When a family approaches me to help with their short sale, my number one goal is to save their credit from foreclosure and educate them with their options on how to avoid foreclosure. I’m so glad to inform you all that I have helped three more bay area families from foreclosure and now they can build their credit back faster than foreclosure and move on with their life without any worries about the bad mortgage payments. Let me give you brief success stories about these families.

First family was from Fremont, California, he was having very hard time in paying his mortgage, he tried loan modification but lender denied his loan modification because he was out of job for many months and just with his unemployment benefit, he couldn’t qualify and was stressed out due to all the calls from lender. He was so depressed with his situation. Finally, his wife called me to discuss the options of short sale. After analyzing his situation, we have listed his house and within a week, we got offers and sent it to the lender for approval. It took 3 months to get the approval but buyers backed out because they couldn’t wait this long (Buyers: Please understand that short sale takes time, sometimes 4-5 months, so write offers only if you have patience to wait and really wants to buy that house). It took a month to find next buyer and they were so good and even the agent was good. Finally we closed the transaction successfully. We never met each other, everything was done over the phone and even the house keys were mailed to my office.
—-> Lenders: Chase & Citi Mortgage
—-> Loan Amount Owed: $605,111
—-> Sold For: $360,000

Second family was also from Fremont, she moved out of state due to job relocation and couldn’t afford to pay mortgage and rent on her current apartment at the same time. She called and talked over the phone and listed her house. I have to tell that she was so nice and cooperative in sending all the paper works on time without any delay and she returned all phone calls and emails promptly. This was my first time handling the short sale out of state and it was very great experience with her. We got multiple offers on this condominium and we closed the transaction with the first buyer itself. They patiently waited for the approval and closed the transaction on time. I had very good experience in working with the buyer’s agent, the best thing was, the buyer’s agent was familiar with the short sale process and she educated the buyer about short sale. I wish all the agents like her to educate their clients before writing offer on short sale.
—-> Lenders: Bank of America
—-> Loan Amount Owed: $374,900
—-> Sold For: $165,000

Third family was from Santa Clara, California; this couple was so nice and did everything they can to keep the house. They were paying mortgage even from their saving accounts, they also tried loan modification but couldn’t keep up the mortgage payment and other daily expenses. They finally decided to do short sale and interviewed couple of agents to do short sale and chose to work with me. They both were excellent in sending the required documents on time. This is very important that we submit the required documents in a timely manner to move the file quicker to get the approval. On this, we had problem with the 2nd lender negotiator, she wasn’t ready to give the approval for the three weeks after we had received the approval. She told us in the beginning that she got the approval but waiting for the first but when we gave the first approval and she said that she needed to submit the file to investor for approval. It was struggle for 2-3 weeks with the negotiator, I called her twice a week, emailed once a week and also escalated the file to get the approval from her. Well, finally we closed the transaction successfully on time. It was such a great experience for me in my negotiation techniques and my patience.
—-> Lenders: Wells Fargo & Citi Financial
—-> Loan Amount Owed: $566,996
—-> Sold For: $400,000

There are more families which I’m helping currently helping and some of them are in the final stage of negotiation in getting approvals. If you are in bay area and considering short sale or would like to know whether short sale is the best option for you then please call me and there is no charge for the consultation or even to assist you with short sale. It is my free service to you.

You can reach me directly at 510-366-9405. My goal is help as many families as possible from foreclosure.

In this economy, many homeowners are having financial hardship and couldn’t afford to pay their mortgage, some of them have home owner association dues to pay every month and it is quite natural that they cannot afford to pay their HOA dues also. This is a common question “Can Home Owner Association foreclose my house if I don’t pay my HOA dues?”

Even though, it is a small amount as compared to the mortgage payment, HOA has the right to foreclose if the homeowners are not paying the dues.  Look at the below video where home owner associations are fighting back and foreclosing the houses.

When you are doing short sale and if you are not paying the hoa dues on time, they can put a lien on your house or send it to the collection, which will make it harder to get the approval without settling their dues, so my suggestion would be to pay the HOA dues if possible.

If you are in bay area and would like my assistance in short sale, please contact me at 510-366-9405, I would be happy to assist you and I don’t charge any fees, it is a free service to you. So, give me a call now to see if you qualify for short sale.

