low and demand for great Orlando properties remains high. As long as these factors remain a part of the Orlando real estate market, sellers will be able to get top dollar for their Orlando Home.

Other factors indicating a strong Orlando Real Estate market

Orlando homes are selling faster and for more than they did a year ago. Studies show that Orlando homes are spending less than 80 days on the market before coming under contract and selling for almost  97% of the listing price. A year ago, Orlando Realty was selling for less than 95% of the listing price, and these properties were listed on the MLS for over 100 days.

Great mortgage interest rates are still being offered by lenders. The average interest rate currently being offered for Orlando home buyers is at 3.78 percent as opposed to a year ago when homebuyers paid an average interest rate of 4.26 percent. This is a huge incentive right now for potential Orlando home buyers and anyone interested in buying real estate in Orlando should definitely take advantage of these historically low-interest rates.

There are more regular listings in the Orlando real estate market than has been in years. Although Orlando’s short sales and REO’s still rule Orlando’s real estate inventory right now, there is another quieter group that is not desperate to sell their Orlando properties.  Believe it or not, everyone one in three homeowners owns their house “free and clear”. This group as well as homeowners with very small mortgages on their home are able to ask for top dollar on their Orlando home and they don’t care if it sells or not. Their way of thinking is “I will sell for the right price and if not then I’m not selling”. I’ve had several clients like this over the years, and homeowners like these actually help to maintain property values up in their neighborhoods because their listing prices remain high and they really don’t care how long it takes to sell.

Right now is  a great tome to sell your Orlando Home

Considering all the factors in play right now with Orlando Real Estate, it’s a great time to sell your home. Whether you need an Orlando short Sale done or you’re o of the few and fortunate people that own your property Free and Clear. If you’re interested in seeing how much your Orlando property will sell… click on “How much is my Orlando property worth?” or you can come and see me for a free consultation and I would be happy to sit and talk with you.

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Fannie Mae Making great Strides in the Orlando Short Sale Process

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Fannie Mae is taking the Lead on making short sales move even faster for Orlando homeowners

It’s amazing to see how far certain lenders have come in the way of helping homeowners to get their Orlando short sales approved. In the not-so-distant past, some of the major lenders were hell bent on making the short sale process a nightmare for not only the homeowners but also, the short sale realtors that had to work the entire process. Then even after you’ve submitted the complete package to the lender dotting every I and crossing every t, you would then have to re-submit the entire short sale package several times over either because it needed to be updated or the lender had lost it or claimed to have never received it. I know this may sound absurd to some of you but believe it or not, this used to happen on just about every single file at least once or twice.

It’s only been in the last year or so that we’ve seen a drastic change in the way that lenders handle Orlando short sales in General. There are systems in place such as HudHomes.Gov that some lenders use which make short sales move along a lot faster. And with systems like these in place, no longer can negotiators claim to have never received certain documents or that they’ve lost them. It’s as easy as logging into your account and uploading every page that they request. This was just one of the steps which began to streamline the short sale process.

Since then, there have been laws implemented by congress which require lenders to respond within 60 days of a short sale offer being presented, this was Huge! Even bigger, was when Lenders started giving homeowners large “Cash for Keys” incentives to complete short sales. Not only were homeowners able to get their debt forgiven, but they were able to receive enough cash at closing to start over in a new life.

Most recently, Fannie has come out with new guidelines for loan servicers to follow.  The new guidelines are a part of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Servicing Alignment Initiative. The idea is to prevent more foreclosures and help neighborhoods to stabilize.

Fannie Mae’s new guideline changes

• Hardships. Servicers will now be permitted to approve a short sale for borrowers who have certain kinds of hardships but are still current on their loans. Also, in order to reduce paperwork, no documentation of hardship will be required for borrowers who are 90 days or more delinquent and have a credit score lower than 620.

• 2nd-lien payments limited to $6,000. Before, 2nd lien holders often attempted to negotiate higher payments. The loan servicer will be able to offer the maximum payment of $6,000 in order to facilitate the transaction. By setting a standard payout amount and a limit for every transaction, Fannie Mae is removing the guesswork in order to accelerate the short sale process.

• Servicers will have more authority to approve and complete short sales. All servicers will have the authority to approve and complete short sales that conform to the requirements without receiving individual approval from Fannie Mae. Sometimes this part of the process added several months to short sale negotiations.

Jenny Zamora Lic RE Broker, Orlando

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What Exactly is a “Charge Off” when it comes to Orlando Short Sales?

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

A “charge off” is not the same as debt forgiveness

In the world of Orlando real estate when you hear the words “charge off” coming from your lender, it basically means that they are throwing their hands up and giving up on collecting that particular debt, the debt that’s being charged off is also known as a “write off”.  It’s an internal accounting technique that companies use to balance their books by writing off the debt as uncollectible. When you’re working with short sales you hear this term quite often.

This is the part where it can get a little confusing. For example, a “HELOC” or “home equity line of credit” is a  second mortgage secured by your house in which the lender that gave you the “HELOC” thought it was a sound investment for them at the time. The term “charge off” in this case just means that the bank is no longer continuing to bug you with annoying phone calls and letters and they will take a charge off on their books.

However, this doesn’t mean that it ends there. Most of the time the lender will sell the bad debt for pennies on the dollar to a much more aggressive debt collector. If you thought the original bank was annoying, these companies are often 10 times worse. I’ve gotten reports from some of my clients about these companies calling at least once or twice a day, every day including weekends. I consider these companies to be in the same category as telemarketers.

There are only 3 ways to get mortgage debt collectors off your back

1- Bankruptcy 7 or 13

Bankruptcy Chapter 7 and 13. I’m not an attorney and I’m not about to go in-depth on the subject of Bankruptcy laws but in a nutshell, If you file for chapter 7 BK, you are pretty much surrendering all of your assets to the BK court with the exception of your homestead property as well as a vehicle as long as neither of them holds significant equity. This type of BK will end any pending lawsuits as well as any repossession debts.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts. Under this chapter, debtors propose a repayment plan to make installments to creditors over three to five years. By filing under this chapter, individuals can stop foreclosure proceedings and may cure delinquent mortgage payments over time.

2- Loan modification

Loan modifications make sense when you are able to get the lender to not only adjust your payments but to reduce the principal balance of the loan. It just doesn’t make sense to me to agree to a loan mod if the terms only benefit the lender. Don’t get me wrong, for some people it works out, but in my experience lenders almost always try to design loan mods in a way that benefits them thus setting up the homeowner for failure…and the beat goes on.  Read the fine print!

3- Orlando Short Sale

Now, this is a subject that I am very qualified to talk to you about. Orlando short sales are the preferred method for most people to eliminate their underwater mortgage problem. Orlando homeowners usually come to me after they consult with a Bankruptcy attorney realizing that a short sale is by far their best option. By completing an Orlando short sale on their home, a homeowner is able to rid themselves of their largest debt by far,.. their mortgage. On top of that, homeowners are able to come away with cash from the closing of the transaction, sometimes up to $30,000.00. [not a typo] thirty thousand U.S. dollars.

A short sale also is the lender’s preferred alternative to foreclosure and is often the best option for everyone involved. The only people that don’t care for short sales are Bankruptcy attorneys because there’s no money in it for them.

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