Orlando Short Sale Process should be much faster with new rules in place
With the new rules regarding short sales taking effect this month, federal regulators are hoping to streamline the entire Orlando short sale process from beginning to end for residential properties.
The new regulations which will regulate both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, forces the agencies to give short sale buyers a yes or no answer within a 60 day time period. The rule is supposed to go into effect on the 15th of this month.
The rules also force the agencies to respond to initial requests for short sales within 30 days of receiving a buyer’s offer. For Orlando realtors, this is great news! No longer will they be able to take their own sweet time to respond, which sometimes meant waiting a couple of months to see if they even considered the offer. And most of the time the buyer would get frustrated and walk away from the potential deal.
What is an Orlando short sale?
For those of you who don’t know, a short sale is when a lender agrees to accept a contract price for less than what is owed on the mortgage. Orlando Real Estate values have dropped an average of 35 to 45 percent since 2007 leaving many homeowners with more debt than their home is worth.
Orlando short sales are very popular right now. It’s the perfect solution for the sellers, the buyers, Orlando realtors and the lenders. Lenders get to recoup some of their money back, Sellers are able to get rid of an enormous debt and avoid Orlando foreclosure, Buyers get a great deal on an Orlando property, and it gives realtors an opportunity to earn their money. Any Orlando short sale realtor can tell you that negotiating a short sale is no walk in the park
I believe that with the new short sale rules in place will benefit the entire Florida housing market.
Lenders prefer short sales because they are much more efficient than foreclosures. Although many homeowners have become casualties of lengthy and unpredictable time frames that it takes to process a Florida short sale.
We’ve closed thousands of Orlando short sales over the years and I can tell you from experience that unless you’ve worked with certain lenders before, there’s no way of knowing how it’s all going to play out. We’ve worked some that have taken 60 days from start to finish and some that have taken two and a half years to complete.
HARP is the Home Affordable Refinance Program. It was an initiative by the Obama Administration begun in 2009 to allow underwater homeowners to refinance their homes at today’s low mortgage rates. The program is currently available to homeowners through June 30, 2012.
If you are current on your mortgage, with or without equity, then you are eligible for this program and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t apply for HARP. It doesn’t cost anything to apply and it could the answer to your mortgage problems.
The government continues to purchase mortgage backed securities and rates continue to fall and are near record lows.
HARP allows you take advantage of current market rates even if you are “underwater”. These programs are Financial “Life-Changers”. They are also available for a limited time as determined by congress so people need to act now to take advantage of this stimulus program, and lower their monthly payment and/or term.
We’ve helped many Orlando homeowners to qualify for the HARP program since 2009 when it began. Sometimes people will come into my office thinking that their only option is to sell their Orlando property by way of short sale or by bringing money to the closing table. When I sit down with a client I like to know why they are selling. If an Orlando homeowner tells me that they would love to keep their Orlando propertyand they’re only selling because they can no longer afford the payment, I will usually recommend that they apply for HARP before trying to apply for any other programs.
For clients that truly want to keep their Orlando homes, we explore every option available to them to achieve that result. It’s only after we’ve exhausted all means to try and keep the house do we resort to selling it.
Recent HARP applications Surge
According to a recent article in National Mortgage News, the five largest mortgage servicers have seen approximately 400,000 applications for refinancing under the new program. People are starting to become more aware of HARP but for some reason 9 out of 10 of eligible Homeowners still fail to take advantage of this government program.
Many people that are upside down in their mortgage automatically believe that they can’t re-finance. With the HARP you can!
Doing an Orlando Short Sale may be your best option
If you decide that an Orlando short sale is the best option for you, we then try to get you qualified for programs such as HAFA which allows the seller to leave the closing table with a minimum of $3,000.00. Depending on who the lender is, we’ve been able to get some of our clients up to $30,000.00 back in some cases. How’s that for a bailout package?
More and more sellers are insisting on staying in their Orlando property after deal closes.
