Arizona Short Sale

With the economy severely wounded, job losses continue to rise and, as a result, foreclosures climb. Of course, there are other life changes like divorce or major medical expenses that can affect your ability to remain current on the mortgage. No matter what led to the foreclosure process, you need to know the available options and take control of the process.

It is critical that if you find yourself in this unfortunate situation, you do not throw up your hands, shrink back and give up. Do not meekly allow foreclosure proceedings to take your home and mar your credit. This is the time to take action and explore the available options to avoid foreclosure and save your home and credit.

First, you must do some research to learn about the foreclosure process in your state. The process is different in each state. In some areas, the process moves quickly. The sooner you arm yourself with information and take action, the greater your chance to avoid foreclosure.

If you have a wealthy friend or relative willing to lend you money, the solution is simple; borrow the money and repay your angel. Most people do not have a wealthy angel.

Realistically, you will need to explore solid options. Depending on the loan and your individual circumstances, you may qualify for a loan modification. Contact your lender and find out if you meet the criteria. Under President Obama’s plan to keep American homeowners out of foreclosure, this may be an excellent option.

A second option is a refinance of the mortgage to lower the interest rate and reduce the payments. With interest rates at an all time low, this option can benefit many homeowners. Again, the individual circumstances of the homeowner and the specific loan will be the deciding factor.

A third option to consider is the sale of the home. This might not be possible in the current economy. The slump in the housing sales may prohibit the use of this option.

Another course of action may be a deed in lieu of foreclosure. This option does not allow the homeowner to remain in the house. A deed in lieu of foreclosure conveys the property to the lender and avoids the costs, time and effort involved with foreclosure. Of course, this requires acceptance by the lender.

If the loss of income is a temporary situation, the lender may agree to a Forbearance Agreement. The borrower agrees to keep the mortgage payments current going forward. It also provides for repayment of the delinquent payments and accrued fees. This option would only be beneficial to borrowers in a specific short term situation.

Another possibility is a short-sale. This requires the approval of the lender and allows the borrower to accept a contract on the property for less than the balance owed on the mortgage.

Please visit: http://www.recoverfromloss.com

Mel Otero has worked as a manager in the mortgage banking industry and title insurance industries. She has recently started web sites focused on recovering during this difficult economy. Please visit: http://www.mortgagemodificationsystem.com/motero/

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For more videos on short sales check out Kevin and Fred on the Short Sale Power Hour. Video for Short Sale Specialists.

With America’s real estate market in a frantic tailspin, we are seeing more and more homeowners turn to short sales in Phoenix, Arizona as a solution to avoid foreclosure. Within the confines of this article we will give attention to the ten most frequently asked questions regarding shorts sales. Short sales, in our professional opinion, are the best option available to the general public. However, each situation is different for each home owner and their family. So, it is in your best interest to find the option to avoid foreclosure that will work best for you. Be informed about all of the options and weigh them against your specific situation. Now, on to those questions about short sales
1. What are Short Sales?
Short sales are when homeowners who owe more money to the bank on their mortgage loan than the current market value of the home and the bank approves of selling the home for less than the pay off amount. As an example, Bob Smith in Phoenix, AZ owes $250,000 on his mortgage and his home has a value of $170,000. This is referred to as an upside down mortgage. These types of homes are the perfect candidates for short sales to help the home owner get out of the property and the mortgage debt.
2. Why would a lender accept taking a loss in short sales?
The lender, bank, or mortgage company agrees to take a loss because, in the long haul they will save money. Whether the home is in pre foreclosure or foreclosure, the bank is getting no money for it. Furthermore, if they have to foreclose on it, legal fees and other hassles eat away at the eventual price the bank will get at foreclosure sale. Consider one step further, at foreclosure sale a home gets far less than it would get if it short sales. Take this idea yet another step and consider that the money from the short sale of the home can be borrowed to someone else that WILL pay off their debt. Hopefully, by now, you understand that it is in their best interest for banks to support short sales from the very first time that the home owner mentions the words. They are so inclined to support short sales that they often forgive the remaining balance between the sale price and the mortgage pay off amount. But, we must caution, in short sales, it is at the lenders discretion whether they choose to forgive the remainder or not. They have the legal right to collect the difference from you (but don’t be too alarmed, you were facing a potential foreclosure. So, they understand that legal action against you will more than likely yield nothing).

Watch Kevin and Fred, Short Sale Specialists, on the Short Sale Power Hour. Video for Short Sale Specialists.