The housing market is very uncertain at this time, some parts of cities are doing well but majority of cities are not as compared to last year.   Due to end of tax credit, buyer activity has also started to decrease, nationally pending home sales dropped by 30%.

We are expecting that there will be more bank owned homes comes on the market and more short sale homes in the coming months. I know some buyers are also waiting for more price drops before they start looking again.

Check this CNBC video predicting about the housing market:

If you are in bay area and looking for experienced short sale agent or have any questions on how to stop foreclosure then please give me a call at 510-366-9405 and I would be happy to assist you.

In strategic default, homeowners can afford the payment but they are just walking away from the home or doing strategic short sale to avoid foreclosure.

In March 31% of foreclosures were “strategic default,” up from 22% a year ago, according to CNBC’s reporter Diana Olick. She is really good in collecting all the facts on foreclosure. Watch this video on strategic default report:

Bottom line is rather than just walking away from the home, think other options like short sale which may be better for you in a long run and short sale will also save your credit from foreclosure.  It will also save your community’s house value because a foreclosure sale brings the neighborhood house value much more down.  So, do a favor to yourself and the community by doing the right thing rather than just walking away.

If you are in bay area and thinking of doing short sale or would like to know more about short sale then please call me at 510-366-9405 or email me by clicking on “About” menu on top right hand side.

Exciting News for Homeowners! This new law is going to be effective as of April 5, 2010, it is called HAFA – Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative, which will help homeowners who are having difficulty in paying the mortgage and cannot afford the loan modification program under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).  This new guidance is supplemental of HAMP, which gives guidance to servicers to work on short sale or deed-in-lieu to avoid foreclosure on an eligible loan under this program.

This new program is beneficial for everyone – borrower, servicer and investors by providing foreclosure alternatives and incentives for participating in this program. Currently, this program is available for loans which are not owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Borrowers that meet the eligibility criteria for HAMP but cannot afford the modified payments, or do not successfully complete a Trial Period Plan, or default on a HAMP modification (missed at least two consecutive payments) or request a short sale will be eligible for HAFA program.  The short sale must be arm’s length transaction

Let me tell you some of the benefits for homeowners of doing short sale under this program:

1. The servicer may not require a cash contribution or promissory note from the borrower
2. The servicer will approve the list price even before listing the house if you are qualified for HAMP but cannot afford it
3. Servicer must forfeit the ability to pursue a deficiency judgment against the borrower.  This is one of the biggest benefits for homeowners who are doing short sale under this program, so after the sale, they don’t have to worry about any deficiency judgment after selling the house
4. The servicer will pay the allowable closing costs for the seller to close the transaction
5. The servicer may pay the subordinate liens not more than 6% of the unpaid principle balance of their loan to release the lien and full release of borrower liability (No more fear of deficiency judgment from the second lien holder!)
6. Borrowers will get $3,000 as relocation expense at close of escrow.
7. The servicer will pay the realtor’s commission, so no out of pocket expenses from the seller

Short sale is a complex transactions involving coordination and cooperation amount all parties involved in this transaction, so work with an experienced short sale real estate agent who have experienced in closing short sales, not all agents are experienced in short sale.

There are certain guidelines and time period, which you have to follow in order to complete the short sale successfully, so check the agent’s experience in short sale before selecting as your agent for assisting in your short sale.

If you have any questions on HAFA short sale or would like to see whether you qualify for the HAFA program, please call me at (510) 366-9405, I would be happy to assist you. If you are in bay area and would like to meet with me personally for a free confidential consultation then also give me a call.

I just checked my MLS for the homes sold in the last couple of year sales in just tri-city area (Fremont, Newark & Union City) of Alameda County. The percentage of sold REO and Short Sale homes are increasing in these areas. It’s not only in tri-city area but in over all California, it’s 50% of all home sales are short sale and REOs.

Here’s the numbers of Fremont, Newark and Union City area for the year of 2008, 2009 and 2010 (as of March 15, 2010):

You can see from the above percentage that numbers of short sale and reo homes are increasing every year and more than half of the homes sold were short sale & REOs.

Here’s another article on Tim and Julie Harris website which shows that 50% of all home sales in California are in either pre-foreclosure and foreclosure sales, so thought I would share this information with my friends, clients and readers of my blog.

Foreclosed homes taken back by lenders and distressed short sales accounted for nearly half of all residential home sales in California in 2009, according to a market report released this week by the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.). In 2008, such sales made up 38 percent of annual transactions.

