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Short Sell your Phoenix home

Heather — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:45:01 +0000

If you’re underwater, you’re in a very crowded, very unhappy club. Possibly tens of thousands of Phoenix homeowners are underwater. Whether you bought too much house, or carefully avoided over-extending yourself; whether you borrowed equity for vacations or for home improvements… sometimes through no fault of your own, you’re underwater on your home mortgage.

If you’re thinking about walking away, or about trying a short sale, you almost certainly need a lawyer’s help through the process. You’re going to need a Realtor too, because you’re in a double whammy situation:

You have a real estate problem AND
You have a legal problem

The real estate problem is obvious: you need to pay somebody something in order to get your home listed in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) so buyers can find it online. Moreover, the paperwork involved in a short sale is so bloody complex you’re going to want to tear your hair out before it’s all over. Hire a professional Realtor who handles short sales regularly, and let them do some of the hair pulling. The Realtor’s fees are going to come out of the proceeds of the sale anyway, so it’ll end up costing you nothing (or next to nothing, depending on your situation) to have an experienced professional Realtor handling your listing, marketing and sale. Lucky you! We’re Realtors and we have people at our brokerage who do nothing but short sale listings and closings. Contact us for more information.

The legal problem is a little harder to grasp. Think of it this way; your mortgage is a contract. When you walk away or attempt a short sale, you’re breaching a contract. And your mortgage was probably the single most valuable contract you’ll ever sign in your entire life. Breaching that contract shouldn’t be undertaken without professional advice.

You know that the banks have scores of lawyers on staff, protecting them when their mortgage contract is breached. You should have at least 1 attorney in your corner. Best of all, the attorney’s fees are generally going to be paid for out of the proceeds of the sale of the house, not out of your pocket.

So, to boil it all down: you can hire 2 professionals – a Realtor and an attorney – to guide you through the short sale process, and in almost every case, it won’t cost you a dime out of your pocket. It’s a win-win.

Contact us for advice about listing, marketing and selling your home. We’ll also hook you up with 1 or 2 of our trusted, tested local attorneys who specializes in short sales.

Disclaimer: this article was written about metro Phoenix, Arizona homes sales in the Summer of 2011. If you’re reading this article from far away, or long after the fact, consult a professional in your area!

Short Sell your Phoenix home is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

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Underwater in Scottsdale. Do you need a lawyer for a short sale?

Heather — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:30:24 +0000

For a number of years, many homeowners in tony Scottsdale thought they would be insulated from the real estate crisis. For years, they were right. Not any longer. In general, Scottsdale median home prices are down about 43% from their peak in late 2006. Many Scottsdale homeowners are “underwater”, owing more on their home than it’s currently worth.

Are you underwater on your home? If you plan to stay in your home for another decade or so, and you can still afford the fixed-rate mortgage payment, this might be no big deal. It depends on your financial situation. You might be able to ignore the dismal media headlines, love your house, raise your family, pay your mortgage and live your life.

But if you have other financial issues compounding your housing value issue, you might need to think about your options. We here at The Phoenix Agents strongly recommend you retain an attorney. As Kevin Hardin of Thomson Conant law firm says, “you don’t have a real estate problem, you have a debt problem.”

Your mortgage is a contract and if you’re thinking about walking away or trying a short sale, you’re actually contemplating breaching a legal contract. You’re going to want a lawyer to help you do that.

Don’t be fooled by people who casually toss around the phrase, “Arizona is a non-recourse state.” What they mean is that in general, a mortgage lender can’t sue a homeowner after a foreclosure. But there are serious loopholes in that law, and the biggest loophole applies to short sales. Arizona’s law covers foreclosures, not short sales. There’s also a giant loophole on the topic of second mortgages and equity lines/loans.

If you short sale your home without getting precise language in the Short Sale Agreement from your lender, you might be leaving yourself wide open to a gigantic lawsuit for many years to come.

We happen to know several great short sale and foreclosure attorneys and accountants. Give me a call and I’ll give you their names and numbers. Once you’ve spoken to an attorney, if you’re ready to try a short sale, we’ll help. Our broker has several agents on staff who focus on short sales and have remarkable track records of success.

Heather Barr, Realtor
The Phoenix Agents at Thompson’s Realty
602-999-8831 or Heather@ThePhoenixAgents.com

Underwater in Scottsdale. Do you need a lawyer for a short sale? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Avoid foreclosure: tips to short sell your home

Heather — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:57:38 +0000

If you live in metro Phoenix, chances are that your home might be “underwater” – you owe more on it than it’s worth in the current real estate market. Is this a problem? That depends.