The final challenge to overcome in the bank short sale process is the ever mounting stress. We’ve already touched on this a bit in the above concerns and also in Part I of this article. However, the bank short sale process brings stresses from several angles. There is undue stress from how the bank deals with the bank short sale process and stress from the loved ones around you that think they are helping by giving you advice. There is also stress from the time that it takes to complete a bank short sale. That is why a real estate agent, to deal with banks and negotiators, is so essential.
With the bank short sale becoming an increasing popular tool in Queen Creek, AZ to help home owners out of soe tight situations, the real esate agent is critical to making the process move smoothly All that being said, we could tell you to avoid the bank short sale, but that is not in your best interest if you find yourself in an upside down mortgage situation. The bank short sale is the best option for you if you have an ally in the battle with the bank and the buyer and the negotiator. Tackling this daunting process without the help of a supremely qualified agent can be enough to push you to the crazy house. So, why do we deal in bank short sale listings? The simply answer is this. The bank short sale can bring to fruition three happy parties. First, the bank, that gets more money for the property through the bank short sale process than they would if they had to foreclose on the home and sell it. Second, the current home owner wins by using the bank short sale to get themselves out of an upside down mortgage. And Third, the new home buyer uses the bank short sale as a way to get a great property at a reduced price.
Bank short sale listing can offer a buyer in Queen Creek, Arizona a great opportunity to get into a home that is ready to live in. It gives the seller a way out and the bank a little less loss. Also, because of the bank short sale process, they can be real winners in the negotiation process.
Currently, banks and home owners alike are having their cups run over with upside down mortgages. The bank short sale can help out all parties in making a bad situation a little bit better. Avoiding foreclosure in lieu of a bank short sale is in everyone’s best interest and using an experienced real estate agent to facilitate the bank short sale is in your best interest.

Watch Kevin Kauffman and Fred Weaver of Group 46:10, Short Sale Specialists, on the daily Short Sale Power Hour.

Loss mitigation is the process of helping home owners that are delinquent in paying their mortgage and are close to foreclosure. Loss mitigation is used by home owners in Phoenix, Arizona to save their home and of trying to stop the foreclosure before it happens. It is an intervention created to help homeowners avoid foreclosure through third party that helps with loss mitigation. Even though you may think that loss mitigation is a new process, it has been around for many years, and has the potential to save lots of money and headaches.
Foreclosures are destroying the housing market in Phoenix, AZ. That is why loss mitigation is so important. Because foreclosures are higher than ever, loss mitigation specialists are busier than ever. With ARM still going up, we will very likely see the highest foreclosure rates in history. Loss Mitigation is the best method of halting the foreclosure process leading to the sale of your property at auction. The reason for Loss Mitigation is foster an agreement between the homeowner and the bank that put a permanent end to the foreclosure process.
Homeowners often believe that they can refinance with another lender or even with their same lender. However, because there is a good chance that you have already missed a few payments, your credit score will likely not allow you to refinance. Therefore, the only real option available to you is loss mitigation.
With loss mitigation, the lender can help the borrower avoid foreclosure. With each different situation and lender, the rules of loss mitigation are different. One of the more popular choices for loss mitigation is the short sale of your home. Remember that the home owner and the bank BOTH stand to lose thousands of dollars if your situation goes to foreclosure. So, the short sale can be a very effective loss mitigation technique.
With both lenders and borrowers looking for ways to come out of this with as little damage as possible, loss mitigation is on the forefront of both party’s minds. So, taking advantage of the benefits of a short sale can be a win-win situation for both parties. While the bank will still be taking a loss in most situations and the home owner will have a black mark to their credit score for a few years, it is considerably better than the alternatives.
People searching for loss mitigation are growing in numbers. With banks not wanting to take on the responsibility of owning your property, now is the time to consider a short sale as a means of loss mitigation. With foreclosure and bankruptcy being the dark ending for many people, loss mitigation in any manner is ultra important during your time of need. Because no ending to the financial situation you are in will be without pain, it is crucial that the loss mitigation technique you choose is one that eliminates as much of the loss and heartache as possible.

