Tag: Orlando Short sales

Short Sale your home before defaulting on your mortgage

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Short Sale your home before defaulting on your mortgage…More and more we are starting to see a trend in the world of Orlando short sales and that is,… lenders are increasingly more willing to approve short sales before homeowners actually default on their mortgage and fall into a pre-foreclosure situation. This is a huge deal for homeowners that have been wanting get out of their upside down mortgage and haven’t done so for fear of severely damaging their credit.

According to our records we found that in 2012 about 20% of our short sale files, were deals where the lender had not yet filed for foreclosure against the homeowner. A few of them were deals where the homeowner wasn’t even behind on their mortgage. I for one am praying that this trend continues…for everyone’s sake. It just makes good sense,… if the homeowner is trying to be honest with the bank by letting them know that they will be defaulting before they actually default, why shouldn’t the bank use this information to move things along faster before they start losing money?? It’s a win win situation for everyone involved. The homeowner avoids damage to their credit and the lender avoids losing big money by getting a head start on the whole process of getting the house sold. They don’t have to worry about the mortgage falling behind for more than a few payments and even more importantly,… they don’t have to shell out thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees to start the foreclosure process.

Also, by allowing these “almost distressed” homes to change hands much faster will most likely put them in the hands of new homeowners who have loans they can actually afford, which means they are more likely to be able to afford and maintain the property and these people will be more motivated to be responsible homeowner.

Most Lenders are still not seeing the “Big Picture”

Although some lenders are seeing the light when it comes to getting short sales done before waiting for the homeowner to default, the truth is that most lenders are just not having it. They have a strict set of guidelines that they follow to a ” T “, and there’s just no changing their minds…believe me I’ve tried. Dealing with these lenders can be frustrating, but it’s just part of being a short sale realtor.

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Winter Park FL short sale | 1760 Elizabeths Walk

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Winter Park FL short sale | 1760 Elizabeths Walk

This gorgeous 5 bedroom 4 bathroom house is located in the premier neighborhood of Windsong in Winter Park! This 3,710 square ft beauty has 2 floors of carefully planned open layout designed to make anyone fall in love at first site.

Other Great features

* Wood burning fireplace

* 2 car garage

* Screened in porch

* Community Clubhouse

* 2 Large Community Pools

* Playground

This property has easy access to top rated schools, first rate restaurants and shops and nearby Orlando’s top medical facilities. Don’t wait! This one won’t last for long.

Visit us at Orlando Realty Consultants to see this or any other of our terrific Orlando properties.

 

 

Orlando Real Estate Broker

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Ocwen outsourcing Orlando short sales to India

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Ocwen outsourcing Orlando short sales- It used to be that the hardest bank to negotiate a short sale with was Bank of America… hands down. But ever since B of A has implemented the Equator system they are now one of my favorite lenders to work with. In the past year or so there’s a new leader in my list of the absolute worst lenders to work with, and the winner is………Green Tree but Ocwen is a close 2nd. Ocwen is extremely frustrating to work with and part of the reason is that they outsource their short sale department to to India. You can’t even call the negotiator directly anymore because your call goes directly to a call center. And the person you end up talking to is beyond clueless, all they are able to do is  take a message, and sometimes they even get that wrong. The only way to speak to your negotiator is to schedule a call back, which most times never occurs..If you leave it up to them, it will be weeks for you to get a call back. What I do is call every day until they get tired of me complaining…finally a call back, usually from someone other than the negotiator so you are back to square one..
I’ve always thought that the short sale negotiator should be a licensed realtor, after all… the whole job revolves around the buying and selling of real estate. How on earth is someone that is unlicensed, living half way around the world qualified to discuss short sale?
Ocwen is obviously trying to save a few bucks by outsourcing to people that work for $2-$3 per hour. However, this is one position that should absolutely not be outsourced! To be a good short sale negotiator, you need to be familiar with the real estate business, it’s just not something that you can fake.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Even in our company use we use VA’s [virtual assistants] for certain things like link building, compiling lists, etc. … but negotiate a short sale…are you kidding me?