As an Orlando Realtor since 2005, I’ve seen it all. Some people need more time to find a new place while others just want to stay to finish out the school year. In some cases the sellers will make a deal with the new owners to continue renting the home indefinitely.
I say why not? As long as the buyer and the seller are able to come to a mutual agreement as far as rent and terms, then go for it. Although many of my buyers are retail home buyers who want nothing more than to move in their new house, we also work with a lot of investors who buy several homes a year through our company.
Some of these investors are strictly re-habbers that are interested in fixing the house up and selling it. These particular buyers never want the sellers to stay after the closing because they need to get in there and get to work. Obviously, you can’t have people living in a house while your remodeling it because it’s not livable. The other reason is that a lot of these investors need to close on one deal in order to re-invest in the next one.
However, there is another type of investor out there that is willing and able to accommodate sellers wanting to stay in the property provided that the terms are agreeable to both buyer and seller.
Buyers have had the advantage in Orlando real estate deals since 2006, when the market was flooded with properties and prices were still astronomical.
As Orlando Realty prices became more affordable, sales increased sharply, reducing the supply of available Orlando homes and ultimately giving sellers more power in negotiations.
Bidding wars have now returned for moderately priced homes, some real estate firms and analysts say that Orlando’s housing market has hit bottom. And others say more foreclosures could be on the horizon and will hurt prices.
In my opinion we’ve not only hit bottom but Orlando real estate is steadily increasing. Is it still a buyers market? Yes, I think so, but in desirable Orlando neighborhoods with not a lot of inventory, buyers are fighting to get the houses.
Sellers are Starting to Regain Control in the Orlando Real Estate Market
Sellers in Orlando realize that the market is starting to come around again and some homeowners use this as leverage to make a deal with the new buyer to stay in the house. At the end of the day, short sale or not, the Seller has all of the control as long as the property hasn’t gone through foreclosure. That means that they can refuse to sign the sales contract if they don’t get the deal that they want.
Most sellers prefer to leave the home on the day of closing or before. However, in my experience, post-occupancy clauses occur on about 10% of the deals closed by our office.
While buyers may feel they have no choice but to allow a seller to rent in order to get the deal done, they should be careful about agreeing to it. There should be a written agreement that includes a specific move-out date and the amount of money that will be held in escrow to be used if the seller-turned-renter damages the property.
Listing your home with the wrong agent could cost you Big Bucks
Most people will only sell a home a handful of times throughout their whole life. With limited or no experience in Orlando real estate it’s hard for someone to know how to maximize their profits from the sale of their home. Unfortunately, many homeowners make the mistake of thinking that all realtors are the same. They list with the first realtor that comes along without doing any research on that person and it ultimately ends up costing the seller thousands of dollars. The following information will help you to decide which Orlando realtor you should choose to sell your home for maximum profit.
Always Start with Google
Like pretty much anything you do these days, you start by typing your search term into Google and see what comes up. Most of the time you can find out anything you need to find out just by doing this. Once the list of Orlando realtors comes up, pick the top ten search engine results and write down their information. From these top ten agents, you should use the following questions to decide which is the right agent for you.
1. Could You send me some information about yourself? By asking this question you can learn a lot about this realtor. Ask them to see some of their marketing materials such as; postcards, ads, internet ads, etc. Also, pay attention to how long the agent takes to get back at you. If it takes a Orlando realtor 24 hrs or more to get back to you after you’ve left them a message then you can expect them to take at least that long to follow up with a potential buyer for your house.
2. How many Orlando properties have you listed and sold in the last six months? You want an Orlando agent that has experience in selling homes in the area where your home is located. By knowing the number of houses they’ve listed and the number of houses that they’ve sold within the same time period, you can get a good idea of what kind of results to expect.
