Welcome to this week’s edition of the Pre-foreclosure Daily Grind! This edition will discuss a change at Real Time Resolution, a debt collection company that works 2nd mortgages for EMC and American Home Mortgage. We’ll also go over the importance of pre-screening buyers, ESPECIALLY when it comes to short sales.

But first, we will address the change coming to Real Time Resolution. They have recently changed their approval process. The negotiators working the files will now need to provide additional internal information regarding the loan. This enables the investor and Real Time management to clearly see what they’re losing, what they’re gaining, and whether or not it would make sense to accept the current offer. In previous instances, Real Time would primarily look at what they were getting and make a decision based on what percentage of the loan principal they were receiving. Now, management requires the negotiators closely evaluate the seller’s financial situation and base their decision from those findings. This is not anything we haven’t seen before when it comes to the majority of lenders out there. However, this IS something that is new with Real Time Resolution. Therefore, be prepared for the process with them to take a bit longer than previous deals, and be prepared to come up with at LEAST 10% of the loan principal in order to receive approval.

Our second tip for this week is something we’ve covered in the past. However, it is something that will always remain a crucial part of every short sale. That is, pre-screening your buyers. The reason we are discussing this topic in this issue is because we have had yet another property this week in which the lender has provided us with written approval that has covered over 2 months…and the buyer needs more time. Now, you might have listings in which some other extenuating circumstances come up, that precipitate taking a certain offer. For example, it may be the only offer that has come in over the last several months. Perhaps comps may require you to list a property higher than you’d like which limits the offers coming in, the condition of the property, etc, etc. With that said, know that you WILL face difficulties in the settlement process. Know that you may not even get enough time from the lender to close if you take on a buyer that will need to stretch quite a bit to be able to qualify and actually CLOSE on the property. A perfect example that we frequently experience in Connecticut is when an FHA or 203k buyer comes in wanting to purchase a home that needs a lot of work. If any of you have encountered this type of situation, you already know what you will face. A scenario in which worst case: the buyer won’t qualify at all, and best case: it will take a long time for them to close; perhaps more time than the lender is willing to spend.

Enjoy this week’s Pre-Foreclosure Daily Grind tip of the week, and have a great and profitable week!

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Pre-foreclosure Daily Grind! In this edition we discuss a couple of great tips with you! First, we’ll cover a deal we’ve been working on recently, and how we’ve hit a roadblock regarding getting a foreclosure postponed. We will cover what you NEED to tell your clients with regards to how postponing foreclosures works. Second, we’ll talk about the basis on which 2nd mortgages often make the absurd requests they do which helps us all understand such situations.

Many of us have likely experienced a scenario in which we get about 80% of the way through the short sale process, only to have the lender foreclose and take the property right out from under us. This can be very frustrating! We ourselves have had THREE like this in the last 2 weeks alone. So, for those of you who have faced this also, here are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, if you’re working on a property in which the loan is over 12 months delinquent, it becomes less and less likely that the lender and investor (remember, this is the entity that owns the mortgage note) will agree to postpone the short sale. Therefore, as more time goes on, expect that you’ll need a higher offer or larger cash contribution from the sellers in order to get these postponements through. Also make sure to prep the sellers accordingly. Next, keep in mind that when you ARE working on a loan that is over a year delinquent, that the investor will want more money out of the deal to make it worth their while. Additionally, the situation will demand that ALL parties approve in writing BEFORE the foreclosure date in order to postpone the foreclosure.

For example: if it will take 10 business days for all parties to approve the offer, and you’ve only got 7 business days until the foreclosure, then it’s likely you’ll be hearing from the negotiator that they have to close the file out. We all know that it will be headed for REO land. In a situation like this, the only way they may CONSIDER to speed up this approval process is if they get more money out of the deal. Perhaps such money can come from the seller or maybe from the buyer. Thus, make sure to prep all parties accordingly for this, so that they know what to expect. As we all know, expectations are a HUGE part of our business, and are the difference between closing deals and not closing them! In our case it was a Freddie Mac backed loan, in which we had a full price offer in hand. Since there wasn’t enough time to approve it BEFORE the foreclosure, Freddie decided to foreclose anyway. Way to help the economy recover huh?!

