Tag: Orlando Real Estate

Orlando Short Sales Soar as Home Foreclosure Sales Fall

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Short Sales Outnumbering Foreclosure Sales in a Big Way.

The Orlando foreclosure crisis is nowhere close to being over, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter every day. Orlando short sales are a win-win for everyone involved. Short sales [which occur when homeowners sell their homes for less than what they still owe], also close much faster than foreclosure sales, and they relieve lenders of the responsibility of maintaining vacant homes as well as not having to worry about the properties getting vandalized.

It makes you think,… with soo many benefits in it for the lenders the question is why weren’t they doing this the whole time?

 New Developments in Orlando Real Estate

There have been some changes made in the rules of Orlando short sales lately. For starters, lenders no longer have a choice. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced this month that mortgage servicers will be required to review and respond to short sale offers within 30 days and make final sale decisions within 60 days.  All of this is supposed to take place in June of this year, meanwhile, lenders are scrambling to train enough staff to handle the demand for new short sale files.

A Win-Win Situation for Orlando Homeowners

By going the short sale route both the lenders as well as the homeowners win. Homeowners get to walk away from debt-free, the lender re-cooperates some of their money back and everyone gets to move on with life.

Doing a short sale is usually the best option for people. Statistics just from our own office indicate that 90% of the time homeowners choose the short sale route after consulting with one of our Orlando short sale specialists and all the options have been explained to them. With all the incentives being offered by lenders these days, it just makes the most sense in most cases.
With lenders being much better equipped to process short sales now, it’s absolutely the fastest way for borrowers to walk away from their distressed properties. Also, credit repair is much easier to achieve when you’re dealing with some late payments on your record as opposed to a foreclosure.

Cash for Keys for some homeowners.

For many homeowners, banks are offering cash incentives for the homeowner to agree to a short sale. We’ve gotten our clients from $3,000.00 up to $20,000.00 back at closing. This is a tremendous help for homeowners in making the transition into a new homeless financially painful.

Short Sales are better for Orlando neighborhoods.

Banks are terrible property owners, foreclosed homes often stay vacant for months and even years, meanwhile, the home deteriorates due to lack of maintenance. To make things worse, vacant houses might as well have targets painted on them in certain neighborhoods. Thieves go after things like fixtures, appliances, copper pipes, etc. Banks are unknowingly cannibalizing their own assets with foreclosures.
Short sales put new owners in vacant homes much faster than foreclosure sales.  This is good news for Orlando neighborhoods that have been hit hard by the mortgage crisis. New homeowners are typically pretty excited about being new homeowners and the first thing they usually do is work on the curb appeal of their new home. Many times this creates a domino effect and before you know it, surrounding neighbors will also want to improve their curb appeal.


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Growing Demand for Orlando Real Estate is Absorbing Shadow Inventory

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 

Orlando Realty Sales are slowly overtaking the number of distressed properties coming on to the market

Chief Economist Dr. John Tuccillo says “The fear is that the inventory of delinquent and foreclosed loans will be released onto an already weakened market,” , explaining the findings of a new report conducted by the Florida Industry Data and Analysis department. “But the reality appears to be different, even here in Florida where distressed properties make up a significant portion of the market.”

Lenders have no reason to flood Florida’s real estate market with more homes especially if it ultimately affects their profit. Think about it, if the Orlando real estate market gets flooded with homes all at once then this would drive prices down significantly. Many people thought that lenders were holding inventory back on purpose when the true cause of this hold up was because of all the robo-signing issues they had to figure out.

Tuccillo says, “We looked at the recent history of distressed property listings and transactions relative to normal market data, as well as estimates for the shadow inventory, and came to some conclusions about the likely course for the future.”

 

These are the findings of recent studies done using data from the Florida MLS

* Even though Orlando Florida remains one of the Country’s hardest-hit areas for distressed property sales, foreclosure sales keep dropping while Orlando short sales continue to steadily rise.

* Prices for all residential properties including both distressed and normal property sales have been steadily increasing.
Orlando Realtors have learned how to cope with distressed properties in a way that stabilizes the market. It’s no longer an issue whether the  property is in distress or not.

* Currently, the number of distressed property sales [Orlando short sales and REOs] is more than keeping up with the amount of distressed  properties [90 days or more behind] coming on to the market.
 
 * The number of Orlando foreclosures and REOs were significantly lower in February of 2012 than one year earlier, suggesting slower shadow inventory growth.
 Distressed properties in Orlando will be a common trend for many years to come.  It will be so common that “distressed property” will be considered just another property type to a potential buyer.
 
