Who’da thunk? Realtoring can be dangerous to you health.
Apparently, unhappy clients have expressed their disappointment by getting physical and have even caused fatalities.
Did they really expect their short sale to sell for 30% above the market?
Read more: http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2012/05/01/attacks-against-real-estate-professionals-surge
Effective Jan, 1, 2012 everyone involved with Freddie Mac short sales will be required to sign an affidavit and be held liable for any misrepresentations they may have caused. This is purportedly to ensure that the transaction is at arms length.
In August, the government-sponsored enterprise alerted real estate agents to the rise in shady short sale deals. The main concern is flopping. There is a growing trend of real estate agents on the buy-side of the deal failing to disclose other bids on the property, rigging the sale at a lower price.
This was based on the theory that if a buyer flipped the property and made a profit, the deal must have defrauded the bank. If we extend this concept then every business that buys a product or service and re-sells it at a higher price would be committing fraud. We know that any merchant that doesn’t make a profit soon goes out of business.
We must realize that this absurd notion comes from the government where little makes any sense. But take care because they will look for any excuse to make an example of you.
This is from the same Fannie and Freddie that has already cost the taxpayers $169 billion and have paid huge bonuses to their executives for losing money.
How big are the paychecks going to top Fannie and Freddie executives? Big. Really, really big. Since the agencies went into conservatorship, Fannie and Freddie’s top six executives have received $35 million in compensation, including millions in bonuses, even as borrowers struggled to keep their homes and got no meaningful relief.
Read more:
One of the problems with short sales is the amount of time they take to complete, often as much as 4 to 6 months, or more. The typical retail buyer is not willing nor able to wait around that long and the buyer then walks away from the transaction.
Short sales approval typically take 60-90 days \ after the buyer and seller have signed their contract and all the corresponding paperwork has been submitted to the bank. Closing then takes another 30 days or so. Most buyers don’t want to stick around for 120 days with the uncertainty that they don’t know if the bank will even agree to the short sale or if the terms of the agreement will be acceptable to the seller.The biggest challenge with short sales is to keep buyers interested in the property long enough to see the entire transaction through to the end.
Bank of America recently notified real estate agents that they can now substitute a new buyer without having to initiate a new short sale. This is in the case of the original buyer walking away from the deal. For home buyers and sellers reading this who may not be involved every day in dealing with short sales, this really big change in the real estate market.
This development should help to speed up short sales, if for no other reason that they no longer need to start over.
Read the B of A document: http://sdshortsaleexperts.com/virtualoffice_files//bank-of-america-back-up-offer.pdf
Here’s a podcast with peter Padilla and Leslie Henderson discussing short sales.
Henderson & Padilla: Ease The Pain of Short Sales & zero down on the VA Mortgage! May 15, 2011 by NevadaRealEstateRadio
Another Real Estate Roundup
Lenders would be required to make sure prospective borrowers have the ability to repay their mortgages before giving them a loan, under a proposal released by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday.
This is really radical, I know, but give it a chance. It’s an idea from someone in the government.
In his budget speech Wednesday, President Barack Obama once again suggested a cutback in the mortgage interest deduction.
And:
Eliminating this tax break for homeowners is tantamount to forcing new taxation on an economy where most thinking people believe the best way out of a hole is not to dig it any deeper with new taxes.
Dual tracking refers to a common bank tactic. When a borrower in default seeks a loan modification, the institution often continues to pursue foreclosure at the same time.
In foreclosure, apparently it’s not the investor or the servicer. According to this story, the trustee is becoming the major obstacle to getting a reasonable resolution between the borrower and the investor of the loan.
Homeowners are fed-up and they are protesting by the way they are paying their bills. A growing volume of homeowners are paying credit card bills before making payments on their mortgages, according to a new study by Trans Union credit reporting agency. It’s a trend that has been widely reported over the last three years as homeowners’ protest being used as pawns by banks, mortgage companies and Wall Street.
Zillow estimates that US housing values experienced substantial gains earlier in the year, they have dropped approximately $1.7 trillion this year. The drop is 63% greater that the $1.0 trillion drop in 2009. Zillow further estimates that US housing has lost more that $9 trillion since the peak in 2006. Some of the gains early in the year were due to the tax credit and are no longer available.
Even though this is the nationwide averages, some areas have fared better, or worse than other areas. For example, Boston and San Diego have seen a price increase this year. I do not have the statistics for Reno or Nevada at this time. Also different market segments tend to move at different times.
The Reno economy has been extremely hard hit. Jobs are scarce. No matter what the government would want you to believe. Foreclosures and short sales are pervasive. Many over-encumbered homeowners are simply walking away. The homeowners that would normally want to upgrade have little or no equity remaining and can’t move.
Zillow thinks that we will finally hit bottom sometime in 2011 and that it may take 3 to 5 years before we see normal appreciation again.
Read the rest here.