Matt Vernon is the MAN at #BofA (Bank of America) with regards to #ShortSales, Here’s what he had to say about our #CDPE Organization. Many agents have avoided dealing with #BofA but here at #theCarnesTeam, we welcome the opportunity to serve our clients needs. Through our #CDPE organization, we have a very strong partnership with #BofA and want to help clients in their time of need. Please contact me if you need any help.
This is a great video on our CDPE website explaining the advantages of the HAFA program. This video was shown to the Department of Treasury and they commented it was the best they’ve seen. Come take a look.
Well, in the spirit of being from Indiana, home of David Letterman, here are the Carnes family top 10 favorite resturants:
10. The Compass Room (not a lot of choices, very pricey, good food but the revolving restuarant and the view are the attraction)
9. Durant’s (unbelieveable service, incredible food, a lifetime of memories, where Laurie and I had dinner on our wedding night)
8. RigaTony’s (If this place was on our side of town it easily could move into the #1 spot, the best Chicken Picatta EVER)
7. Wildflower Bread Company (Great place to take my laptop, get great food and do business presentations)
6. MiMi’s (The carot nut bread is addictive, the only problem so many choices and so little time, another great business place)
5. Bubba Gumps (not here in the valley but we have enjoyed on the Big Island in Hawaii, have yet to try his box of chocolates)
4. Paradise Bakery (Great Sandwiches and the best fire roasted garlic tomato soup in the valley)
3. Famous Daves BBQ (after all who doesn’t like eating off a garbage can lid, best St. Louis Ribs in the Valley)
2. Elephant Bar (Wonderful atmospere, one of my favorites for business lunches)
1. Texas Roadhouse (You will find us here almost every Sunday after church, the girls love the rolls and the service is always fantastic)
So there you have it, tell me your top 10. Don’t tell the kids I purposely left out McDonalds and Burger King. Don’t tell Laurie I left out In and Out burger…..it would break their hearts….
Why do you hafta have HAFA? The HAFA program was introduced on April 5, 2010. The first time in a long time, HAFA shows some promise. HAFA stands for the “Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives” program. There are quite a few reasons why I have good feelings about the HAFA program. If the owner of the home can no longer afford their home and do not meet the criteria of HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program), the parties involved in the process of liquidating the property are all treatead with some dignity, especially the seller. Here are a few of the highlights:
1. Seller is given the ability to short sale the home at a pre-approved price
2. There are time guidelines the must be met by all parties in the transaction
3. Seller may qualify for up to $3,000 of transition money at close of escrow
4. Buyer will get bank approval quicker to close escrow
5. Seller’s junior liens already have agreed to a specific amount
6. Buyer will know allowable closing cost upfront
7. The big one, ALL LIEN HOLDERS GIVE UP THEIR RIGHT TO PURSUE
THE BORROWER FOR THE SHORT FALL!!!
One of the questions people ask me about the short sale process is do the lender have the right to come after me for the difference. In this program the answer is NO. All of the minor lien holders who have agreed to participate in the program will be offered no more than 6% of their balance with a maximum to be paid off of $6,000. So if you have a $100,000 home equity line of credit on your home in second lien position and the servicer has agreed to participate in the program, they will get paid $6,000 and they can not pursue $94,000 difference on the loan. This will help a lot of people sleep at night.
The key is working within HAFA Guidelines is working with a real estate agent who understands how to take advantage of this program. Obviously, this being a government program, there is a lot of documentation and paper to make the deal work. The Fannie Mae is responsible for administering the program and Freddie Mac will be regulating the program. That is why these loan types are not available to participate in the HAFA program. The good news is both programs are working on a foreclosure avoidance program on their own that has been promised to mirror the HAFA program very closely.
At the Carnes Team we have access to all of the answers that will provide the help homeowners need. For the first time in a long time I can say there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel to the foreclosure process and all of us will benefit from less foreclosures.
I need your help in getting the word out to everyone. Here is the facts, more than 15% of all mortgages are at least 30 days behind. In the past that would translate to a 70% foreclosure of all these homes. Think about it, 1 our of every 6 homes you drive by is in trouble. I hope you will join me getting these people the hope they need. That certainly is what we need today, a little hope.
If you or someone you know needs help, please direct them to a website I have established that will verify their eligibility. Go to www.StopForeclosuresinAZ.Com and click on the mini banner in the upper right hand corner of the home page. We will do all we can to bring dignity back into the life of people you care about.
It may seem a little strange to think that the two are in direct competition with each other but a wrong decision may cost you BIG! click here to read more!!!! or cut and paste the following link in your browser
http://www.stopforeclosuresinaz.com/809007/2009/11/24/Tax-Credit-vs-Short-Sales.aspx
On a short sale we are racing against the foreclosure clock. 47% of the single family homes listed on the MLS (multiple listing service) are Short Sales. It has become a huge part of our market. Knowing how to deal with these homes as a buyer’s agent or a listing agent has become imperative in our market today.
