To avoid losing homes to foreclosure due to long response times for short sale transactions, three senators introduced legislation to speed up the short sale process.

Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) proposed the bill addressing the issue of short sales timelines on February 17. A short sale is a real estate transaction where the homeowner sells the property for less than the unpaid balance with the lender’s approval.

“There are neighborhoods across the country full of empty homes and underwater owners that have legitimate offers, but unresponsive banks,” said Murkowski. “What we have here is a failure to communicate. Why don’t we make it easier for Americans trying to participate in the housing market, regardless of whether the answer is ‘yes,’ ‘no’ or ‘maybe?’”

The legislation, also known as the Prompt Notification of Short Sale Act, will require a written response from a lender no later than 75 days after receipt of the written request from the buyer.

The lender’s response to the buyer must specify acceptance, rejection, a counter offer, need for extension, and an estimation for when a decision will be reached. The servicer

will be limited to one extension of no more than 21 days.

The bill will also allow the buyer to be awarded $1000, plus “reasonable” attorney fees if the Act is violated.

According to a release from Short Sale New England, short sale homes do not bring down neighboring home values like foreclosed homes do, and 83 percent of short sale buyers are satisfied with their purchase, according to a 2012 Home Ownership Satisfaction Survey conducted by HomeGain.

“The current short sale process can be time consuming and inefficient, and many would-be buyers end up walking away from a sale that could have saved a homeowner from foreclosure,” said Moe Veissi, president of the National Association of Realtors. “As the leading advocate for homeownership, realtors are supportive of any effort to improve the process for approving short sales.”

Equi-Trax released a survey last year on the issues real estate agents face when completing short sales. Guy Taylor, CEO at Equi-Trax, said 71.9 percent of respondents reported that a short sale can take four to nine months to complete, and they think that is simply too long.”

The survey also found that 18.2 percent of deals require less than three months to complete, with 10 percent requiring more than 10 months.

When agents in the survey were asked to how the short sale process can be improved, 57.6 percent said lenders should take less time to close transactions, 14 percent said borrowers should be better educated about short sales, and 40.4 percent said both of these changes are necessary to improve the process.

In April 2011, a similar bill was introduced by Reps. Tom Rooney (R-Florida) and Robert Andrews (D-New Jersey), but this version requested a response deadline of 45 days instead of 75 from lenders. The legislation never came up for debate before a House committee.

By: Esther Cho – Dsnews

Bay Area Homeowners: If you have any questions on short sale, how to stop foreclosure or need assistance in short sale then contact Blaison Samuel at 510-366-9405, he would be glad to help you.

Now, major lenders are getting the importance of short sales and working with homeowners to avoid foreclosures.  I’m glad to hear that now major lenders are offering higher incentives for homeowners who are doing short sales.  They are just testing in few states and all homeowners are not qualified to get this higher amount, the lenders have their own formulas based on different factors.

Here’s the detail information on this short sale higher incentive program:

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.

By Carrie Bay: Dsnews

Bay area homeowners, let me know if you have any questions on short sale or would like to know your options to avoid foreclosure and possibly keep your house! Call me at 510-366-9405 or email me now for a 15-20 minutes free consultation with me.

Bay area homeowners – if you are thinking of about short sale then don’t delay the decision because mortgage forgiveness debt relief act is expiring on December 31, 2012, so it’s just one more year where homeowners are not responsible for taxes on the forgiven mortgage debt, which means if homeowners short sale their house by next year (December 2012) at less than what the owe to the bank, they can walk away free and clear and owe nothing to the bank or pay taxes on the shortage amount.

At this time, we don’t know whether the Congress will extend this for more years.  If it doesn’t extend then homeowners will be responsible to pay taxes on the forgiven mortgage amount. For example, if your mortgage balance is $800,000 but the house sells for $600,000 at the current market value then there’s a shortage of $200,000 to your bank. If you short sale by 2012 then there’s no taxes to pay but if sell after 2012 then the shortage of $200,000 will consider as your income because it’s a loss to your bank, in this situation you pay taxes on that $200,000 which will be a huge amount which will affect more to your financial situation.