3. What is the average length of time that it takes you to sell home? See what they tell you, then verify it. An Expert in Orlando real estate will know exactly at what price to list your home at to sell quickly for the highest price that the market will allow. The agent that you choose should have a good record of selling homes, not just listing them.
4. How long have you been in business? Going by how long an agent has had their license is not a good way to find out how good of a home seller they are. There are many “part time” agents that have been licensed for ten years or more, but I will choose a “rookie” top producing agent any day over a realtor that has to do something other than selling Orlando real estate to make a living.
5. Do you have any employees or an assistant? Top Producing Orlando Agents will almost always have at least an assistant. A lot of things involved with selling real estate are tedious and very time consuming, especially when you’re negotiating a short sale. A realtor with an assistant is typically a sign of a successful realtor.
6. What listing price would you recommend? And how did you come up with that number? Pricing a house right from the beginning is absolutely critical. The price should be realistic and a Keep in mind the selling price should attract prospective buyers to your home, get you top dollar in the current market and reflect the condition of your home. Be realistic and avoid ‘yes agents’, who will say ‘yes’ to any request or price while your home languishes on the market. Lowball agents will try to talk you into an artificial price simply to sell as fast as possible.
7. What does your listing agreement entail? , when does it expire and what fees will I have to pay if you are successful in selling my house? – Have your agent go over every detail in the listing agreement with you until you understand it completely. Make sure the beginning and ending dates are on the agreement; a good standard for length is three months. Know exactly what fees you will be paying and remember that less is not always better. If the agent stands to make very little commission you can bet it will be reflected in the amount of time and effort that is spent marketing your home. If the agent reduces their commission to get the listing it may mean they intend to spend very little money promoting the property. The normal commission is between 5 and 7 percent.
8. How do you market your Orlando properties? How much is your Orlando realtor going to spend on advertising this property? What are the different methods or strategies do they use for marketing their properties? Do they have a strong internet presence? Beware of agents that will do nothing more than list your property on the MLS…and that’s it. Agents who are aggressive and innovative with their marketing will always outperform agents who only rely on methods of the past.
9. Can I see some testimonials from your past clients? Any top producing Realtor should have at least a dozen testimonials from past clients and should be happy to show them to you. If the agent can’t produce any, then you should end the interview right there and continue searching for the right agent.
I hope these questions will help you to find the right realtor for you. As always ask me anything, I’m here to help.
Choosing the Right Orlando Short Sale Agent is Serious Business
As short sale agents, we go through all the same emotions as the seller we are representing. Working with these lenders can definitely provoke some strong emotions such as anger and frustration at times. Battling it out with short sale negotiators is an everyday occurrance in our office. Whether we’re trying to get an offer approved on a particular property, or negotiate a “Cash for Keys” incentive for one of our clients, there is always some kind of negotiation involved, so you need to make sure that your Orlando Realtor is experienced on the battle field of short sale negotiations.
One of the Most Important Decisions you’ll ever have to make
When you hire an Orlando Real Estate Agent to take on your short sale file, It’s just like hiring an attorney to represent you in some legal matter. [Except Realtors don’t charge you] The realtor you choose is going to be dealing with your lender on your behalf which is a huge responsibility. To begin with they have to put together your entire file correctly to then move to the next steps of sending in offers, counter offers, scheduling inspections, arranging showings and the most important task of all, creating rapport and dealing with the short sale negotiator. Sure, cash incentive programs are out there, but if you’re agent is unaware of what programs you may qualify for, than you could end up getting the short end of the stick.
Research your Potential Orlando Agent Before signing
Would hire an attorney if you knew that he or she had just passed the Bar exam and you were their first client. Of course you wouldn’t….Short selling a home is serious business. Fact, selling a house is one of the most important decisions a person will have to make in their life, so it’s very important that you hire an Orlando realtor that specializes in short sales. There are some key questions that you should always ask when interviewing a realtor before you trust them with one of the most important negotiations of your life.
Still have a million questions about Orlando Short Sales?
