Sell My Short Sales

Los Angeles, California

The numbers don’t lie, and if you think that California real estate is better check out the information below, and you determine for your self.
Every one knows of the hardest hit states in the country through the foreclosure crisis has been California.
California Pre Foreclosures have been consistently high in Los Angeles County, which has 3.08 percent of its households in foreclosure; Orange County has 3.42 percent of families in foreclosure, followed by San Diego at 4.26, San Bernardino with 7.31, and Riverside is still first with 9.27 percent of families in foreclosure.

With Los Angeles Pre Foreclosure down, the outlook for the region is positive you would suspect, as the area has seen foreclosure rates decline on average 25 percent from the November 2008 to November 2009;however we have not seen the eye of the storm as of yet.
The cities with the highest numbers of Notice of Default and Notice of Trustee Sales are Los Angeles (1120), San Diego (1067), Riverside (717), and Corona (505).
Jeff Coga, a short sale investor in Southern California pulled local data, and it clearly showed over 20,000 notice of defaults, and over 31,000 trust deed sales set between January- March. This is a frightening number as it could even be higher as the holiday Moratorium is now officially over today 1/04/2010.
Bernie Germani, another short sale investor in Southern California said ” that 2010 will be no different than 2009 as far as the real estate market in California. We are still declining, and I don’t care what the media tells you, We Aren’t On A Recovery Road Yet. The option arms that are going to adjust this year, and next year we will see many many new foreclosures, and these are good credit borrowers. Don’t let the media trick you into believing we have the bottom of the market.”

Written By:
Susan Park

Popularity: 44% [?]

Los Angeles, California:

Bernie Germani, a short sale investor in Southern California said “He personally knows of siutations where the homeowner was notified the foreclosure was postponed until further notice, and Bernie said some of these familes cried with joy that they could stay through the holidays.”

Written By Susan Park

Popularity: 53% [?]

Four years after the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble, flipping homes is back in fashion.

Jeff Coga, a Los Angeles, California real-estate investor, learned late in the morning of Oct. 28 that a never-occupied custom house on the northern fringes of Los Angeles County a beautiful property was going up for auction around noon the same day. The six-bedroom home, built on a 15,000 square foot lot. The kitchen with two dishwashers, four ovens, “antibacterial” copper sinks, and a master “spa” bathroom with space for a flat-screen TV visible from the tub. Jeff, knew the area and knew the exact house that was being auctioned off that day.
Jeff, decided to go to that particular L.A. County auction to see if we might be able to purchase this luxury home.

The minimum bid, as set by a unit of Citigroup Inc., which had a $1.7 million mortgage on the home, was $389,900. After several minutes of bidding among investors and their representatives, some wearing shorts and flip-flops, Mr. Coga won the home for $549,900. A week later, he agreed to sell it for $698,000 to a woman who moved in this month.

During the housing boom, millions of Americans tried to make money by buying and then quickly reselling new houses and condominiums. That kind of flipping stopped several years ago as home sales stalled amid a surge in foreclosures and curtailed lending.

Now, a different breed of flipper is proliferating: one who seeks bargains at foreclosure auctions. Unlike the boom-time flippers, the latest generation needs cold cash, lots of local-market knowledge and strong nerves.

Investors compete mostly with other full-time professionals who monitor foreclosure auctions at county courthouses across the country. The bidders often haven’t had a chance to inspect the property or determine whether it’s occupied by tenants, who may be hard to evict.

Sometimes ‘you have half an hour to make a half-million-dollar decision,” says Jesus Yinh, another real estate investor at “That’s something most people can’t or aren’t willing to do.”

In the states where home prices have fallen the most, many local real-estate markets are dominated by foreclosed property, dragging down the value of neighboring homes. Barclays Capital estimates that banks and mortgage investors have 639,000 foreclosed homes for sale across the U.S., largely concentrated in Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada. That’s equivalent to more than 10% of expected U.S. home sales this year.

“Flippers swoop in at public auctions of foreclosed homes, known as trustee (California) or sheriff sales. In many states, the lender sets the minimum bid, and takes possession of the property only if no one bids more. In the past, the minimum generally was about equal to the mortgage balance due”. Susan Park, real estate investor in Southern California said” in today’s market, in which many home values have dropped far below the loan balance, lenders wouldn’t attract investors if they set the minimum at that level.

