Hi Folks. Richard Zaretsky wrote apost earlier this week titled SHORT SALE MARKET EVOLUTION – GMAC SOLUTION TO FALSE BUYERS  If you haven’t read it pop over and do so.

Richard’s post spawned an article by Bill J Archambault titled Successful REALTOR Or Failed Social Reformer.

Bill’s post got me thinking about this one. Funny how that works!

Here is the language GMAC wants if you have a short sale with them as the lender:

2-3% earnest money must be agreeable to buyer. Contingencies must be removed 14 days after we issue approval letter and earnest money becomes non-refundable. If buyer walks, buyer and seller must agree in writing that earnest money will be wired to GMAC.

GMAC is interfering with my listing agreement and interfering with a purchase agreement.  This is, in my opinion***, Tortious interference. They are NOT a party to either of these contracts and have no right dictating the terms.

GMAC’s new “deposit language” is interfering with my contractual right, as per my listing agreement, to a percentage of the deposit when a buyer walks. Why? I didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, I spent time, effort and money during the pending status of the contract and have the right to be compensated if the deal kicks due to the buyer walking. GMAC wants to steal my money.

And what about the fully qualified buyer that doesn’t have 2% to 3% to put up as a deposit? They could be purchasing the home using VA or USDA (100%) financing but may not be in a position to place 2% to 3% down as a deposit. Now due to this GMAC requirement they are blown out of the water. And of course these are exactly the buyers that are willing to pay a premium for a property.

Make no mistake about it this is just one more step towards banks dictating the real estate market.

Banks are now:

• Limitting how much I can charge for my services.

• Preventing me from being compensated for my time and effort.

• Dragging property values down even further by limitting the buyer pool.

You can be sure I will work the system to my advantage. BUT…dictating how I can charge for my services is a violation of anti trust laws. GMAC can certainly choose to not accept a short sale. That is their decision. How I get paid is my business and they are interfering with my contract. GMAC is not losing money. They are the servicer. They get paid whether payments are made or not. This new verbiage is not to lesson their losses it is to increase their profits.

I wonder if they pass the claimed deposit off to the investor? I doubt it.

Short Sales Suck and I Ain’t Doin’ Them!! Agent Training.

Time. Mine is valuable. Is yours? One thing that agents struggle with is being in control of their time. How often have you popped out to show property at the last minute? Or had to cancel a personal event because one of your customer/clients needed to see you? What about the Buyer who can only look at properties every other Saturday from 4-7 pm? Do you work with them?  I don’t.

Here’s a fact. There are NO real estate emergencies.

Here’s another fact. You will NEVER be caught up. There will always be another call to make. Another website to update.

If  you want to have lasting success in this business and avoid burn out you MUST get control of your time. Work by appointment only.

Don’t let others dictate your schedule. Don’t do same day appointments. Just let them go. It will save you a lot of aggravation in the long run. If people don’t respect your time they will never respect the relationship. That’s a fact.

Let folks know at first contact how you work and when you work. People will appreciate knowing these things up front. If your schedule doesn’t fit with theirs then just let them go. We can’t work with everybody.

Once you set boundaries with your time a funny thing will happen…..you’ll start attracting people that will work within your time frames. And because of this you will be less stressed and you will become better at what you do.

Do you believe that? Well even if you don’t it’s still true. You just need to trust me on this one. Can you do that?

Do you need a new Broker?

Want to find out more? www.TTRealtyNet.com

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Hi folks. As most of us in this business I seem to have a lot more frustrating days than I used to. Real Estate is hard. My personal business is about 80% short sales and REOs (foreclosures). Frustrating.

I work in a very low end market and have to do lot’s of transactions every month in order to make a good living and pay the business bills. But that’s ok. So many folks have it much worse than I.

Yet, they have more strength than I could ever imagine. A perfect example is…..

.……Artist Leon Botha, one of the world’s longest surviving Progeria sufferers, and photographer Gordon Clark embark on a collaborative and artistic adventure, exploring the questions of destiny and immortality to bring us this powerful photo series Who Am I? Transgressions.

