April 2011 Blog Posts (37)

This was not a terrible week for me with short sales. In fact, it was pretty good. Here's the summary:

1. Closed a Menlo Park Short Sale with Bank of America, I represented the buyer.  It was smooth, and took 3 months start to finish.

2.  Another buyer is buying a short sale in Sunnyvale.  The file had been lost in bowls of HAFA,…

Optimists



AP



A wave of foreclosures is forcing down home prices in most major U.S. cities. But economists and real estate agents are noticing what they call a key first step for any housing recovery: a drop in the glut of homes for sale in markets hit hardest by foreclosures.



If we were to see several consecutive months of supply getting smaller, it would point to an improving housing market, said Celia Chen, senior director…

Sometimes Life Erupts! (edit/delete)

If there is anything I've learned in life,…

I am just curious! Has anyone else given up yet on becoming an REO Agent for any new banks, servicing companies or third-party asset managers?  I have been selling REO for about 3 years now and was fortunate enough to get approved by a few good and long-lasting companies in my initial stages before the storm of other agents realized what a good decision it would be to sell REO Assets.  I spent the first few years signing up and selling, signing up and selling, going to REO Events, signing up…

AIG tries to payback the bailout money and the fed says no?

Federal Reserve Bank of New York and BlackRock (BLK: 196.10 -0.95%) sold $1.3 billion of subprime mortgage bonds the Federal Reserve acquired from AIG upon bailing out the…

The ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union) filed a petition with a Florida appellate court this month.

The 20th Judicial Circuit Court in Lee County, Florida.They are trying to stop the court from pushing foreclosure cases onto a mass docket that was designed to quickly handle an influx of foreclosure cases.

I couldn't believe with the problems of the last year this could even be a thought in anyones mind. We have to make sure all the foreclosures are heard fairly that is…

I

've been working with my client for over a year now through B of A with no luck at all. First, we tried the short sale route that went the length of the listing period with no acceptance of the offers or counters. Then, the client moved from the house and into his grandmother's house in fear of getting set out on the curb and decided upon the 'Deed in Lieu Of' which to date has had no action from B of A at all. I've called many times only to get the response of: 'The bank hasn't…

Reflections in the Mirror (edit/delete)…

Today I got a call from the listing agent on a Sunnyvale Short Sale where my buyer is waiting patiently. The agent said that the file went into HAFA limbo. A new wrinkle in short sale submission is HAFA elegibility testing.  When a short sale is submitted many banks are automatically sending the file for HAFA review, to see if the owner qualifies. the problem…

 I have recently had some problems with B of A up  including upper management.  They tell us that they are working in good faith to close short sales and then want more than market value. WE CAN NOT SELL FOR MORE THAN MARKET... I have many such cases of this.  I have several problematic files that they have ignored and I can not bring attention to even after being escalated.

The standard of stay on the phone till you get a favorable answer has failed.  Even e mails to the…

I'm Firing My GPS! (edit/delete)

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Here's Your $4.00 Fine! Now stop that! (edit/delete)

The local…

A Diamond in the Rough and a Labor of Love (edit/delete)…

There are a plethora of sources to obtain pre foreclosure lists, but what they generally have in common is they are public record information, compiled after the lender has served the Notice of Default (NOD) or Lis Pendens, legal instruments which begins the foreclosure…

California has a lot of disclosure laws for the protection of all parties in a real estate transaction, particularly buyers. There are buyers who do not want to buy a home where there has been a death on the property, and there is a disclosure obligation to disclose if there has been a death in recent years.  This works very well if the seller has to fill out the Seller's Supplemental Disclosure or The Seller's Property Questionnaire and Supplemental and Contractual Disclosure forms. But…

Memories can be housed in stuff, especially as people gets older and they find that objects are needed to jog their memory.  The problem is that very often when it is time to leave the place that has been home for 30, 40, or 50 years, there is wall to wall stuff. The plate on the wall that was handed down by great grandmother is probably not going to be wanted by great grandchild number 1. However, with the normal tensions that arise in settling an estate, and the enormous popularity of…

So I asked myself that very same question today and today again.

I have an investor seller that just built a brand new duplex and I got lucky to be able to list it for him.  Or was I? First off it was a FSBO that I ran into by accident  one day while I was shopping for another investor buyer.  I called the number and left a message.  Later that night , he called me and he grilled me about my real estate experience....he was open to listing with me  and I thought it was…