 

Short Sales are too Important to Out source

 

I’ve said this a million times and will continue to say it. Negotiating a short sale is serious business and is usually one of the most important transactions that someone will ever be involved in. I really hope that Ocwen gets their act together especially for the mortgage holder’s sake

 

Orlando Real Estate Broker

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Frustrations of an Orlando Short Sale Realtor

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Any Orlando Short Sale Realtor should be accustomed to dealing with frustrating situations. We have to deal with things like working with Homeowners associations, clueless bank negotiators, BPO agents, contractors, etc. This just comes with the territory and if you’re going to be successful with short sales, it’s just something that you have to accept and there’s no way around it.

As a full-service brokerage, we also work with buyers. When I research listings for a potential buyer, it’s very time-consuming even if you use great real estate tools such as the MLS. The MLS was designed and put into place for real estate agents to be as efficient as humanly possible in the selling and purchasing of Orlando real estate. It also does some other pretty amazing things to help agents update their clients, exchanging of information, etc. As amazing as this technology is, you still have to use it correctly for it to be effective. With all the free training offered by the MLS, there’s just no excuse not to know.

Orlando Realtors…Be Professional… Please!

There’s one thing, however, that I find to be more frustrating than almost anything when it comes to Orlando real estate, and that one thing is dealing with incompetent real estate agents. I’m not perfect by any means but I do try my best to respect and follow the laws that have been put into place to regulate my profession. Unfortunately, there are many real estate agents out there that seem to just not care about the rules and regulations of Florida real estate. The worst part about this is that agents like these are giving real estate agents a bad name.

Top 4 pet peeves about incompetent Realtors

1- Failing to update their listings- Super frustrating when you’re searching for properties and you find an active listing that closed  5 days ago…are you kidding me? It takes less than a minute to change the status of your listing. Be professional!

2-Failing to return calls or emails- Why are you in this business if you don’t return phone calls or emails from another real estate agent? Is this also how you handle messages from a potential buyer or seller? How on earth do you make a living at this??

3-Failing to provide urgent docs for a Closing- The closing of the transaction is the ultimate goal in real estate. Why in the world would you delay in providing crucial information when everyone else involved is trying to get the deal closed?

4-Pretending Pretending to be knowledgeable about short sales [this should probably be number 1]- It’s OK if you’re clueless about short sales and I don’t mind educating you on them a bit.  However, please please please… don’t pretend that you know about short sales if you really don’t. Trying to be someone that you’re not just to feel important can potentially hurt your client. If you want to learn about short sales, take some courses, read some books but please don’t practice during “Game Day”, there’s just too much at stake. We’re talking about one of, if not the most important transaction of someone’s life.

Orlando short sale expert

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Strategic Default, more popular than ever

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Although Orlando real estate prices continue to steadily rise, strategic default is as popular as ever. As homeowners come to us to list their Orlando properties for sale, the majority of them are upside down on their mortgage. The big problem is that there are several lenders out there that won’t accept a short sale unless the mortgage holder has defaulted on their payments. This puts the homeowners in a difficult position by forcing them to either continue paying on a mortgage that is way too high or stop making their mortgage payment. Most people faced with this situation these days are strategically defaulting on their mortgage for the sole purpose of pursuing a short sale with their lender. When you think about it…what choice do they have?

 

Don’t get me wrong…I would never tell a client to purposely default on their mortgage, but once I explain their situation to them, they almost always choose to stop paying their mortgage and pursue short sale. Honestly, I can’t say that I blame them. As a matter of fact, if I was in their shoes, I would do the exact same thing.

 

How will it affect your Credit?
A short sale can have a lot less of an effect on your credit score than a foreclosure. But, it must be done correctly.
If your request for a shot sale is approved, your agent should ask your lender to report the short sale as “paid in full,” as part of the negotiation.

 

Many sources have reported that a short sale has about the same impact on your credit score as a foreclosure, however from experience with our own clients, that’s never been the case.  Most of the time, clients of ours that have completed an Orlando short sale, report that their credit score only dropped by 100 points, which can be easily fixed by a good credit repair company.

 

There are no guarantees when it comes short sales

 

It’s important for you to know there is no obligation what-so-ever on the bank’s part to accept a short sale payoff.
And you just won’t know until you begin the process.  You should also be aware that short sales can take several months to complete depending on who the lender is.

 

If you still want to learn more about shorts sales, visit us at OrlandoRealtyConsultants.com

 

 

 

Orlando Real Estate Broker

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