“By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.” Leo Tolstoy

Hi folks. Did you know, when I wake up in the morning the first thing that comes into my head is, “What can I Blog about today?” Then the phone rings and my question is answered…..

“Good morning, Tutas Towne Realty, this is the incredibly good looking and intelligent Broker Bryant speaking, how may I help your dreams come true today?“

“Hi Broker Bryant, this is your Seller over at 4321 Desperation Ave. I’m calling to let you know I have found a Buyer for my house. My neighbor, who has lots of money, wants to buy my house. I know he has lots of money and can pay cash for it, if he wants. I told him I would only take full price ($259,000) for it but at that price I would leave the appliances. He said something about putting 5% down and me giving him back a check for $15,000 at closing and he wants me to pay all his closing costs. Did I mention he has lots of money?”

“OK, OK, Mr. Overwhelmed, the first thing we need to do is have him call me. I need to talk to him about his qualifications and make sure he is in a position to even purchase your home. Then we can get his offer in writing so we can sit down together and go over your options. By the way, you can’t just give him money back a closing, that could be mortgage fraud and we can’t do that. But we will worry about that after I get a written offer from him. OK?”

“OK, but I know he has lots of money. I told him I was in foreclosure and he said he could help me out. He really likes the house, since it is the best house in Poinciana, and he has lots of money.”

Anyway, I received a call about an hour later from a REALTOR®, all excited, wanting to submit an offer on this listing. She asked me the price and I told her it was $259,000. “Broker Bryant my Buyer would like to offer $225,000 and wants the Seller to pay $14,000 in closing costs. He will be getting 100% financing. Do you think we have a deal? He said he has already talked about this with the Seller.”

Now folks, does this offer sound anything like what the Seller had mentioned to me earlier? Of course not. They never do. Desperate Sellers hear what they want to hear and say things they shouldn’t say and Buyers will and do try to take advantage of the situation. Why would you tell a potential Buyer you are in foreclosure?

This is one of the most important reasons to hire a REALTOR®. We are not emotionally involved in the deal. We are a calming force and we are trained to weed out unqualified and unrealistic Buyers. Without a REALTOR® looking out for him, who knows what kind of a deal this Seller would agree to? You can be sure it would have cost him a lot more money than what he is paying me. This assumes he wouldn’t have wasted months and months of market time, while the neighbor, with lots of money, tries to sort out 100% financing on a second home.

Hiring a professional REALTOR® who has experience and market knowledge in your area, is the best investment you can make. So before hiring a REALTOR® to sell your house ask these questions.

1. How many properties do you personally have listed on the market in my area, today?
2. How many closed transactions did you have in my area last year?
3. How many pending transactions do you have in my area, today?

There are many more questions you need to ask before hiring a REALTOR® but, in my opinion, you need to have the right answers to these three, first. And make them show you their sales record from the MLS.

By the way, I never did hear back from the Buyer or his REALTOR®. I guess I need to call Mr. Overwhelmed back and let him know the neighbor has no money. Better yet, I will send him a link to this post.

I wonder who will call me tomorrow morning?

….and you want it to be less than 7 years old with over 1500 sq ft of living area. Maybe this will help:

Based on current market statistics, properties similar to the ones you are requesting are selling for $35 to $37 per sq ft living and 110% of the asking price. In order to stay under $60,000 you need to focus on properties with 1700 sq ft or less. 185 Conch and 1966 Michigan both fit.

The stats that are below show that since 10/1/2009 there have been  29 sales. There are 21 pendings and only 9 actives in this price range. I eliminated the short sales and the properties that are priced too low (based on market data) and that left the 2 properties mentioned above.

The average days on market are 23 and that of course includes the time it takes to get bank addenda signed. This tells me most are selling quickly and with multiple offers.

CMA 60-

Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.

Want to find out more? www.CentralFloridaShortSales.com

Copyright © 2010 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

…..only took 9 months!!! And we are not closed yet. Amazingly we still have the original Buyer that went under contract at the end of April 2009.

Property location:

• Florida Keys (Vacation home)

Hardship:

• Illness.

