It seems that more and more lenders are more interested in working with short sale sellers than ever before. They are finally realizing that it is much better to not have bank owned assets.  If you have been unsure about what your options are, please give us a call.  We have heard from many clients recently that taking money coming from their savings and retirement accounts is NOT the best option.

By James R. Hagerty

As he appeared before the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday to discuss the slow progress of government efforts to force lenders to ease payment terms on home mortgages, Anthony B. Sanders was reminded of the movie “Jurassic Park.”

It might be possible to bring dinosaurs back to life, but does that make it a good idea? Similarly, says Dr. Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University, it might be possible to slash interest rates on millions of loans, but that doesn’t mean we should.

What if the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program somehow finally gains traction and manages to reduce interest rates to 2% on millions of loans and extend their terms to 40 years? That would just create fresh problems, Dr. Sanders says.

“Our banking industry, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and our Federal Reserve would now be sitting on trillions of dollars of mortgages, many at super-low interest rates and stretched maturities to 40 years,” he writes. Any rise in inflation and interest rates would then slash the value of those mortgages. “When one considers the precarious balance sheets of our lending institutions and our government agencies, we should think very, very carefully about loading up their balance sheets with these mortgages,” he warns, adding:

“Congress and the Administration should bear in mind that it is not just the banks that will suffer, but our pension funds, our own government agencies and the viability of the economy going forward.” Banks would be “stuck with low-interest, long-maturity loans on their books that will prevent them from lending to other borrowers or small businesses for a long, long time.”

The solution, he says, is to encourage financial institutions to sell distressed loans and mortgage securities at big discounts from face value to private investors, who could then restructure the loans on realistic terms related to today’s house prices. Such sales would force banks and other financial institutions to book big losses, but perhaps regulators could allow those losses to be absorbed in stages over five years.

If U.S. financial institutions don’t clean up their balance sheets by shedding dud assets soon, “we will make the Japanese zombie banks look the role model for a healthy financial system,” Dr. Sanders says.

But what about all those borrowers struggling to avoid foreclosure? “The (loan) servicers and financial institutions should be able to modify distressed loans as they see as economically appropriate,” Dr. Sanders says. “After all, these are private market contracts between borrowers and lenders.”

“What is a short sale?”

Simply put, a short sale is a real estate transaction where the homeowner owes their lender more than what their property is worth and they need to sell. In a short sale, the lender must approve and accept less than what they are owed as full payoff (this means they may settle for $600,000, even if you currently owe them $800,000…even if the loss is hundreds of thousands of dollars).

Are you facing a financial hardship that you know will decrease your income?

Are you getting behind on your mortgage and you’re not sure if you can catch up?

Or do you just need to sell quickly but your home is worth less now than when you bought it?

If you are facing any of the situations above, and you think a short sale might be your best option, then read on.

Don’t worry.  It’s not your fault…

You must remember, we’ve all had our ups and downs in life and a lot of other good people are also in the same tough spot as you. Life seems scary when you’re facing the reality of foreclosure and I know how you feel when you just don’t want to answer the phone any more…  

We all agree that we’re in the middle of a national mortgage and economic crisis and that, in many cases, homeowners who have bought or refinanced in the last few years have been seriously abused by unethical lending practices!!

You bought your home and hoped (like we all did) that it would increase in value (and some folks were even promised it would!), but most likely the harsh reality is that now your home is worth less than when you bought it and the value is still declining sharply.

We have helped many homeowners in this position get the help they deserve.  

It’s sad but true!

Did you know that nearly 90% of the homeowners nationwide who try to “short sale” their home will end up losing their home to foreclosure due to an uneducated or lazy Real Estate Agent?

Don’t allow this to happen to you!

I hate to say this about my fellow agents, but the majority of them that are “trying to help” have not been properly trained and sadly, they are misinformed as to how to even negotiate with lenders. Some even get so far as to submit your ’short sale packet’ and then just sit back and wait for a response! In the end, they simply don’t know how to help you and you will become one of those “90%” that were not helped.

“Short sales are not easy!”

…unless you seek the help of an expert agent with a proven track record. We have been personally trained by a former Chief Loss Mitigator who is a career loss mitigator and asset manager with 20 years in the business (he is ultimately the guy at the bank who accepts or declines short sales). We are now helping save even more folks from foreclosure.

We have successfully negotiated short sales for many families and as you can see from our recent approval letters on the tab above (we swap out some of our recent approvals every couple months, so you will notice these are up to date) we actually get the banks to say YES to our short sales. Before you agree to have an agent help you sell your home, ask him/her to show you just one short sale approval within the last 6 months… I doubt they can.

Now it’s up to you…

We are ready to go to battle for you. Are you ready to take a serious look at your options and see how a short sale can help you:

• Avoid paying TAXES on the money the bank loses at foreclosure! (Yes, you may have to pay taxes on the amount of loss to the bank if the home goes to foreclosure!)
• Save your credit from the “Foreclosure” ding
• Avoid Bankruptcy
• Avoid Foreclosure
• Relieve the stress that this financial burden has become
• WITH NO OUT OF POCKET FEES OR ANY UP FRONT COSTS OF ANY KIND!  …or in other words, you pay us nothing and if we do our job and save you from foreclosure, only then will we get paid by the lender!