Understanding the Real World of Working with Banks and Short Sales

I remember hearing years ago, when on Black Friday, so many Financial Brokers jumped because of frustration caused by the falling market. Now I know how they felt! Dealing with the banks on a property that is upside down and the seller is forced to sell can make any Realtor go bald. I guess it is because they have so many files to deal with but it seems to me, that if they get a better system, they would get a lot more cash in quickly but getting some of their properties closed. Maybe they want the ‘radioactive’ properties on their books so they can take them as a loss, year after year, but we have several buyers waiting and waiting for the banks to finish the paperwork and let them buyer their property. One set of buyers comes to mind. They offered over listing price which was a little over market value anyhow, but they wanted that particular unit. They submitted their offer, with the appropriate short sale paperwork, on March 3^rd, 2010. They are still waiting for Bank of American to send the approval.

A Real Real Estate Outlook—Spring 2010 Markets

We could talk the party line. You know how spring is traditionally the busy time in real estate. Corporate moves are on the rise and buyers are anxious to take advantage of lower priced properties and lower interest rates. But… of course.. that would not be our way!   If you are currently selling your home or thinking about buying one, there are some real truths to this market.

First, let me address the general market trends. Everyone asks “Are prices still going down? Maybe I should wait to put my property on the market. What do you think?”

Never say Never!

A friend of mine told me about a conundrum that he has. He has a great apartment in a popular area but saw one that he would love to have instead. He can’t own two and the market hasn’t started it’s upward climb quite yet. Every time he drives by the new place, he almost gets a tear. We know…. Don’t drive by the new place… old joke!

There are a couple of options that he can take. The first one that I would recommend is for him to put in an offer on the unit he likes with the contract being contingent on his property selling. The closing date on the new property would be the same day as the closing on his property. What we call a simultaneous closing. With the entire market place being slower, a seller might now consider this option because they would at least have a contract on their property. In most cases, the seller would require some contingencies of their own. There is a very good likelihood that they would want a special clause in the contract that allows the property to be shown. Should another contract come in, the first buyer would have a certain amount of time to remove the selling contingency or release the contract so they could have a guaranteed closing date.

The Garage in South Florida Has Been Redefined

Every time I have a buyer who tells me their criteria for the home they are looking for they almost always say at least a one car garage. I usually silently laugh because all too many of our garages have become storage units and in many cases extra bedrooms. In the latter case, hopefully with complete permits. They always start out as covered and cool places to house our cars yet as time goes by, the cars become surrounded so much with ‘stuff’ that the ‘stuff’ takes over and our good friend, our cars, sit out in the sun and rain and if yours is like mine, it becomes a landing point for ‘bird’s stuff’.

When you think about glamorous, exciting remodeling projects, the garage is probably not the first space in your home that leaps to mind. But garage remodeling has become the new frontier for homeowners looking to organize and reclaim space in their homes, and to do it with flair. Depending on your tastes, time and budget, it’s not difficult to create a garage space that’s not only the envy of the neighborhood.

As opposed to the typical approach to a garage, which is to put up a shelf or a cabinet whenever and wherever the need arises, today’s complete garage makeover includes several elements that all come together to form a clean, coordinated, and remarkably organized space. Wall systems, modular storage, floor covering and even garage appliances all combine to make your garage work harder than you ever thought possible.

There are even companies that will come in and design the perfect garage for you. Tim Allen of Tool Time, eat your heart out. At the heart of most complete garage makeovers is the wall system. Modeled after the slotted panels seen on the walls of many retail stores that allow for quick and attractive changes in merchandising displays, garage wall storage systems incorporate designs and materials that are specifically intended to handle the dirt, dust, chemicals and temperature extremes that are most often found in garage environments.

This brings to mind another renovation consideration. The addition of insulation would do wonders for not only the temperature in the garage but help with the dust too. If you are putting in new AC in the house, don’t forget a small duct in the garage too, especially if you are going to use it for a workshop or laundry room in addition to keeping your car cool.

Clean, lightweight wall panels are attached to the wall studs and stacked up to cover all or part of the wall, and are easily cut to size for a custom fit. Matching trim is available to finish off the installation at the corners, and around electrical outlets.

With the panels in place, organizing the garage is as simple as slipping any of the various shelves, drawers, cabinets, bins, boxes, hooks and other storage components into the slots in the panels. Arrange the layout in any manner that suits your storage needs. Best of all, as those needs change it’s a matter of only minutes to rearrange the storage wall layout into a new customized configuration.

Now, how about adding some matching garage appliances. You can keep the drinks cold or store extra food that won’t fit in the kitchen in a refrigerator/freezer that’s specifically designed for the temperature and humidity extremes of the garage environment. And then help clean up the space with a tough, matching trash compactor. Both the compactor and the refrigerator are on heavy-duty casters to make reorganization of the space a breeze.

And finally, there’s the floor. Add a rugged, nonporous, water- and chemical-resistant flooring that cleans up that old concrete and protects the floor from further staining.

It is interesting that whenever we show a home one party is very interested in the kitchen and baths while the other is interested in seeing the garage. For years, REALTORS have been saying that if you are going to do any work on your home to make it sell, make sure the kitchen and baths are in first rate condition. Now we should add the garage. In today’s market, it would be a selling point to one of the buyers even more than a fancy kitchen.

Home electrical systems are stuck in 19th century

A few weeks back, I read a very interesting series of articles concerning the care and maintenance of our home. The one about the electrical status of our home really stuck. As I mentioned in a previous column, I had to have my entire house re-wired because of the age of my home and the difficulty I had with homeowners insurance because of that. Although my home was built in the 40′s some of the electrical wiring that was pulled out looked like it was made in the 1800s. Can you spell asbestos? My old family home in New Jersey was built in 1853 according to records so I know old wiring!

Some Hints on Forwarding an Email

I read this article on the Internet and thought it would be very useful.

1. When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That’s right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. To do this, you MUST click the “Forward” button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don’t click on “Forward” first, you won’t be able to edit the message at all.
   
2. Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding email addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for listing the email addresses.
   
3. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don’t see your BCC: option, click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that’s it, it’s that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say “Undisclosed Recipients” in the “TO:” field of the people who receive it.
   
4. Remove any “FW :” in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.
   
5. ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual email you are reading. Ever get those emails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many emails just to see what you sent.
   
6. Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.
   
7. Emails with lottery promises are trash and you should treat them as such by deleting them at once.
   
8. Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out closely.
   

   This is something that SHOULD be forwarded.
   

    
    

A word to Realtors, from a Realtor, be fair!

On a too regular basis, I am running into a situation where Realtors who are listing agents for short sales, are not acting honestly and ethically towards offers that come in from other agents. I am well aware that our short sales addendum states that the agent can and will continue to accept offers during the bank process but it really is making Realtors, who put in offers, look really bad with their customers. When you wait several months with no valid communications from the financial institutions, you are really putting perspective buyers out to dry. They wait, hope and plan, and then find out that they did not get the property because another offer came in a month later that was better.

There is so much talk on the air ways about transparency, how about a little in our industry?

I understand that sometime in April, institutions will be mandated to reply within 10 days of an offer presented. I know that they will find some way to get around it like they do for everything. And why did anyone pass and sign a regulation that takes so long to enforce. As Realtors, I believe that we have an ethical obligation to help the transaction come to fruition, so we need to be better communicating what little we know.

I guess, I am just frustrated since I know that the financial institutions have no desire to actually help get us out of the troubles we are in and seem to put us as many barriers as possible, we have to count on each other to help our customers.