Secret’short sale reward in Florida?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – June 29, 2011 – Two lending giants are reportedly offering homeowners who are behind on their mortgage a cash reward to agree to a short sale in Florida.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. aren’t releasing many details about the short-sale incentives, but defaulting homeowners in Florida have confirmed that they’ve received anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 from the banks in order to agree to a short sale.

To help homeowners avoid foreclosure, banks have offered a “cash for keys” program, offering money in exchange for surrendering the home, but banks offering incentives for a short sale would be new, industry insiders say. Usually the perception is that banks agree to do a short-sale transaction as almost a favor for homeowners, experts note.

The banks won’t say why only some homeowners are being chosen to receive the cash incentives, nor its criteria for choosing who gets the reward, only saying it’s determined by “individual circumstances,” according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The short-sale incentives are a way for the two banks to write off the bad loans as soon as possible and avoid the lengthy process of foreclosure, experts say.

Wells Fargo says it offers the cash incentives to homeowners in Florida and other states "where the foreclosure process is lengthening," spokesman Tom Goyda told the Florida Sun-Sentinel.

In the first three months of 2011, the average foreclosure in Florida took 619 days, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Source: “Chase Borrowers Getting Cash to Complete Short Sales,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel (June 27, 2011)

Fort Lauderdale Short Sales - Kris van Gool Does it Again!

Fort Lauderdale Short Sale Success -  Another short sale has been sold and closed by the  Kris van Gool here in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  Kris van Gool is #1 in Short Sale closings in Fort Lauderdale.  He has  been sharing many of our success stories for the benefit of the public who may be caught in today’s mortgage loan crisis.  Short Sales are not easy to close, so it is imperative that one seeks a Realtor expert to conduct such a transaction.  Some of the details of this short sale story will not be divulged in order to protect the privacy of the past property owner.

Property and Finance Details: This Fort Lauderdale property was a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1,550 square foot detached home with a panoramic ocean view.   This home was purchased in January of 2006′ for 400 Thousand, using 90% financing which resulted in a first mortgage loan.  The homeowner had to move back east, and tried to sell the home using traditional methods, but was not able to do so.

Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Market Conditions: The real estate market here in southern Florida has been gone through a major price correction.  Fort Lauderdale has suffered a large decline in real estate prices, but not as bad as  other Cities in Florida.   This severe real estate recession is due to the overheated southern Florida market that started in 1999, the nationwide mortgage crisis, and job losses here in Fort lauderdale.  Although, we now see signs that price decreases have slowed down considerably, and we may be approaching the bottom of the market cycle pricing.

Only 37 % of Short Sales actually sold and closed escrow in Fort Lauderdale in the past 12 months.  Whereas, the Kris van Gool closes over 94% of our short sale listings.

SHORT SALE – PHASE:  The homeowner contacted us via a referral, and we answered all of their questions and concerns regarding short sales.  The property owners signed the  listing agreement and short sale addendum, and our preparation team gathered all of the required documents from the homeowner.  These documents were carefully packaged in the format required, and delivered to the 1st mortgage bank to present the short sale proposal.   3 weeks later, and after some cunning negotiations, our expert team was able to obtain preliminary approval for the Short Sale. Kris van Gool's knowledge of Fort Lauderdale Short Sales is amazing.

MARKETING AND SALES – PHASE:   Once we obtained the preliminary short sale approval, we put this Fort Lauderdale property on the market for sale.  It was originally listed in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for $950,000.   After about 3 weeks on the market with very little interest, we dropped the price again to $925,000.  We obtained an offer from a qualified buyer for $850,000.  After some negotiations with our short sale Realtor expert, we finally arrived at a price of $872,000.

CLOSING – PHASE:  Once all of the purchase contract documents are signed by the buyer and seller, our team packages theses documents along with the buyer loan qualification letter. This package was then sent to the 1st mortgage Bank.  Our short sale negotiator then went to work to finalize the final terms and conditions of this short sale.  After some additional negotiations, we convinced the  Banks to agree to the final short sale.    The property escrow then closed 35 days later.

IN SUMMARY: The entire mortgage debt of $1,035,000 was eliminated so that the homeowner did not owe this money anymore.  We were also able to negotiate $2,500 from the Bank to pay to the homeowner, which is referred to as “Cash for Cooperation”, which many banks are now offering as an incentive to homeowners to cooperate with a short sale, versus letting the property go to Foreclosure.