This week we also had the privilege of dealing with yet another stubborn and completely unrealistic 2nd mortgage, USAA. This was setting up to be a nice, easy, 2- mortgage short sale, in which the 1st was set to be paid off in full. Despite paying off the 1st in its entirety, there was still a little over $24k left over for the 2nd mortgage! We went into it feeling very optimistic that the 2nd would take the $24k. Even if they wanted a prom note from the sellers, AT LEAST they would be perfectly ok with that sum at close. That way they could go ahead and approve the short sale, and get a nice chunk of their debt right away. However, that was not the case. USAA, for some reason, countered back and wanted…$58,000…dollars…at…closing! For me, there are never enough things I can say about a situation like this, and we’ve all been there, and laughed, maybe cried…and so I won’t waste any words on venting about it. But…what I will do is try to help all of you understand WHY some 2nd mortgages respond in this fashion.

There are 2 things to understand here. First, they are recourse loans, and so they know that even if the 1st mortgage forecloses and they get nothing in that sale, that they can still pursue the sellers legally to recover money. Second, the money they’ll get at close is really the only money they are fully guaranteed to get. The reason for this is because many homeowners simply file bankruptcy after the short sale is done or just simply DON’T pay whatever sum they’ve agreed to with the lender. Therefore, in many instances the 2nd mortgage gets what they get at closing. They lose a lot of their control in the situation because they have released their lien and secure position on title. Make sure to keep this in mind when dealing with them. As for the best way to counter this, just try to get as much money as you can, from each place you can, and present it as your counter offer to them. In most cases, their high counters are really a way for them to say, “We just want to make sure we’re pursuing all avenues to recover as much money as possible.”

Enjoy this week’s Pre-Foreclosure Daily Grind tip of the week, and have a great and profitable week!

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Pre-foreclosure Daily Grind! In this edition we discuss a couple of changes in the industry and how best to prepare for them. We’ll cover a nice new change within Bank of America that many of you will love to hear, and will make our short sales proceed much more smoothly. We’ll also discuss an initial hurdle with M&T Bank and how to overcome it.

This morning we, and all other real estate professionals out there, were greeted with a nice email discussing a very welcome change to how Bank of America processes short sales in Equator. It was titled “Now You Can Substitute a New Buyer for One Who Walked Without Restart.” As can be extrapolated from that title, we now no longer have to start from scratch whenever we lose a buyer! This surely comes as great news for all of us who have, and frequently do, find ourselves in this exact predicament. With this new change, we will no longer have to wait and go through all the same tasks again, and upload all the same documents again.

The way that this works is pretty simple. Most importantly, do not notify the negotiator you have lost your buyer until you have a new one in place! The reason for this is because the addition of the new buyer to the process works more like a substitution. In other words, when one buyer walks, it will then be necessary to immediately swap the new one in. Therefore, once you have your new buyer’s contract in your hands, the next thing to do is notify your negotiator via email through Equator. They’ll respond in 2 days asking if a backup offer is in place. Then they will ask you to complete 4 tasks which involve providing listing date, a marketing description, and then a marketing plan. They will also ask you to change over the status of the file to “Marketing.” Finally, the last task will be to upload the new offer. And then you’ll be back in business!

In other news, we had a bit of an encounter with M&T Bank this week. Upon calling their customer service department, we were told that this particular department will not speak to a 3rd party unless the homeowner is there present with you, or on the same call via a conference call. So when I asked about where to send written authorization, they said they wouldn’t accept it…period. Way to ensure the short sale DOESN’T get done! I called back a few more times and asked to speak to the short sale department instead. At which time they transferred me to their Homeowner’s Assistance Department, which handles their short sales. Thus, when you have a mortgage with M&T, just seek to bypass their customer service department, and ask to speak to the Homeowner’s Assistance Department instead!