If you don’t want to move for many more years in the future, it might not be a problem to be underwater. If you can afford the mortgage payment, it might not be a problem to be underwater. But, if you’re struggling to make your mortgage payments and/or you absolutely *must* move, you might need to consider a short sale of your home. (see our series on when strategic default sometimes makes the most sense)

There are serious tax and credit consequences of foreclosure. Some lenders and credit experts estimate that foreclosure can knock 250 to 300 points off your credit score! In addition, some experts believe a short sale is less damaging to your credit than a foreclosure. For many metro-Phoenix area homeowners, a short sale can be a viable alternative to foreclosure.

Here are a couple of tips for successfully requesting and completing a short sale with your mortgage lender.

(1) Hire an experienced Realtor and then share your financial information fully with him/her. (see this prior article for a partial list of information homeowners must send their lender in a short sale situation). This might be tough advice to take, but your Realtor must know your complete financial picture in order to successfully advise you the best way to proceed in a short sale situation. Realtors are bound by a strict Ethics Code that requires they keep their clients’ sensitive information absolutely secret from anyone not authorized to view the information. Don’t feel you can trust your Realtor not to share your sensitive financial information with unauthorized people? Hire a different Realtor.

(2) Consider hiring an attorney. Arizona is an “anti-deficiency” state. This means that generally, lenders cannot sue homeowners for the money lost during after foreclosure. Example: your Realtor helped your short sell your home for $125,000 but you owed $225,000. In most cases in Arizona your lender cannot sue you later for the “lost” $100,000. BUT! There are loopholes in the Arizona anti-deficiency statute. We here at The Phoenix Agents highly recommend you consider hiring an attorney to help you determine if you fall into the Arizona foreclosure anti-deficiency loophole. An experienced attorney can probably help you avoid being sued later for the debt anyway. Do you need a referral to an attorney experienced in handling metro-Phoenix area short sales? Contact us, we know several.

Need more help? This blog is run by Chris & Heather, The Phoenix Agents @ Thompson’s Realty. We’re a boutique brokerage of 20 or 30 dedicated, full time professionals. We really do have a good track record at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure by completing a short sale. Give us a call, a text, an email or a Tweet. We’re here to help and look forward to speaking with you about your unique situation.

Image credit – Image ID 1235157 from Stock Exchange user meerlap

Avoid foreclosure: tips to short sell your home is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Top 3 tips to short sell your Phoenix home

Heather — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:40:00 +0000

You can avoid foreclosure and instead do a short sale on your Phoenix area home. Short sales are not always easy, and not always short, but they can be done when you work with experienced professionals. Here are our top 3 tips for successfully requesting and completing a short sale with your mortgage lender.

1. Hire a Realtor with a record. It’s important to hire a professional, full time Realtor who’s got a track record of successfully selling short sales in Phoenix. Ask for information about their prior successes, but be skeptical of agents who claim to “have a 95% success rate”. Success rate at what? As of winter 2010-2011, only 15% of the short sale homes listed in the MLS actually close. It’s unlikely that any agent has a 95% success rate at closing every attempted short sale. Don’t rely on claims of success: ask for references from past clients and call them for reviews.

2. Get your documents ready early. In order to complete a short sale of your metro Phoenix home, your lender will require copies of tax returns, bank statements, proof of income and other debts, and your “hardship letter” which is a short letter explaining why you’re requesting the short sale. The earlier these things are available, the better. Contact a professional – CPA, attorney and Realtor – for help figuring out what documents you need to attempt a short sale.

3. Know the implications of a short sale of your home. There are tax and credit score consequences of a short sale. Your credit score will sustain some damage: contact a credit non-profit housing counselor or do some online research about managing your credit. The amount of debt forgiven by your lender could be considered taxable income. As of Winter 2010-2011 there are federal waivers in place and the IRS will not treat debt forgiven in a short sale as income. But the writers of this blog are not attorneys or accountants. Please contact your attorney and/or your accountant to find out the tax rules that apply to you now.

Top 3 tips to short sell your Phoenix home is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Price cuts on nearly half of homes for sale

Heather — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:22:00 +0000

Nearly half of homes on the market [took] a price reduction at least once in October, according to a monthly review of multiple listing service listings in 26 major markets conducted by national online brokerage ZipRealty.

The ratio of price-reduction amount to list price was 7.5 percent…

If you’re selling your home, read that again. Let it sink in. Half of your competition cut their price last month. And most did so by more than 7%.

Do the math with me – if you’re priced at $150,000 and you need to take a price cut, you probably need to cut the price by just over $11,00 – down to $138,000 or $139,000 – to remain competitive with your neighbors’ homes for sale.

The old real estate adage is true: if you have to take a price cut, don’t use a scalpel, use a hack-saw.

More pricing wisdom in the days to come…

Price cuts on nearly half of homes for sale is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Will my house ever sell?!?