According to the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, if a homeowner borrows money up to $2 million dollars to buy a house and does short sale due to hardship then the lender forgives the remaining balance and the homeowner is not responsible for paying taxes on the forgiven amount.  This act applies to primary residences and not for investment properties.  If you would like to know more about Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act and Debt Cancellation of 2007 then click here to view official website.

I hope it extends for another couple of years so that homeowners can avoid foreclosure and heavy taxes if they decide to do short sale after 2012, but if you think that you cannot afford any payments then consult with a professional to see if the short sale is the right choice or not.

We have helped many homeowners successfully sell (short sale) their house in bay area and avoided foreclosure.  So, if you are having difficulty in paying mortgage and wants to know your options to avoid foreclosure or have any questions on short sale then call me directly at 510-366-9405 for a free consultation to see what all options are available to avoid foreclosure.

Most of the bay area homeowners and agents know what is short sale and the steps involved in short sale. One of the most important points in these steps is what all documents needed to submit in short sale package to successfully negotiate a short sale.

If you or the agent do not submit everything which are required in short sale package then the negotiator will not look at that file, it goes to their bottom files and most of the times, they won’t even call you if there’s anything missing and that’s one of the reason why the short sale process takes time and average agents blame the lender and negotiator for delaying the short sale approval process.

To consider a good short sale package, you need to include all the documents which are required by the lender.  Some of the lenders have their own forms to be submitted with the short sale package and the experienced short sale agents knows what all documents to be submitted at the first time itself so that it will help to get the short sale approval faster.

 The paper works which goes in a short sale package are listed below:

• Authorization to Release Information
• Hardship Letter
• Financial Statement
• Past 2 year’s tax returns
• Past 2 month’s paystubs
• Past 2 month’s bank statements
• Listing Agreement
• Purchase Contract
• Repair Estimate for the property
• Comparable sales for the property
• Net Sheet
• Lender specific forms (if any)

It’s always better to gather all these documents as far as possible in the beginning itself when you meet with an agent to list the house so that the agent can submit the package when you get an offer without any delay.  Now, if you don’t have any of the financial documents then you can write a letter with a reason why you don’t have which can also be submitted with the package.

Now, the next part after submitting the package is “follow up”, this is where most of the average agents fail.  If you don’t have a proper and consistent follow up system then it will delay the short sale process, so this is also very important step towards getting short sale approval quicker than average short sale files.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day. Let me know if there’s anything I can assist you or have any questions on short sale, I would be happy to assist you.

This is really exciting news for bay area homeowners who are doing short sale, to know that they don’t have to worry about banks coming after for any remaining balance after they do short sale.

The law applies to both primary and investment properties of 1-4-units.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 458 (Corbett) into law which ensure that any lenders that agrees to a short sale must accept the agreed upon short sale payment as payment in full of the outstanding balance of all loans.  SB 458 provides no protection for investors who own property in a corporation, LLC, or limited partnership.

The law which passed last year 580E was to protect homeowners only from 1^st lender for not to follow homeowners after short sale but it didn’t protect from 2^nd or junior lien holders.

This new law SB 458 will protect homeowners from all the lenders whether it’s 1^st lien holder or any other junior lien holders. “The signing of this bill is a victory for California homeowners who have been forced to short sell their home only to find that the lender will pursue them after the short sale closes, and demand an additional payment to subsidize the difference,” said C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce.

I’m so happy to hear this news that now California homeowners need not worry about any lenders coming after for remaining balance after they short sale their house whether it is your primary home or investment home and whether it is purchase money or refinance loan.

If you are in Fremont, Newark, Union City, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Jose or anywhere in bay area and would like more information or need any short sale assistance, please feel free to call me at 510-366-9405, I would be glad to assist you.