As one of the hardest-hit states by the housing downturn, the Golden State is littered with bank-owned properties and homes facing foreclosure, but the lower prices and increasing buyer appetite for these deals are helping to reduce some of California’s distressed inventory.

The median price of distressed properties declined nearly one quarter to $250,000 in 2009, compared with $330,000 in 2008, C.A.R. reported. Meanwhile, the median price of non-distressed properties decreased only 10.4 percent to $485,000 compared with $541,000 in 2008.

Although one-third of sellers sold their homes for a loss last year – the highest level on record since C.A.R. started tracking net cash losses in 1989 – the lower home prices lured investors. According to the state Realtors association, more than 70 percent of properties purchased by investors were either short sales or REO/foreclosures. The typical investment property had a median price of $232,750.

Lower home prices and a large supply of distressed properties, coupled with federal tax breaks, also encouraged first-time buyers to take the plunge into homeownership. The percent of first-time buyers increased dramatically to 47 percent in 2009, up from 35.9 percent in 2008, according to the report.
“It is clear that the federal tax credit for homebuyers worked well in 2009 and is continuing to drive home sales,” said C.A.R. President Steve Goddard. “The homebuyers’ tax credit is arguably the most successful strategy employed by the government’s efforts to stimulate the economy.”

According to a survey conducted by C.A.R. on the effectiveness of the federal tax credit, nearly 40 percent of homebuyers in the state said they would not have purchased a home if the tax credit was not offered.
C.A.R. also noted that the large number of distressed properties led to more than half of all first-time buyers purchasing an REO/foreclosure or short sale property.

According to C.A.R.’s analysis, California’s median home price hit bottom in February 2009 at $245,170. Since then, the median home price has increased steadily in month-to-month comparisons, but remained below 2008 levels throughout 2009. The annual median price is projected to increase to $280,000 in 2010 from $271,000 in 2009, the association said.
Homes priced $500,000 or less dominated the sales mix throughout 2008 and 2009, but C.A.R. says sales of high-end homes started picking up in late 2009, with the number of closings for homes priced $500,000 or higher rising 3 percent, and sales of homes priced $1 million or more experiencing their first year-to-year increase since July 2007.

A separate study by a local newspaper shows that a growing number of Californians are turning to the courts to fight the foreclosure process and prevent their homes from becoming REOs. According to numbers complied by the San Jose Mercury News, the number of foreclosure lawsuits filed in federal court in California has ballooned from just 29 cases statewide in 2005 to nearly 1,400 in 2009.

If you are facing hardship or your loan modification got denied and would like to know how to avoid foreclosure, please don’t hesitate to call me directly at 510-366-9405, I would be more than happy to assist you to avoid from this foreclosure. Your short sale real estate agent in bay area.

The Treasury Department released new guidelines for homeowners who are facing hardship; this program is called HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) which was released on November 30, 2009.

This program is part of Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and for those homeowners who qualifies for HAMP loan modification but cannot afford to keep their homes. HAFA program provides incentives to homeowners and lenders who participates in short sale or deed-in-lieu to avoid foreclosure. 

Lenders who are participating in HAMP program are required to participate in HAFA program to approve the short sale. Almost all the major lenders are participating in this program. For more information on HAMP program, you can visit their official website makinghomeaffordable.gov. 

HAFA program is designed to make the short sale process easy for both the homeowners and lenders.  The main highlight of this program:

• Borrowers who qualifies for Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) but unable to keep their home
• Borrowers to receive pre-approved short sales from their lenders before they list their properties
• Borrowers are protected from future liability for the first mortgage debt; that means there will be no deficiency judgment, no promissory note or no cash contribution in order to approve the short sale
• Borrowers get $1,500 for relocation assistance; servicers get $1,000 and investors get up to $1,000 and up to $3,000 to second lien holders
• Servicers to uses standard processes, documents, and timeframes/deadlines for short sale
• Servicers who participates in Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) requires to participates in HAFA program with their own written policy, consistent with investor guidelines.  The policy may include factors such as the severity of the potential loss, local markets, timing of pending foreclosure actions, borrower motivation and cooperation

This new program is not for those homeowners whose loans are owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.  If you would like to find out whether your loan is owned by Fannie Mae then click here or by Freddie Mac, then click here. These organizations will create their own program later for the borrower and servicers.