In the wake of cruel economic times in Phoenix, Arizona, selling and buyer a home is very different. One of the trends in today’s market is short sale homes.
What are short sale homes?
Short sale homes are homes that are sold with a short sale. A short sale is when the seller wants to sell their home before it is foreclosed on. Short sale homes are good for sellers because their credit will not be affected as much as if they go into foreclosure. Short sale homes start with the sellers getting approval from the bank to sell their homes as short sale homes and then they wait for offers.
First You Make an Offer
With short sale homes, your offer will be documented so that you understand you are buying the home as is. You will also be notified by the lender that the seller will not be getting any money from short sale homes and they will not pay any fees usually. Many times, there is not a disclosure statement. For the buyer, this used to mean that you could be buying a real money pit. However, with all of the people that have nice homes and ARM or sub prime mortgages, many short sale homes are in very nice condition.
Then you Get To Wait
When you make offers on short sale homes in Phoenix, AZ, the offers get sent to the lender with other documents like proof of financing. Because short sale homes are flooding the market, this waiting period can take several weeks to several months. The lender, because they are getting all of the money, may wait to receive several offers. You can not specify that you want a response in a couple of days like a normal sale. There is usually no way to know if the lender wants more than your offer or is willing to take less. Patience in the process of buying short sale homes is probably the toughest part, but remember the great deal you will get if your offer is accepted.
When You Get Accepted
If the lender accepts one of your offers on the short sale homes, they will notify you of the time that you have to close. This timeframe is a MUST or the offer will be voided. After the offer is accepted you can have short sale homes inspected. Do not forget this step! You need to know the condition of the property before you close.
The Key To Buying SHORT SALE HOMES
It is absolutely paramount that you find a real estate agent that is experienced in dealing with short sale homes. The agent should represent you only as the seller. Finding someone with the experience in dealing with short sale homes can make the process much less stressful during every step.

With America’s real estate market in a frantic tailspin, we are seeing more and more homeowners turn to short sales in Phoenix, Arizona as a solution to avoid foreclosure. Within the confines of this article we will give attention to the ten most frequently asked questions regarding shorts sales. Short sales, in our professional opinion, are the best option available to the general public. However, each situation is different for each home owner and their family. So, it is in your best interest to find the option to avoid foreclosure that will work best for you. Be informed about all of the options and weigh them against your specific situation. Now, on to those questions about short sales
1. What are Short Sales?
Short sales are when homeowners who owe more money to the bank on their mortgage loan than the current market value of the home and the bank approves of selling the home for less than the pay off amount. As an example, Bob Smith in Phoenix, AZ owes $250,000 on his mortgage and his home has a value of $170,000. This is referred to as an upside down mortgage. These types of homes are the perfect candidates for short sales to help the home owner get out of the property and the mortgage debt.
2. Why would a lender accept taking a loss in short sales?
The lender, bank, or mortgage company agrees to take a loss because, in the long haul they will save money. Whether the home is in pre foreclosure or foreclosure, the bank is getting no money for it. Furthermore, if they have to foreclose on it, legal fees and other hassles eat away at the eventual price the bank will get at foreclosure sale. Consider one step further, at foreclosure sale a home gets far less than it would get if it short sales. Take this idea yet another step and consider that the money from the short sale of the home can be borrowed to someone else that WILL pay off their debt. Hopefully, by now, you understand that it is in their best interest for banks to support short sales from the very first time that the home owner mentions the words. They are so inclined to support short sales that they often forgive the remaining balance between the sale price and the mortgage pay off amount. But, we must caution, in short sales, it is at the lenders discretion whether they choose to forgive the remainder or not. They have the legal right to collect the difference from you (but don’t be too alarmed, you were facing a potential foreclosure. So, they understand that legal action against you will more than likely yield nothing).

We are revisiting a topic that we discussed a month ago concerning BPO disputes and we implied that the market might transform a bit concerning BPOs. Ultimately, we thought that the number of active listings was going to move up and that sales were going to fade. We joined all of this conjecture into the thought that BPOs were going to get messed up in this process.

Particularly, the BPO challenges are coming from the lender valueing your house higher than it is really worth. When you have had a property on the market for quite a few months and had no showings, you recognize that the property is worth less but the lender does not always recognize that.

This seems to be happening more frequently now. So, a few of the tips that we have given are to work vigorously to assist your BPO disputes to the lender. Use sold comps and active REO listings to do this. Take a glance at tax records to obtain this information. As we all know, the price of the active listings tells us where the market is going. If the price of homes on the active market are low, the market is going downhill.

The difficulty is that it takes a little for the lenders to catch up to this change in the market. In order to help you fight BPO values with the lender, we have an additional tool that you should ponder.

There is a company out there that a lot of of you are familiar with and the lenders are familiar with it also, specifically, Lender Processing Services. LPS does lots of things but they have a tool that we, as agents can really use. Here’s how it works.

Sign up for an account with LPS and then you have the privilege to pull REO market analysis reports. That is a report that is derived from tax data. It gives many precious pieces of information. This REO market analysis can give you a report that says what the AVM value is and what the REO value is.

The reason we love this report is because it is completed by a third party. Essentially, you can not influence it and we think that it holds much more weight with the lender. We have had huge success utilizing it over the last couple months. This is a helpful tool. We greatly suggest that you sign up for it today.

If you have questions, get your Short Sale questions answered by Short Sale Specialists.

