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The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Short Sale as a Residence

Buying a short sale can be a great way to make a smart real estate purchase, given the conditions in today’s market. More frequently, home buyers want to look at nothing but foreclosures, REOs, and short sales during their real estate search. However, just because a property is being sold as a short sale, or some other form of a distressed asset, does not mean that it is necessarily a good purchase. This article will focus on the top three mistakes to avoid when buying a short sale as a residence.

Short Sale Mistake Number 1 – Don’t Fall in Love with the Property

Real Estate is an emotional purchase. As a matter of fact, most purchases are emotional purchases. When we make emotional purchases, we do a funny thing. Many people don’t realize this, but when we make emotional decisions we tend to justify those decisions with logic.

For example, I want to buy a four door Jeep Rubicon. I like them. I want one. The other day I thought to myself that it might be time to buy that Jeep solely based on the fact that our economy was in such bad shape. I started thinking that I could probably get a really good buy right now. I even started thinking that if I end up waiting a few years that I will probably end up paying more for the same Jeep that I could buy now. So I should buy one know. In my head, I am trying to logically justify emotional decisions.

The same thing happens for home buyers; only the emotions when buying a home are a lot stronger (typically) than when buying an automobile. Some common logical justifications for emotional home buying decisions that I hear are:

• The house is pretty expensive but it is closer to work and we can save money on gas
• We might lose money when we our current home now, but we can make it up on the purchase of a new home
• The house is smaller, but that makes it easier to clean
• That extra bedroom would be great if (fill in the blank) ever had to come to live with us

If you fall in love with the short sale that you want to buy, you will lose your ability to negotiate because you will not be prepared to walk away.

Don’t Be in a Hurry

It is not uncommon for short sales to take 90 days or more to complete. Short Sale acceptance depends on any number of the following factors: amount of unpaid balance, balance of the first lien, balance of the second lien, type of borrower hardship, the lenders policy, the mortgage insurance policy, state foreclosure law, seller willingness to “participate” in the loss, etc…

Contrary to popular belief, there is no universal system in place for lenders when deterring which offers will be accepted and which won’t. And to make it ever more frustrating, loan servicers are completely

overwhelmed with short sale applicants. Some of the larger lenders will immediately tell you that your file will sit in review for a minimum of 30 days from the time of submission. Therefore, as a buyer, if you are in a hurry to get your family in a home, a short sale may not be a solution to your problem.

Furthermore, you cannot threaten, intimidate, or even indentify most lenders. They are just simply too big and too overwhelmed to really care that much. The following tactics will do you no good when negotiating your short sale:

• “Tell the lender that we are paying all cash” – they don’t’ care if you get a loan or not, it’s all cash to them
• “Tell the lender that if they don’t decide in the next week then we will walk” – in this case, it’s not that they don’t care, they just don’t have a method to leap frog your file in front of tens of thousands of other files
• “Tell the lender that we will purchase it as-is” – that is fine with them, they weren’t going to fix anything anyway

These transactions can be severely frustrating for the buyers. No one likes to wait unnecessarily. However, the smart investors know that they have to go at an even pace and if they pursue enough deals, one will work out. Methodical follow up with the lender is far more effective than annoying insistence. 

Don’t Overpay

Real estate riches are commonly created when people by real estate below market value. Market value is easy to determine, if you have the data. If you do have the data, market value can be found by looking at two factors: what is currently for sale, and what has recently sold. If you don’t have the data (or are working with an incompetent agent) then market value may be determined (or mis-determined) with false data sets. For example, here is a list of things that don’t affect or indicate value, but are commonly referenced by “experts”:

• Unpaid principal balance: what is owed on the property has nothing to do with what it is worth
• The Tax Assessment: what the property appraiser says a property is worth means nothing (unless he is buying the property)
• Property sales that are more than 90 days old: the current real estate landscape changes so fast, a comparable sale from six months ago is no longer comparable. 

I suggest considering the home values from 2002-2003 when buying a home. The values from these years generally indicate “pre-boom” values. They are closer to “normal”. These values should not be solely considered, but should be referenced as a sanity check. If you can buy today, at the price from 2002, then you are most likely looking at a relative good buy. This happens fairly regularly in a short sale transaction. Lenders know to discount the properties to a point that makes them attractive to buyers. This usually means discounting them to “pre-boom” values. 

Call Jerry for more information @800-587-1110

The foreclosure rate is soaring in most areas of the country presenting incredible opportunities for preforeclosure real estate investors!  There are a number of ways the informed real estate investor can profit from homes facing foreclosure and one of the most lucrative is the Short Sale.           

 What is a Short Sale?  Read on….

When a homeowner stops making payments on their mortgage loan the lender is left with no other choice but to begin a foreclosure action.  But lenders have a problem now - they are up to their necks in foreclosure properties!  

They just can’t afford to take back all those homes.  It’s too expensive to hold them, repair them and then try to sell them.  That’s where a Short Sale comes in.

 If the lender does not want to own the home what can he do when an owner stops making payments?   Well, one of the options lenders are using today is to help the borrower sell the home by forgiving a portion of the loan balance.  

That’s right, lenders will often allow a home to be sold for less than the amount still owing on the mortgage loan!  

That’s called a “Short Sale”

 Really… will lenders really take less than what’s owed?  Will they do a Short Sale?

YES… if you know how to ask!  You must convince them that discounting the mortgage is in their best interest.  You do that with a Short Sales Package.    

The reason a lender requires a Short Sale Package is to determine answers to the following questions:

Does the homeowner truly deserve a Short Sale?

 Is it in the Lender’s best interest to allow a Short Sale or foreclose and sell the house through     a realtor? 
Are there any hidden factors that might cause the lender to lose money if they foreclosed on the home?

The lender will always want to verify that the seller truly can’t make the house payments before they will consider a Short Sale. 

Before a lender will decided to accept a Short Sale he will take a detailed look at comparable home values, repair costs, realtor commissions, and holding costs. Some of the factors that will affect a Short Sale investor’s opportunity to arrange a Short Sale are: 

How many properties does the lender currently have in default?
How flexible is the corporation that made the loan?
Is a third party servicing the loan?
What is present policy of the loss mitigation department with which you are dealing?

 Don’t expect a lender to accept a discount just because it sounds good to you. If the lender thinks they will get a higher pay off by taking back the house the lender will turn you down.  There are certain things you must do to make the lender understand that a Short Sale is his best option. 

Once you know the secrets of what makes a Short Sale possible you have the key to startling profits.  With the proper short sale package a lender may take a discount of between 50% and 80% of what still owes on the mortgage loan.

 For example, that means you may be able to buy a $100,000 home for $70,000….. an immediate profit of $30,000!

Now you have an idea of the exciting opportunities available to those who understand how to put together a Short Sale. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of sales of existing homes in the United States fell 3.0 percent in March to a much lower-than-expected annual rate of 4.57 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday.

 Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home resales to slip to a 4.70 million-unit pace from a revised 4.71 million for February, which was initially reported as 4.72 million.

 The inventory of existing homes for sale fell to 3.74 million from the 3.80 million overstock reported for February. The median national home price rose 4.2 percent to $175,200 from February, boosted by seasonal factors. However, prices fell 12.4 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

As the economic crisis continues to grow, we are seeing an increasing amount of Short Sales at Lake Tahoe. For many these days, it’s hard enough to keep up normal house payments let alone a second home mortgage. So what’s the first to go? You got it. From quaint little cabins in South Lake to gorgeous lakefront homes in Zephyr Cove, these properties are being put up on the chopping block, literally so to speak. And that is why this blog was created. To inform the Lake Tahoe homeowner of their options.

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