I’m so glad to inform you that we have closed 2 more short sales successfully in Hayward Hills and San Francisco. The lender on 1^st house was Chase and it was FHA loan, it is little bit different process than conventional loans. The lenders on San Francisco house were Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

Since it was FHA loan on the Hayward Hills house, it was different experience with our file.  The lender had initially sent it to the investor(Fannie Mae) for their approval. It was little bit frustrating in the beginning because their timeline for an update from their investor was 30 days and every time I called the customer representative, the mentioned that it was still under processing and no further updates.

I called the lender again on 31^st day and they still didn’t have any update, so I escalated the file and customer representative was really nice and helped me to escalate the file. The very same week, the phase 2 negotiator called me and sent few more documents to complete which were required for this file.  After that, it was a smooth transaction and we had received the approval in couple of weeks after that and successfully closed with the same buyer. There were some issues with the buyer loan and the buyer agent but finally everything got resolved with couple of extensions to close the escrow.

San Francisco house was also little bit challenging to close, we got the approval in 35 days but lost buyers twice and we had closed the escrow with the 3^rd buyers. This buyer and the buyer agent were really good in this transaction; we didn’t have any problems this time and closed the escrow successfully.

In short sale, sometime it is really challenging to maintain all parties, getting approvals and getting extensions if there’s any delay in closing and coordinate with all the lenders. Short sale is complex and if you don’t know what you are doing then it will be really tough to handle the negotiation and close the short sale successfully.

If you are in bay area and looking for an experienced short sale realtor then give me a call for a free consultation to see if you qualify for short sale and what options you have to avoid foreclosure.  You can reach me directly at 510-366-9405.

This family was so excited when the short sale closed successfully and avoided foreclosure. It feels so good to save families like these to avoid foreclosure.

This nice client was referred from my past client. They had listed with another agent for more than 6 months with no success in finding a buyer who could close this sale. This townhouse was in Milpitas, CA and the trustee sale date was just 2 weeks after when they had contacted me to assist them in short sale.

After my initial consultation on the phone, I had figured out what was lacking in this transaction (previous agent wasn’t experienced with short sale and didn’t have proper short sale marketing) . This one had 2 loans with different lenders (ServiceLink & Wells Fargo), so getting an offer, negotiates with both lenders and getting approval in a week time was hard.

The same day when I did talk over the phone, they sent all the paper works required for short sale.  The sellers were very cooperative and this is really important in short sale to submit all the required paper works quickly in order to move the short sale smoothly. The very next day, I started my aggressive marketing and found a qualified buyer within 2 days.

I had already prepared the package and sent it to the lender immediately, but the customer support told me that they wont accept the short sale package if the trustee sale date is within the next 15 days.  So, according to them we were already late (only 10 more days to trustee sale) but after requesting and explaining the situation, they transferred to their supervisor and they said that they would review the package and if everything looks good then they would postpone the trustee sale. After reviewing my complete package, they did postpone the trustee sale.

After back and forth hard negotiations for couple of weeks, we got the approvals from both lenders. The 2^nd had asked cash contribution from sellers but finally, with my negotiation, lender agreed to approve the short sale without any cash contribution from seller.  This was really good that the seller didn’t have to bring any money at closing.

I have to tell that this buyer’s agent was really superb to work with; she handled the buyer side very smoothly and helped to close this sale successfully.

I’m so glad that I got a chance to save one more family to stop foreclosure from their credit.  Here’s the most important thing when you select an agent to work with your short sale, always work with an experienced short sale agent, ask for referral and check how did they help that client in their short sale and how did that agent communicate with them.

If you are in bay area and looking for an experienced short sale agent, give me a call for a free consultation and hopefully I can help you also with your short sale.  You can reach me directly at 510-366-9405 or click on Contact Me link to email me.

Check out this video where Dave Ramsey answered some questions and where he also mentioned that short sale is better than foreclosure -Watch it now!