Heather — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Sometimes selling your home in Metro Phoenix in 2010 can feel like a lot of hurry up and wait. There are some things you can do to make the process quicker and less stressful. This is reprinted from December 6, 2008. Gives you a little idea how long sellers have been struggling to sell their homes.

A Few Ideas for Handling Seller’s Stress

Paint everything: every wall, baseboard, door frame and window frame. Inside and out. Year after year, national studies reveal that a fresh coat of paint provides something like a 400% return on investment.
Invest $20 or $30 in a brand new, thick and cushy welcome mat for the front door. First impressions count.
Weed out your closets and bookcases. Pack up 1/3 of what’s in there. Donate it or store it for your upcoming move.
Take everything off the kitchen fridge. Buyers aren’t considering buying your 5-year old’s macaroni craft project so they don’t need to see it. They also don’t need to know what time Johnny has soccer practice or which Doctor Susie sees.
Enlist the entire family in keeping the house clean for showings.
To present the appearance of a clean house in under 5 minutes: wipe down counters, kitchen appliances and mirrors with diluted Windex or plain diluted ammonia. (Windex costs more but smells better)
Hide your personal papers, bills, and so forth from the office/desk area (it’s nobody else’s business).
Take down family photos from every wall and dresser top.
Remove the prescriptions from the medicine cabinet (yes, people WILL look. Potential buyers do not need to know that you’re mixing a custom cocktail of Prozac and Viagra.
If possible, find temporary foster homes for your pets. Try family, friends and/or neighbors. This is challenging but important. I love my cat. But if my house smells like cat, it WILL NOT sell.
Take up yoga, tai-chi or meditation.
Ignore your neighbors’ asking prices; concentrate on nearby sold prices.
While you’re at it, (mostly) ignore your friends’ and family’s advice. They are not Realtors. You hired a Realtor for a reason. Ask questions, request documentation of market trends, but trust him/her.
If your Realtor isn’t giving you a weekly or every-other-week update, ask for one.
Write a counteroffer for every offer you receive, even the ones that make you want to scream profanities at the buyer (and see below about Handling Low Ball Offers)

del.icio.us Tags: Phoenix real estate,Home Staging

Will my house ever sell?!? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Wells Fargo allows 1 shortsale extension

Heather — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:19:40 +0000

Wells Fargo is no longer granting more than one extension for homeowners to complete a short sale.

“We do allow for one foreclosure postponement provided we have a short sale in hand that has been approved, the buyer has proof of funds of financing approved, and the short sale can close within 30 days of the scheduled foreclosure sale.”

If your home mortgage is owned by Wells Fargo and you’re thinking about a short sale, this means you should not waste any time in listing your house for sale. Once the bank issues the Notice of Trustee’s Sale, you’ve got 90 days plus 1 extension to get it sold, or go to auction. Or if you’ve got a shortsale in progress but you’re not going to close the sale before the scheduled auction date, you’ll only get 1 extension.

Talk to your Realtor, your CPA/accountant, or your attorney!

story source: October 4, 2010 daily mortgage email newsletter produced by Rob Chrisman; view online at http://robchrisman.com/

Wells Fargo allows 1 shortsale extension is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Staging Insider: how to de-clutter

Heather — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Reality TV shows on networks like HGTV and DIY Network tell the tale of the economy’s impact on housing: Flip & Sell, Flip That House, and Flipping Out have moved over to make room for Staged to Sell, Sell It Right, and Real Estate Intervention.

On TV and in real life, one of the most overlooked ways sellers can get ready to sell their home is depicted here:

photo credit MLS #4448xxx (number truncated to protect the innocent)

Mr. & Mrs. Seller, de-clutter already! Space is your friend; clutter eats equity. (Besides, between me and my readers, the 1991 Sears Roebuck catalog called, and wants it’s furniture back.)

I’m sure these homeowners love their home and live in it very comfortably. But when you list your home for sale, it immediately ceases to be your home. It becomes a product. Treat it as such.

Each room in your Home-for-Sale Product needs only enough stuff to suggest what the room is used for.

The room above needs the following fixes to make it show-ready and maximize the selling price:

The goal is to transform the room into a bigger-than-it-looks space that has 2 sofas, 1 coffee table, 1 end table and mostly bare entertainment center. Here’s how you get there.

**Remove everything from the sofas: bear, pillows, afghans. Everything. If you must have pillows, go buy new, oversized, beige fluffy pillows that look expensive.

**Adios the exercise equipment. Visually it implies the home isn’t roomy enough.

**Remove all pictures from the wall and replace them with one large, horizontally oriented, generic picture in a good quality wooden frame. No gold flocking! Colors should be an assortment of beiges & browns with a touch of navy blue. Style: modern art or a landscape. Size: at least 2/3rds of the length of the couch. If you find a picture looks like it belongs in a model home or a doctor’s office, you’ve got the right one.