Put simply, a short sale is a home that can not be sold for the amount of money owed to the lender. The key is convincing the lender to accept an offer on the table will net them more money than foreclosing on the property. The problem today is that most agents focus on this part of the process. A short sale is still a contract between the current home owner and a willing buyer. This step must not be forgotten. A short sale adds one contingency to the contract which is the home owners lender is willing to accept the offer presented by the buyer. It is the presentation to the lender that is vital to the process.
First it is necessary to identify an acceptable financial hardship that will be recognized by the lender. Recently by becoming certified through the CDPE program they identify 17 categories that are acceptable to lenders. The first step is to draft a hardship letter. Next we gather financial information for submission to the lender. There are many other steps to a successful short sale.
Our team takes a proactive approach to helping people in this position. It is true that many lenders will not give you the time of day until you have an offer but valuable time can be lost by not being prepared. Purchasing properties that are short sales can take anywhere from 3 to 4 months with the average agent, but our CDPE program will reduce the time to an average of 4 to 6 weeks.
If you know anyone who needs to sell their property and they are upside down in their mortgage please give us a call. Our goal is to get families through this process with as little damage to their financial lives as possible.
Just thought I would take a moment to share with you some amazing statistics. You will not see this on the nightly news. The link at the bottom of this post will open a new window so you may need to go back and forth but it will be very interesting.
We are starting to see some real movement in the real estate market. As you will see in December we had over 46,000 homes on the MLS, today, if homes were being reported properly I believe we would be between 26,000 and 28,000 homes. What do I mean by being reported properly. There are some agents who are taking advantage of what is going on to solicit several offers on a property to submit to a bank and that puts you in a bidding war. Now, if it is a bank owned property they have the right to do that very thing, but a short sale is a different story. A short sale is a contract between buyer and seller with one added contingency, the seller’s lender(s) must agree to receive a reduced amount that what was borrowed on the property. I will blog later on Short Sales and the advantages of buying or selling your home through this process.
So some agents in our business are treating short sales exactly like bank owned properties and that is not correct. The only way they are allowed to handle an offer in this manner is in the case of a multiple-counter offer situation. Recently I took one of my clients out to see homes. They sent me a list of 31 homes to look at. They were coming in from out of town and wanted to get as much done as possible. We could on see 8 homes. There were a few under contract but the majority was short sales were agents were not updating the MLS properly. With 47% of the homes on the MLS being a short sale there is room to believe there are not as many properties available today as some would lead you to believe.
Another incredible statistic is the number of Pending sales we have on the system today. This is much higher than we have seen in quite some time. To have 14, 801 homes pending is a lot of activity. With March being the 3 highest number of homes sold in the history of real estate here in the valley and the way numbers look for April, I would not wait to long before purchasing a home. This is very simple supply vs demand business….as the supply of homes go down the prices are going to have to go up. It looks like we are getting there quickly and we haven’t reached the peak selling time for the Phoenix area which are June and July. I am looking forward to your comments.
In my opinion, the strongest designation a realtor can have in today’s market is the CDPE. Anyone who earns this designation has a strong desire to serve their clients during difficult times with the utmost respect and care.
Nobody plans on losing a home. Reality today is 1 out of 49 homes in Arizona are in a distressed situation. What is a distressed home? It goes from missing 1 payment all the way to losing a home to foreclosure. The reality is most homeowners today are less than 2 months from being in this situation. Any small bump in the road like an unexpected medical bill, vehicle repair or losing income through a job loss or even a cut back in hours can send a family spiraling down the road to foreclosure. I believe anyone who earns the CDPE designation and applies the system to their practice is the best qualified agent to assist families in a crisis.
When thinking about purchasing your next home, look for the strength of an agent who is familiar with today’s market conditions. There are 36,328 single family homes (SFH) on the MLS Today. Over 83 % of that total belongs in a distressed property category. In the month of March, 6,881 SFH sold and of this number 5,497 of them were distressed properties.
For people who are interested in purchasing distressed property, our team knows how to deal with lender owned property, short sale property, pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties. You need to use an agent or team who has take the time to earn the CDPE designation. You deserve all of the advantages you can get when dealing with the problems associated with today’s real estate market.
I recommend you have an agent who has taken the time to be educated in handling what has become a reality of our world today. As a CDPE graduate, I know I can help families through the 9 resolutions that are available to them in saving their distressed home. If you are upside down on your property or know of some one who is, please contact a CDPE for help as soon as possible.
This is why our team has taken the time to earn the CDPE designation. Helping people is the commitment of our team. For further education on this and other related real estate topics, keep checking out our blog here at www.TheCarnesTeam.Net. I plan on posting tips and answers in dealing with the reality of today’s real estate topics. If you have any questions, please email me at Mike@MikeCarnes.Com and I’ll do my best to respond quickly.
Hello and welcome to The Carnes Team’s Real Estate Blog! This site will be used to share opportunities and important information with our community. We feel it is important to remain vigilant and informed in Arizona’s real estate market. Please return frequently to keep yourself in the know! The Carnes Team is ideal for you if you are a first time home buyer or a move-up buyer. We also are experienced in purchasing investment properties. As of this week, we are now officially Certified Distressed Property Experts. That’s right! We at The Carnes Team are able to help you with all of your distressed property needs in Arizona!