If you are looking for a bay area short sale Realtor or have any questions related to short sale and would like to know your options to avoid foreclosure then give me a call at 510-366-9405 for a Free consultation and I would be happy to help you, there’s no obligation and no pressure. Give me a call at 510-366-9405.

If you have received a trustee sale notice because of non-payment of your monthly mortgage then there are few ways to stop a trustee sale on your house so that it will give you some time to work out your options to avoid from foreclosure.

These below steps will not stop the trustee sale forever if you are not taking actions quickly and honestly working towards to avoid the trustee sale. The lenders normally give 30 days or so to work with you to avoid the foreclosure and may postpone again if you show them that you are seriously working on to avoid the foreclosure.

Loan Modification is one option to stop a trustee sale, but you should already working with lender on this option or at least call the lender well before the actual date.  They may postpone automatically if you have already submitted your paper works, but it is always good to call the lender directly to request to cancel the trustee sale.  I know one family whose loan modification denied just 2 days before trustee sale, she was even working with loan mod professionals. She called me and explained the situation, I went to their home and after hearing their side of story, I had asked her to call the lender and also explained what to tell, long story short, they agreed to work with her again on loan modification and postponed the trustee sale. They are still working on loan modification and the lender postponed the sale date twice, hope they will get their loan modified. I would suggest working with the lender ahead of time on loan modification, even before you get notice of default (NOD) because not all lenders will work with you on postponing the sale date when it is closer to trustee sale date.

Second option might be to filing a Motion to Dismiss; this may buy some additional time until the judge ruled upon the motion.  I’m not an attorney to give legal advice, so check with your attorney whether this option will help you to delay the foreclosure. Again, if you don’t have any plan to save your home from foreclosure then this option may not help you to hold off the sale date.

Third option might be Bankruptcy to stop the trustee sale.  You have to work with a good bankruptcy attorney to file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, depending on your situation. A good bankruptcy attorney can tell you which is good for you or whether bankruptcy is an option for you or not because not everyone qualifies for bankruptcy.  Let me know if you would like a referral for a good bankruptcy attorney for a free initial legal consultation.

Another option might be Short Sale to postpone the trustee sale.  I have worked with couple of clients who had contacted me after receiving the trustee sale for short sale.  I’m very successful in stopping the foreclosure with short sale.  You have to work with an experienced short sale agent who has experienced with the similar situation on how to work with lender and market the property because it is complex once you have received the notice of default or trustee sale notice to begin short sale and complete with the successful sale. It is not a guarantee that short sale will stop the foreclosure, so if you are thinking of short sale, then you have to work with a short sale specialist in your local area.  If you are looking for short sale agent in bay area, then give me a call, I might help you with short sale.

So, you have several options to avoid foreclosure even if you have received the trustee sale. Don’t hesitate to call me at 510-366-9405 with any questions, I would be happy to assist you and my service doesn’t cost you anything!

This new California law (SB 931) was signed by the Governor on September 30th, which takes affect from the beginning of January 2011.  According to this law, any first mortgages that accept a short sale cannot obtain a deficiency judgment against a seller, whether it is owner occupied home or non-owner occupied owners.

So, the good news is that for owner occupied owners and also investors who own 1-4 units, now they don’t have to worry whether lender will come after to collect the remaining balance.

Now, here’s the great news – This law applies to all type of first loan whether it is a purchase money loan or refinanced loan.  If a lender agrees to a short sale on first mortgage then that lender must accept the sale proceeds as their full payment and fully release the seller from any deficiency.

I have personally negotiated and closed many short sales in bay area with all the major lenders and one of my main goal in short sale is to get the deficiency judgment waived for my clients. You can read for more details on SB931.

As a Bay Area short sale specialist, I know this is really important for my clients to get a full release whether purchase money or refinanced.  So, if you are a homeowner whether occupied or non-occupied (investors) and having difficulty with your mortgage and selling the home is the only option, then call me at 510-366-9405 for a FREE consultation to know your options and how you can avoid foreclosure.