HAFA program will take effect from April 5, 2010 until December 31, 2012, but servicers may apply this program early if they meet certain requirements.

So, if you are a homeowners and having hardship, then call your lender to find out if you qualify for the Home Affordable Modification Program and if you qualifies for this program but cannot afford to keep the house then call the experienced short sale agent to help you with your short sale process. It is a good program for homeowners to avoid from foreclosure. If you are in bay area and need my help with short sale then call me at 510-366-9405.

It’s little bit confusing which one to try first when you face the hardship and you have the monthly mortgage payment to pay.  You get lots of advices from everywhere or even if you search on Google,  you will find lots of different suggestions.  Well, It all depends on your current financial situation and your decision whether to stay in your house or to sell it.

I know some home owners who had asked me the same question – “Should I do loan modification or short sale?“  So, I have created a small video where you can see me explaining about loan modification and short sale.

I hope the above video helps you to decide which one is good for you according to your current situation. But if you have further questions or need my help to decide which might be good for you(loan modification or short sale), then please don’t hesitate to contact me at 510-366-9405 or email me.

Lots of homeowners are confused and don’t know what to do if their home has negative equity. In bay area, most of the homes have lost their equity and now in negative equity.

In California, 34.7% homeowners with mortgage are upside down, they owe more on their home than its worth. Negative equity means when a property value is less than what you owe on your mortgage amount. For example if the property value is $500,000 and the mortgage amount on that house is $700,000 then it has negative amount (equity) of $200,000. According to Zillow, in California, home prices have dropped -8.7% in the year of 2009, it depends on the area also, in some areas, prices have dropped way more than 8%.

If you are experiencing the negative equity also known as upside down value then if you can hold on until the market picks up then just stay there and don’t worry about the market at this time but if you really want to sell then consult with an experienced realtor to see your options in this type of market because everyone’s situation is different and need to work differently with each home owner.

If you are thinking of selling because of hardship and negative equity, then contact your lender directly as soon as possible for loan modification or refinance, your bank has many programs available to save your home from foreclosure. If your loan is Fannie or Freddie Mac backed loan, then check with your lender for Home Affordable Refinance program to lower your monthly mortgage payment which will help you to stay in your house.  To see if your loan is Fannie or Freddie Mac backed loan then visit the official site (https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/ or http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/ ).

If loan modification or refinance or any other options doesn’t work out then you can do short sale to sell your house to avoid from foreclosure. Short sale will affect your credit but at least you can avoid foreclosure and you can buy a house in the next 18- 24 months.  If you are thinking of short sale then always work with an experienced short sale real estate agent who will assist you in negotiating with your lender and sell your house.

If you are in bay area and your house has upside down value (negative equity), then contact me to find out your options on what to do next and my service is free for you.  You can reach me at 510-366-9405 or click here to contact me.

Couple of days ago one of the homeowner called me and asked whether they are in foreclosure or not. I asked whether they have received any Notice of Default (NOD) or trustee sale notice but they are not sure because they already moved out of the house.

Some homeowners are moving out as soon as they realize that they cannot afford the payment or after they missed couple of payments without realizing that they have options to avoid foreclosure even if they missed the mortgage payment. Sometimes the homeowners don’t even check their mails even if they get any letter from their bank.  You cannot solve the problem by ignoring it; you have to face it and try to resolve it.

Well, the question is how you can find out if your home is in foreclosure process or not.  Normally, when you miss your payment for 90 days, your lender has the right to file notice of default(NOD).  Once the lender files NOD then you are in foreclosure process and after 180th days, the bank sells at auction or bank becomes a new owner. You will get trustee sale notice before your lenders sells at auction and in that notice, you can find the sale date of your home.

Before your lender foreclose your house, your lender will send notice of default and trustee sale notice, but if you missed couple of payments and not sure whether your lender started the foreclosure process then the best way to find out is to call your lender directly and find out whether they have filed any notice of default or trustee sale.

If you are in bay area and wants to check whether your home is in foreclosure then you can call me or send me an email and I can try to find out if the lender has started the foreclosure process or not and of course, I won’t charge you anything for this service.

You are most welcome to ask any questions or if you need my help in short sale then call me today at 510-366-9405. My short sale service is free for you.