Watch this and more short sale videos by Kevin and Fred at Short Sale Power Hour

Also, follow Group 46:10 on their blog at Pre Foreclosure – Arizona Short Sale Specialist

“The Foreclosure Survival Guide: Keep Your House Or Walk Away With Money In Your Pocket” by Attorney Stephen Elias, Author of “How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy” is if nothing else, very timely. Unfortunately so, the rise in foreclosures this past year makes a book like this most welcome for many people going through foreclosure, or for those that the dreaded fear of foreclosure looms overhead.

In these uncertain times, with more foreclosures than ever before, a book like this will be very helpful to many people. If you have received a formal foreclosure notice, or are being threatened with foreclosure, this book will guide you through the process and your options. If you just want to know more about foreclosures, this is a very easy primer on the topic.

While the book is written by an attorney, it is written for the layperson to easily understand foreclosures and options. It starts out with an overview of what to expect and then proceeds into the nuts and bolts of foreclosures.

From there, the book discusses emotional aspects of having your house foreclosed upon, and if it makes sense to attempt to keep your house or not. There is a chapter on negotiating a workout, and chapters on how Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 bankruptcies can delay or stop your foreclosure. Elias includes a chapter on fighting foreclosures in court, and what you can do when you decide to let the foreclosure proceed and leave your home. There is even a short chapter on how long you can stay in your house for free. As the title of this book suggests, it is for the home owner who is facing foreclosure, not the bank. It is suggested that the money you save by being in your house for free can be the start money you need to find another home.

There are a number of pages of resources that may help those during foreclosures or before. It is also good that Elias points out some of the scams that go on and how certain “foreclosure rescue” companies are just looking to scam you and take the little money you have.

The book concludes with a decent glossary of terms related to foreclosures and a brief description of each of the 50 State’s laws on foreclosures. This short summary of laws is enough to get the reader pointed in the right direction when researching the laws that govern the foreclosed property.

If you know nothing about foreclosures and want to for whatever reason; you want the information, you may be facing a foreclosure in the near future, or you are facing one now, this book is a great primer on the topic. While I don’t practice in the areas of foreclosure or bankruptcy, this book provided me with additional information for those calls I sometimes field from people that need more information regarding these issues.

I just wish there weren’t so many people that need this book.

Alain Burrese, J.D. is a mediator/attorney with Bennett Law Office P.C. and an author/speaker through his own company Burrese Enterprises Inc. He writes and speaks about a variety of topics focusing on the business areas of negotiation and success principles as well as self-defense and safety topics. He is the author of Hard-Won Wisdom From the School of Hard Knocks, several instructional dvds, and numerous articles. You can find out more about Alain Burrese at his websites http://www.burrese.com or http://www.bennettlawofficepc.com

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Processing a short sale transaction in Tempe, AZ can take place for a multitude of reasons given the difficult economic times that we are in. The housing market has been hit hard by this recession. This has caused many home owners to face the fact that they now owe much more than their home is worth. Also, with the popularity of the adjustable rate mortgage over the past ten years, many mortgages have been revised to much higher interest rates.
It is because of these factors that many in Tempe, Arizona can not sell their home to pay off their existing mortgage and soon facing a mortgage payment that they can not afford (or already are facing that payment).
The result of these trying times is that many home owners are resorting to the use of a short sale to rid themselves of a mortgage that they can not or do not want to pay. The short sale has alleviated many headaches for people that have lost their jobs and can not pay the mortgage, or people that purchased more house than they could afford using a ARM. Because of the assumption that the housing market would rise forever, many holding ARMs thought that they could easily sell their home for a profit. However, the are now forced to execute a short sale transaction. With a short sale, the home owner does not get a profit from the sale of a home. Many consider a short sale, a simple way to essentially break even.
Many people facing foreclosure are now resorting to the short sale of their property to get out of their homes quickly. With a short sale, after you are granted the permission from your lender to use a short sale, the home will be priced to sell for less than is currently owed on your mortgage in an attempt to sell it quickly. The bank normally accepts this lower offer as payment in full and the seller can walk away from the transaction debt free.
The short sale has proven popular in large part because of the way that credit bureaus treat it. The short sale of your home will help you avoid a huge black mark on your credit history. This is clearly a better option than walking away from your mortgage obligations and having your house foreclosed on. A foreclosure can last as long as ten years on your credit report.
The short sale of a home in Arizona can be a quick and easily way to get released from the obligation that you have with your mortgage lender to pay off your mortgage. Remember that you first need your bank’s approval to short sale your home. Because of the multitude of people facing foreclosure, your chances of getting approval from your bank are very high.