Lender(s):

• Chase on the first and 2nd. About 5 months into the Short Sale transaction the 2nd was passed off to Allied International Credit (AIC).

Purchase Price:

• $303,000

Amounts owed:

• Chase was owed $693,000 on the first and agreed to accept $273,000 (39% of the debt)
• AIC was owed $94,000 on the 2nd and agreed to accept $3,000 (3% of the debt)

Terms:

• No note. No cash contribution.

Special conditions:

• This was a co-listing with Kelly Willey from ActiveRain. She handled the property and I took care of the Seller and the Short Sale negotiations. There is also a Broker on the selling side. Chase agreed to pay 3 Brokers. There was a HOA lien for $18,000 that the Seller paid off. Took 90 days to get under contract.

• The Short Sale Package was submitted in it’s entirety 3 times. 

We should be closing next week with a cash Buyer.

Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.

Want to find out more? www.CentralFloridaShortSales.com

Copyright © 2010 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Hi folks. Here’s a short compilation of some of the conversations going on this week at www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com

Short Sale Lenders asking for cash contributions off the HUD.

Sellers of Short Sales wanting to rent the property back.

2nd lien holders being unreasonable.

Is a hardship really needed to qualify for a Short Sale?

Getting Short Sales approved through REOTrans/Equator

Investors refusing to postpone the foreclosure auction.

Bank of America and Titaninum Solutions

Short Sale Lenders seizing bank accounts

Dealing with Multiple offers and Short Sales

Tools to assist you with your Short Sales

Available Short Sale Agent Training:

LEARN, KNOW AND GROW

• The Negotiator Interview $27.00
  
• www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com FREE 878+ Members Strong!!
  
• Short Sale Agent Training Webinars 8 Hours of training for $97.00
• Short Sale Listing/Submission Package $27.00 Click for details

Wendy Rulnick and Bryant Tutas
www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com

Copyright © 2010 REGrow, LLC | All Rights Reserved

Did you know that? I didn’t. Until I read this article by Sally K. & David L. Hanson.

This is pretty serious stuff. If you are working with Short Sales please be sure to notify your Sellers and give them this information. I am not an Attorney nor do I play one on TV so I do not know the legalities of this. I do know though, that if it were me, I’d much rather avoid the issue all together and pull my money out of the bank that I have my delinquent mortgage with. Better safe than sorry.

If you read the comments to Sally and David’s post you will see that this IS happening. And it’s happening all over.

And of course….Bank of America is one of the culprits.

Be a Short Sale Superstar to your Sellers and make them aware of this situation today. OK?

Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.

Want to find out more? www.CentralFloridaShortSales.com

Copyright © 2010 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Hi folks. When I first realized that Short Sales were going to be a major part of my market I knew I needed to learn how to do them and I needed to learn how to do them fast. So I did what any Short Sale rookie would do…I decided to write a book on how to do Short Sales!! I read and studied everything I could get my hands on. I started listing Short Sales and started going through the process. I found out real quick that what I thought I knew…..was not enough.

But instead of throwing in the towel I made another decision. I sent Wendy Rulnick an email and asked her if she wanted to help me finish writing a book about Short Sales. Much to my surprise she agreed!! I now had someone that had done tons of Short Sales to learn from. Then I made another great decision. I asked Wendy if she wanted to do a Short Sale Agent Training webinar series and teach agents how to do Short Sales. Again she agreed!

I did this because I really wanted to help others become better at doing Short Sales. But most importantly….I did it to learn. I spent weeks picking Wendy’s brain while we prepared to launch our training webinars. I was learning Short Sales as I was preparing to teach Short Sales. Sounds backwards doesn’t it? It is. But it worked for me. I became very good at Short Sales in a very short period of time.

Then we took it a step further and launched www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com. Now I am the co-founder of the hottest Short Sale network on the internet and have become known as a go to guy for Short Sales.

In less than a year I revamped my entire buisness and became an “expert” at something I had very litttle hands on experience with. I envisioned what I wanted to become and I became it. 

I evolved. Have you?

Do NOT be foreclosed on! Avoid foreclosure. Short Sales DO close.

Want to find out more? www.CentralFloridaShortSales.com

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