**Lose the dining room table set, entirely. Do not replace it with anything. Having it there reinforces the fact that the house isn’t big enough to have dining & living in 2 separate rooms. Pack it, put it in storage or sell it.

**I’m assuming the counter top in the foreground is a fixed, immovable cabinet, probably located in the kitchen. If it will move, pack it, store it or sell it. If it won’t move, remove everything from the top of it.

**Lose the Barcalounger in the corner and what look like TV tray tables next to it. Pack, store or sell. Leave the space empty.

**I’m assuming that stuff on the left frame of the photo is sitting on the entertainment center. Remove 1/3 of everything visible on the unit. Pack, store or sell. This gives buyers the visual cue that “there’s room for your stuff here.”

**Remove all but 1 coffee table and possibly 1 end table. Leave no more than 3 items on the coffee table, and 1 item on the end table. And I don’t mean a tall stack of magazines and 2 others things. If you leave magazines on display, fan them and use 3 or 5 at most.

**That rug probably serves its rightful purpose of anchoring the sitting area visually on the floor space. But depending on how the room looks when all the above is complete, and depending on the sellers’ budget, I might suggest replacing it with another rug. The replacement rug should have a large, bold pattern. That visually suggests a bigger space.

The End Result

Are all these things going to take time, possibly cost money and almost certainly be emotionally hard for the sellers? Yeah, probably. But I’m not your pre-school teacher here to give you a gold star tell you that “everybody loves you just the way you are!”

Bottom line: If I’m your Realtor, you hired me to get a SOLD sign in your front yard, pronto, with the best possible price.

Pack your clutter away for now. Because if you de-clutter and stage properly, and resist the temptation to overprice, you’ll be in that new home pretty soon. Then you can let the clutter out of their boxes to explode all over the new place.

Staging Insider: how to de-clutter is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Lease Purchase, Rent to Own

Heather — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:43:00 +0000

Rent to own and lease-purchase agreements are cropping up in the Greater Phoenix real estate world these days. They’re a natural result of the continuing tight credit market.

Lease-purchase and rent to own are essentially the same things. A lease with a purchase option is almost the same, just with more complicated legalese thrown in there.

We don’t typically assist folks with leases that turn into purchases, no matter what the terms. We feel strongly that you really should hire a lawyer if you’re going to do anything that involves renting a house now and buying it in the future.

Here’s some brief thoughts on the situation; I took these from a quick email I sent out earlier today to some friends of ours.

Rent to owns (lease-purchase and lease-purchase options) are usually a little tricky –

does tenant pay a little extra each month towards down payment?
or does the tenant pay a lump sum amount now? (usually several thousand dollars!)
if so, who’s bank account “gets” the deposit(s)? does that money earn interest? for whom?
under what circumstances are extra payments refundable?
what happens to that extra deposits/payments if the rent is late a day or two? if it’s late several weeks?
do you value the purchase price of the home now or in several years when the purchase happens?
do you get an appraiser? who pays for the appraiser?
what if the appraisal comes in lower than the agreed-on purchase price?
what if either side changes their mind between now and the purchase?

As you can see, there are a lot of questions. We recommend you hire a real estate attorney to help you figure out the answers. Call or email us, we know several excellent Greater Phoenix attorneys!

Lease Purchase, Rent to Own is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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Photographing the front of your house

Heather — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:00:06 +0000

Sometimes a head-on shot of the exterior front of a house isn’t the best way to showcase what the home has to offer.

Sometimes you should take a picture from an angle you’d never normally use.

That’s the same house and the two pictures were taken within about 60 seconds of each other. You’d hardly even know it. While it’s a very unusual angle for a real estate “front” photo, I’d argue that picture number 2 is the better way to showcase this home.

thoughts?

Photographing the front of your house is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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When to not re-do a kitchen

Heather — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:16:00 +0000

When the kitchen is vintage and the building is “mid-century modern”, and it’s a condo, there’s a good argument to be made for not re-doing the kitchen.

This is kitschy and cute and “period”. Long time readers may have deduced by now that I am a sucker for the mid-century modern look. And I even fall hard for the untouched, true vintage homes from the 1950s and 1960s. We are a small but passionate group.

Sometimes when you’re selling your home/condo and your kitchen looks like this, you don’t have to remodel. You just have to find the few, passionate lovers of the vintage 1950s and 1960s look. Look for lovers of Mad Men online at sites like Meetup.com. You’ll find your home buyer there.

Resources for this style

Phoenix’s online hub for mid-century modern is ModernPhoenix.net

The Mid-Century Modernist

Lushpad

MetroRetro Furniture

1950.com

Vintage Swank (they cover the 1970s and early 1980s too; true mid-century modernists will recoil)

When to *not* re-do a kitchen is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

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