Putting a Short Sale together - what’s with all the paperwork

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As I have mentioned in previous post about Short Sales, there are a few items that the seller will need to accumulate in order to submit a Short Sale Package to the bank. The topic about short sales have been on the tip of everyones tongues recently. In fact, most of the information has already been written, shown at seminars, posted on youtube and MySpace, but not everyone understands the process. And that is what I am trying to do for you…help you understand. Buyers and sellers feel like they are out there all alone. A knowledgeable agent can help both parties navigate through this turbulent transactions. Understanding what to expect and what is required help considerably in the short sale process.

Disclaimer; I am not a tax expert, CPA, financial planning expert, nor a lawyer. I suggest before you decide if a short sale is right for you, that you seek professional advice from your CPA, tax expert and lawyer. What I am giving you here is a peek into what could happen if this is the right choice for you.

One of the pioneers in the short sale markets is a fellow Real Estate Agent in Bonita Springs, FL, Chris Griffith. She writes often on her blog, Real Life in Bonita Springs and now writes weekly for the Naples Daily News. You can read her entire post about short sales here, but I will provide you with a few excellent excerpts from her article.

“Some buyers may not want to wait weeks or months to navigate a short sale, so to expedite a fast, successful sale, get your paperwork in order. Although your lender may have slightly different guidelines, the following items are commonly required: “

Listing contract

Sales contract

Hardship letter

2 years W-2’s or tax returns

2 months pay stubs

2 months bank statements

Recent statements for 401k, retirement, investment accounts

Financial statement listing current liabilities, assets and income information

A letter of permission authorizing your real estate professional, your attorney and/or C.P.A. to speak to & negotiate with your lender on your behalf.

As she points out, each bank has it’s own criteria and set of rules, but for the most part require the same amount of patience and paperwork. And I will close with one of her statements that everyone has to remember…

Regardless of your situation, it is still the bank’s decision as to whether to accept the short sale terms. Some find that no matter what they do, foreclosure is inevitable. But that is why it is imparative to have an experienced real estate agent working on your behalf.

March 12, 2008 · Filed Under Buyer, Frederick Foreclosure, Frederick Market Conditions, seller

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Monday Market Update for Frederick County - a look into the future

photo credit: sittered

We had a meeting last week with a notable Frederick County Appraiser, Wayne Six. He talked to us about his take on the current market conditions. He feels we are still a while away from any type of turn around. We have to have about eight to twelve months of a stable market before climbing out of the hole. A key thing about our market is, of course the inventory. He follows the inventory numbers religiously. He held up a chart very similar to the ones I have been sharing with you on previous market updates and similar to the one below.

Wayne feels our inventory number will continue to climb to about 2400 homes. I have to agree as we were close to this last year. We had a drop of inventory around the holidays and as I have predicted they would climb back up again once spring hit. You just can’t have that many homes and expect to sell them in a reasonable amount of time. I really believe sellers are starting to understand this too. They should only sell, if they are truly serious. With all the short sales and foreclosures riddling the landscape, it makes it hard for a not-so-serious seller to compete with the low prices.

Here’s picture of the inventory over the last couple years. Do you see a trend? I do, that’s why I still believe it will climb in the spring.

You can see the inventory numbers are cyclic, however the overall is continually climbing. You can see we lingered around 2300+ homes last year for most of summer.

Below are the Housing Statistics for the Month of February. This housing report is usually available around the 10th of every month from MRIS.

February 2008 Market Condition Report

	2008	2007	% Change
Total Sold Dollar Volume:	$46,088,832	$78,980,193	-41.65%
Average Sold Price:	$338,888	$343,392	-1.31
Median Sold Price:	$295,000	$305,000	-3.28%
Total Units Sold:	136	230	-40.87%
Average Days on Market:	146	119	22.69%
Average List Price for Solds:	$379,594	$360,261	5.37%
Avg Sale Price as a	89.28%	95.32%
percentage of Avg List Price:

One of the key numbers that sellers need to understand, the Average Sales Price as a percentage of Average Listing Price. The average list price is higher than last year 5.37% …Yipee, but wait the other number is about the same amount lower (89.28%) than last year. This is a case of “I need xxx dollars for my house” and getting below market value for the house and longer days on market. (HINT: Buyer’s don’t care what you want or need.) Homes are being listed too high. Some agents do this because the are afraid to tell the truth and essentially “buy” the listing. Listing too high causes the seller to play catch up with the market. Wayne Six says we have been depreciating about 1-1.5% a month on home values. But that all depends on the inventory…lower inventory numbers will yield a slower depreciation and of course a higher inventory will yield a higher depreciation. It really comes down to the absorption rate of the neighborhood. Sometimes you have to dig deeper than county numbers to see the real picture.

If you need someone to do that for your home, give me a call.

March 10, 2008 · Filed Under Frederick Market Conditions

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Friday’s Foto around Frederick

I went out the other night to kill some time before picking the wife up at work. I took a ride through Jefferson, MD. It’s not too far outside of Frederick. (Just down route 15 south) It’s a little quiet town with one stop light. Almost reminded me of home, because on one block there were three churches. I grew up in a town east of Pittsburgh called New Kensington. It was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most Churches and Bars on the same street. I didn’t notice any bars, but I did notice Hemp’s Meats. I love Hemp’s Meats especially during the Frederick Fair. They have great roast beef sandwiches (and ham, and pitbeef and…)

Well onto today’s photo. Jefferson is surrounded by farm land. As I was coming up Route 180, this tree caught my eye and then this song popped in my head…

View On Black

Have a great weekend.

March 7, 2008 · Filed Under Frederick Misc, Friday

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An Amazing day for Focus On Frederick

photo credit: Michael (mx5tx)

I had busy day at the office with a agent breakfast this morning and a few appointments in the afternoon. So I didn’t have time to check on the Blogosphere nor my website(s). I finally get home to have some dinner and relax in my chair reading the REALTOR® magazine that I got today. I was please to see it mentioned a few of my blogging friends in one of the feature articles, like Teresa Boardman, Dustin Luther, Frances Flynn Thorsen, Daniel Rothamel, Matt Heaton and of course Jeff Turner. They are true pioneers in the Web 2.0 version of Real Estate. (I really want to grow up to be like Jeff.) Kudos to Daniel, he’s now a contributing blogger on Inman News. They are amazing people too! (just ask them)

Then, I catch up on some emails only to find out some exciting news about a very dear blogging buddies, Chris Griffith. She landed a weekly column in her home town newspaper, The Naples Daily News.

Then I fire up Twitter to see what I have been missing. Well, I have been Poshd. It recognizes sites for their uniqueness. I guess I’m unique. So go over and vote for me…little blatant self promotion (was that good Jack?)

Then last, but not least… I was mentioned on Titleopoly. This is the title industry’s leading consultant on the good, the bad, and not so great. Ed really uncovers the vermin of title industry. He’s a must read.

Oh yeah, Lani is healthy enough to write today after a scary Vertigo incident. Welcome back.

Yeah, that was a busy day. Thanks for being inside my monitor!