Kris van Gool is licensed with the Florida Department of Real Estate, and we are members of good standing with the Fort lauderdale board of Realtors. We train Agents Nationwide how to conduct short sales, and have been interviewed by news organizations and others.  Our services are free to the homeowner, for we are negotiate our fee with  the mortgage bank(s). If you have any questions regarding Fort Lauderdale Florida Short Sales, contact our Kris van Gool.

Why Your Fort Lauderdale Home Isn’t A Retirement Account

The recent downturn in the real estate market has caused many homeowners who were banking on the equity in their house to rethink their retirement planning. Rather than run from the depreciating real estate market, they should consider investing in properties that will carry them through retirement.

There is a defined distinction between property you would consider as a home and property best suited as an investment. Many times, real estate that would make a great home would be a lousy rental, while similarly, property that provides excellent financials for investors would not be real estate you’d be proud to call home. This is exactly the reason why real estate buyers need define exactly what purpose the property they are searching for will serve, and then use a specialized approach to find properties that would make good candidates for that usage.

Lets first consider Fort Lauderdale real estate used as your primary residence. We will first examine things that make the best homes terrible investments and then how these same shortcomings are huge pluses when viewed through a pair of rental property glasses.

Investing in Fort Lauderdale Real Estate That You Want to Call Home

Uncertain  – Markets change and no matter how highly desired your location is, there is always zero certainty that appreciation will happen within a short window of time.

Illiquidity – Investing in a bigger home, in lieu of acquiring rental property, has the distinct disadvantage of not being able to be turned into quick cash without selling or refinancing. Since the property generates zero monthly cash flow, the only way to collect income is by taking on additional debt (ie refinancing) or an outright sale which can take months to close.

Impractical – Beside being slow to sell, selling your home to cash in on the equity leaves the big obvious problem of “Where will you live?” Your going to have to live somewhere and this usually requires either buying another home or paying somebody rent.

Tax Consequences – Spending a large amount of money on your home is a rewarding experience and can increase your homes value. You will not, however, discover any new tax breaks even if your tax liability increases. Remember, you are the one paying the taxes in the first place, and deducting them from your income liability does not completely negate those payments. Even if you extend you loan to keep your interest deductions, that additional monthly payment that you picked up during the refinance may have been better used somewhere else, such as in rental property.

Investment in Rental Property

Cash Flow – Investing polar opposite of appreciation is cash flow. Cash flow of an investment property is the real indicator of its value. In short, cash flow can be defined as the amount of money the property generates in rents after all expenses are paid.

Whether a property appreciates or depreciates is really at the whim of the market and availability of buyers. There is not much a homeowner can do to increase the value of their home without taking on considerable costs that may outweigh any gains in value. Income property owners, or cash flow investors, have much more control over their properties value. They can increase rents, decrease expenses, or any combination of these to make the cash flow situation better and ultimately increase their property value.

1031 Exchange – An investor’s response to lack of liquidity is found partly in the above explanation of cash flow and partly in a process known as a 1031 exchange. A 1031 exchange allows an owner of rental property to sell their property, identify a replacement property, close escrow on that property, and defer any capital gains taxes until a future date.

Impractical to Practically Too Easy – If the investor decides they want to completely liquidate the property in the future, there are even strategies for this that will severely limit their tax liability and they won’t even have to worry about finding a new place to live! There are lots of options open to rental property owners, none of which are available to a primary residence owner.

Tax Benefits – Unlike your home, the value of income rental properties is allowed to be depreciated from most owners tax liability. Also, during rougher rental years, owners are allowed to write off losses directly related to their investment property. Even during a bad year, the tenants that you do have are continuing to pay off your mortgage until you owe nothing. There are always great investment opportunities in Fort Lauderdale Condos.

Fort Lauderdale Florida Fannie Mae has new lending guidelines taking effect December 13th

which will help some borrowers and hinder others. 

The new rules will allow buyers to use grants & gifts from non-profit groups for their minimum 5% down payment.

There was a previous 5% contribution required from borrowers using their own funds with additional money for down payment permitted as a gift. Freddie Mac (FHLMC) is also considering similar guidelines.

In Fort Lauderdale Fannie Mae is cracking down at the same time on debt-to-income ratios, with the maximum ratio on a conventional loan set to drop from 55% to 45% under the new guidelines. There will also be increased scrutiny of payment histories on revolving debt and buyers who have missed a payment will have 5% of the total balance added to their ratios.

Additionally, Fort Lauderdale real estate borrowers who have gone through foreclosure will be excluded from qualifying for a FNMA loan for 7 years, an increase from the previous 4 year limit.