Enjoy this week’s Pre-Foreclosure Daily Grind tip of the week, and have a great and profitable week!

http://PreforeclosureDailyGrind.com On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we break down what type of liens short sale lenders are no longer willing to pay and how this change will make closing your transactions more and more difficult! Listen in because this will affect whether or not your transactions get closed and whether or not it will cost you more of your hard earned cash to get deals closed. We also go over, why you should wait until you are 100% sure a deal is dead BEFORE telling a banks loss mitigation specialist or  negotiator, how to push through a “common objection” that could crush your deal AFTER your short sale is accepted , the launch of our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more.

http://PreforeclosureDailyGrind.com On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we breakdown the new GMAC affidavit, which you MUST sign, in order to get your short sale offer accepted.  Listen in as we uncover what you can and can’t do in reference to property flipping  and whether or not you need to be licensed to flip properties, an inside look at what an appraiser looks at when they are valuing a Bank of America short sale property, what comparable properties B of A’s appraisal review department will accept and what properties they will reject when assessing whether they should accept or decline your offer, an update on the April launch of our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more. Take a 14 day test drive of the easiest, most comprehensive real estate management platform available! Visitwww.PropTrackr.com for more info.

On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we uncover the latest government “Noose” that WILL put the majority of short sale and loan modification companies out of business! Listen in as we also cover, how the M.A.R.S. (mortgage assistance relief services) change may cause you possible legal ramifications if your disclosures are not “good enough”, how this ruling will greatly affect the economy, who this new change will truly benefit (and it’s not the consumer),  how the change WILL affect every single Real Estate Agent and Real Estate Investor that negotiates debt. An update on the launch of our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more.

On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we uncover the newest guideline put into effect by Freddie Mac, which will crush the way short sale negotiators are paid! Listen in as we not only break down this hot topic but also how many First Franklin loans Bank of America purchased and where they went, how to overcome a “dumbass” BofA customer service rep that gives you the wrong information , an update on the launch of our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more.

On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we uncover the fact that One West Bank (the good old IndyMac bailout) is in fact screwing our homeowners… Listen in as we not only tell you how they are doing this but also, what company they are outsourcing their short sale negotiations to, a look at their short sale approval letter, a new code change that all rehabbers must know, how to deal with a jack-ass build inspector, an update on the launch of our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and more. Take a 14 day test drive of the easiest, most comprehensive real estate management platform available! Visit www.PropTrackr.com for more info.

On this week’s PreforeclosureDailyGrind.com’s “Tip of the Week” we uncover why it is an absolute must to add extra fees and costs on your negotiating HUD1 Settlement Statement! This is extremely important especially since short sales can take an awfully long time to complete, which leaves more opportunities for extra costs and liens to both accrue and pop up at the last minute! Listen in as we cover this fact and also the new closing process requirements on the Equator System that must be followed or they will close your file, an important fact about the difference between HFC (Household Finance Corporation) judgment liens vs. HFC mortgage loans and how they approach reviewing a short payoff. Whether or not HFC will settle their debt in full, how end buyers’ lenders are now requiring inspection reports, the newest and most profitable short sale niche to get into and why, and more.

Take a 14 day test drive of the easiest, most comprehensive real estate management platform available! Visit www.PropTrackr.com for more info.

On this week’s Preforeclosure Daily Grind “Tip of the Week” we go over the disturbing truth that Wells Fargo is now doing everything they can to take a property that is over in debt, which would leave every Homeowner, Agent, Investor and Loss Mitigation Specialist out to dry! Listen in as we cover this economy crushing truth and also their brand new guidelines regarding whether or not they will give extensions when there is a foreclosure sale date or law date set. Plus the importance of building a profile for every short sale lender you work with to ensure that you do not waste your valuable time and why it is critical to look at your end buyers financing before you take the offer and more.

Take a 14 day test drive of the easiest, most comprehensive real estate management platform available! Visit www.PropTrackr.com for more info.