Huge Short Sale Incentives !
Short Sale Realtors in Palm Bay Florida
According to Chase, customers who are in financial trouble and are underwater and have no way to pay their mortgage may be paid up to $35,000 to do a short sale. The bank tells Call 12 for Action that a foreclosure can cost banks big bucks because they can drag on for years. Short sales are more cost effective for banks and less damaging on a homeowners credit.
Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase haven’t made any official announcements about the initiative, but indebted homeowners have reported that the two companies have offered them cash incentives of anything between $10,000 and $20,000 to sway them into opting for a short sale. Experts say that the new short sale incentives are the most practical method for both banks and homeowners to get out of a sticky situation – the homeowners avoid foreclosure, while the banks get to write off bad loans, avoiding the need to foreclose, which can be a lengthy process, averaging 619 days according to the latest figures from RealtyTrac Inc.
source Foreclosure News
The nation’s leading mortgage lenders are extending extras for short sale transactions employed as an alternative to foreclosure – both in the form of monetary incentives for borrowers and streamlined procedures for real estate agents.
Wells Fargo says it has been making “enhanced financial relocation assistance offers” that can be as much as $10,000 or $20,000 to certain borrowers who choose to go through with a short sale or transfer the title back to Wells via a deed-in-lieu.
This extra incentive is being offered to distressed borrowers in Florida and other states where the foreclosure process is lengthening, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo explained. The exact amount of the relocation funds provided to individual borrowers varies based on a number of factors, the company says.
Wells Fargo noted that this type of additional relocation assistance is only available on first-lien loans that the company itself owns – which represent only about 20 percent of the loans Wells Fargo services. The company must follow investor guidelines for the remaining loans it services.
JPMorgan Chase is also offering a range of incentives to borrowers that agree to a pre-foreclosure sale “because if we can’t work out a modification, a short sale is a better result for the borrower, the servicer, the investor, and the neighborhood than a foreclosure,” the company said in a statement.
Chase says the amount of the offer “depends on a number of factors” but declined to share specific details on how much money it’s been providing to short sellers.
One agent in Florida confirms that he has indeed received a letter from Chase offering $20,000 to a borrower he’s representing in a short sale transaction.
Another agent in California says he closed a short sale with Chase where the borrower was paid $30,000 at closing for cooperating with the short sale.
“I have closed over 200 short sales and this was the most I have seen paid to a borrower,” the agent said.
Citi has confirmed that its average incentive offer is currently $12,000 for borrowers in cases where Citi owns the loan.
“Incentives are offered to customers experiencing financial hardship who need funds to proceed with the short sale,” a spokesman for the lender explained.
The amount, which is agreed upon upfront, varies according to the borrower’s individual circumstances and loan characteristics, Citi said. It is disbursed to the homeowner when the short sale is completed.
Bank of America says it is “committed to improving the short sale process” and has made procedural changes to cut some of the red tape for agents working with the bank on pre-foreclosure sales.
The lender now allows real estate agents to submit a backup offer on a transaction if the original buyer has walked away from the sale.
This means that agents no longer have to initiate a new short sale if the buyer changes, Bank of America explained. Instead, agents can move ahead with the original transaction in the Equator system, BofA’s short sale technology platform of choice, and continue to work with the same short sale specialist.
Bank of America says this policy change will save its agents time by not having to repeat a number of process steps.
Florida’s existing home and condo sales up in September
Florida’s existing home and condo sales up in September
ORLANDO, Fla. – Oct. 20, 2011 – Florida’s existing home and existing condo sales continued their upswing in September, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. Existing home sales increased 10 percent last month with a total of 15,036 homes sold statewide compared to 13,723 homes sold in September 2010, according to Florida Realtors.
“One of the most overlooked statistical trends in all of real estate is the growth in home sales, both single-family and condo, in the state of Florida,” said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. John Tuccillo. “We’ve seen an upward trend in sales since January 2011, and September’s sales were a full 10 percent above September 2010. Even prices, which have been static over the past few months, are well above where they were in January 2011.
“One of the reasons for this is stabilization in the distressed property market. This is not a problem that’s going away, but there’s a degree of certainty that is helping the market.”
Are banks getting better on short sales?
Are banks getting better on short sales?
Lenders accepting a lower mortgage payoff from an underwater seller traditionally isn’t thought of an easy transaction to complete. Lenders weren’t so willing a few years ago. But as the number of Americans underwater on their mortgages grow, more lenders are reconsidering as they try to avoid the extra costs incurred to their bottom-lines that a foreclosure can cause.
For 2011, short sales accounted for about 8 percent of total home sales, and rose 7 percent over 2010 totals, according to CoreLogic data. Short sales are up by 59 percent year-over-year in Illinois, 32 percent in Michigan, and 19 percent in Arizona alone, according to CoreLogic.
“We’re starting to see that servicers and lenders are viewing short sales as a better alternative than they had in the past,” says Daren Blomquist, spokesman for RealtyTrac. “Some of that relates to the fact that it’s getting harder to foreclose. There are additional requirements in terms of paperwork and requirements that states and judges are imposing.”
Short sales can still be complex and lengthy – they can take up to nine months to close and even after that, there’s no guarantee it’ll end successfully. “In general, it is a totally different type of transaction,” says Mike Cuevas, a real estate professional at Exit Realty in Chicago. “You’re not only selling a house, you’re negotiating debt.”
Source: “Why it can Pay to try a Short Sale; Lenders may be Viewing Short Sales as a Better Alternative,” MarketWatch (Oct. 20, 2011)