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Orlando Realty’s Weekly MLS Market Report

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Orlando Realty’s Weekly Report for Home Buyers and Sellers

Below are the numbers for properties sold and newly listed properties in Orange County for the past 7 days as well as the numbers from the week prior. By looking at this report it’s evident that the Orlando Real Estate market is steadily stabilizing. Orlando short sales are overtaking foreclosure sales and the demand for Orlando Realty is more than keeping up with the inventory coming on to the market.

 Our research is done by our Top Orlando Realtors using Florida’s Multiple Listing Service.

Orange County from 5/4/2012  through 5/11/2012.

*  Number of Short Sale Properties Listed –                       106             [ 5/27 thru 5/4  –  83]

*  Number of Short Sale Properties under contract-       207              [ 5/27 thru 5/4  –  187 ]

*  Number of REO Properties [Bank Owned] Listed –     113              [ 5/27 thru 5/4  –  384]

*  Number of REO Properties under contract-                  112              [ 5/27 thru 5/4  –  126]

*  Number of Regular listings (By Owner)-                         213            [ 5/27 thru 5/4  –  205]

*  Number of Regular listings under contract-                 243              [ 5/27 thru 5/4  –  203]

*  Total Homes Sold in Orange County-                             244             [ 5/27 thru 5/4  –  397]

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Orlando Home Buyers Having to come out of pocket to settle with HOA Bullies

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Homeowner Associations have gotten tougher and tougher to negotiate with over the years. It used to be that an Orlando homeowner trying to short sale their house wouldn’t have to worry about paying their delinquent HOA dues until the closing date. Not only that, but they would also settle for a fraction of what is owed to them, usually about 10% or less in most cases. Those days are long gone!

 

Orlando Homeowners Associations have become the bullies of the block

What we’re seeing more and more is that the HOA’s are trying to bully Orlando realtors as well as the homeowners into getting the entire amount of what is owed to them. If they don’t get their way, they take to property to foreclosure regardless of what the lender is doing. HOA’s are fed up with being put on the back burner every time and now they’re taking it personal. They are also very aware of the law, HOA’s are entitled to get one year of past dues if the lender takes the property to foreclosure. They also know that it’s much easier for them to foreclose than a bank [no proof of ownership necessary, no issue with robo-signed documents ]. A completely different animal than a bank foreclosure.

Once they get the property into their possession, they rent it out. HOA’s know that even though it costs them a couple grand to foreclose on the homeowner, they are now able to rent rent the property out and recoup some of the loss. Many times they are able to make thousands of dollars just because the lenders take so long to foreclose.

Orlando Buyers are Having to Come out of Pocket to Pay Delinquent HOA dues

I personally think it’s ridiculous that an HOA would foreclose on a homeowner because of a few thousand dollars in past dues. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done about it, especially when they’ve already hired an attorney to handle all negotiations. I can tell you there’s nothing more frustrating than having an Orlando short sale 90% complete and the only thing holding up the deal is settling with the HOA. All your negotiating with the lenders is done, they’ve both given you payoff letters, and they’ve also given you 30 days to close. The only thing left to due is get the HOA to give you a discounted payoff letter and you’re golden.

The problem is that they want either the entire amount or an amount that is very close to full payoff! Unfortunately, if they don’t budge, then either you figure out a way to get them their money or the deal falls through. As an experienced Orlando realtor I will take a cut on my commission just so the deal will go through. Most of the time however, this isn’t enough for them. Sellers usually can’t afford to come up with any money, and the only ones left that can make the deal happen are the new buyers. Even though that debt has nothing to do with them at all, we have to make them aware that if they don’t pay it, they don’t get the house.

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Orlando Realty’s Weekly MLS Market Report

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Orlando Realty’s Weekly Report for Home Buyers and Sellers

On behalf of Orlando Realty and our entire team of Orlando real estate professionals, we are proud to introduce a weekly report of market statistics of what’s happening in the world of Orlando real estate. This report provides up-to-date information to help educate Florida Home buyers and Sellers so that they can get a feel for the market and make educated decisions when it comes to buying or selling Orlando Real Estate.

Our research is done by our Top Orlando Realtors using Florida’s Multiple Listing Service.

Orange County from 4/27/2012  through 5/4/2012.

*  Number of Short Sale Properties Listed –                      83

*  Number of Short Sale Properties under contract-       187

*  Number of REO Properties [Bank Owned] Listed –   384

*  Number of REO Properties under contract-                  126

*  Number of Regular listings (By Owner)-                        205

*  Number of Regular listings under contract-                 203

*  Total Homes Sold in Orange County-                                 397

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