So lenders, or the loan-servicing firms that represent banks and investors, are increasingly likely to set the minimum much lower. Their goal is to tempt others to buy the house and spare banks the headaches and costs that come with taking possession”.

November about 21% of homes sold in trustee sales in California went to investors rather than to a foreclosing lender, up from 6% a year earlier. The trend is similar in some other areas with high foreclosure rates, including Phoenix and Miami.

The real advantage of such an outcome for the bank is that it gets money for the property right immediately, even if it isn’t enough to cover the loan balance due. The bank doesn’t need to make repairs to the home, cover the taxes and insurance, or pay real-estate-agent commissions. Is this a smart business decision for the banks?

The risk for banks is that if they set the minimum bid too low, the home might end up selling for much less than they could reap if they took ownership of it and sold it themselves; however with some 7.5 million U.S. households behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, many lenders are overwhelmed, and over worked. They’re negotiating with distressed borrowers and figuring out how to sell the growing supply of foreclosed homes, and don’t see an end to this challenge for many years to come.

To help them set the minimum bid, banks often consult with local real-estate agents and use software that estimates housing values. American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., which collects payments and handles foreclosures on behalf of banks and loan investors, uses a formula designed to “achieve a fair value for the property and induce third-party bidders,” says Christine Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Coppell, Texas-based firm.

American Home starts with a broker’s estimate and subtracts the expected costs of taking ownership of the house and selling it. The minimum bid is above the net proceeds American Homes believes it could get by acquiring and selling the property itself, she says.

Outside the Los Angeles County court building in Norwalk, California trustees, companies that are hired to handle foreclosure auctions, offer as many as 800 – 1000 houses every weekday. A typical auction lasts only a few minutes. On a recent afternoon, a few dozen bidders and onlookers were clustered around a trustee employee seated on a lawn chair conducting auctions. He kept track of the bids on a laptop computer perched on one knee.

Many of the bidders are regulars at the sale, bidding for themselves or on behalf of investor clients. “We’re all kind of like a little dysfunctional family,” said Jeff.

Buying at these auctions is perilous. There are no public viewings, so bidders often can’t know how much damage may have been done inside a house by occupants facing foreclosure. We’ve seen people pour concrete down the toilets. Unless they’ve done their homework, bidders also don’t always know whether they’re buying a home subject to a lien from another lender, which can happen in cases where the borrower took out more than one home loan.

If you have the time, and our dilligent, you can really pick up some amazing deals at the court house steps, and turn around and sell those for some great profits.
We help struggling investors find their niche in today’s market place. Please feel free to email us at info@getsswb.com or call us directly at 310-776-5032.

Written By:
Bernie Germani

Popularity: 100% [?]

Remember it was first the sub-prime market and now mortgage experts agree, adjustable rate mortgages combined with rising unemployment and falling property values could create another economic storm capable of ravaging the weak economic recovery. Here’s a quick breakdown of the ARM Storm-Tracker for those savvy short sale investors to beginning their planning:

Resetting Rates: Current interest rates are at or near historic lows with 30 year fixed mortgages below 5 percent while ARM’s are likely to readjust and drive the cost of monthly mortgage payments to double their former payments. Unfortunately, many current ARM holders do not qualify for refinancing due to changes in employment status, high loan to value ratios and increased debt to income percentages.

Evaporating Equity: Not only did millions of Americans take out Adjustable rate mortgages but they built additions and over-improved their homes based upon loans. As home values fell, so did the equity reserves required to refinance their ARM mortgages. Whether it was a first mortgage with minimal down payment or a second (and even third) mortgage, lower property values have all but erased excess equity from a large number of buyers.

Cheaper to Walk: Many homeowners are finding it less expensive to simply walk away from rapidly rising mortgage, rent for awhile then repurchase. According to industry experts, a significant number of homeowners are capable of making the mortgage payment but simply don’t desire to do so given the cost of purchasing the same home after foreclosure. Jesus Yinh of Exit Real Estate Group, said ” he has seen a trend of this happening in the mid Wilshire area of Los Angeles.” Current homeowners are eligible for FHA loans in as few as three years after default – creating an inverse incentive to continuing paying on a property worth tens (or even hundreds) of thousands dollars less than the existing mortgage.

Renting an Increased Option: Throughout the nation lenders are getting creative in order to reduce the inflow of defaulting properties on their portfolio; one of the more popular options among existing homeowners is the ability to rent your current property for a specified period of time.

ReFi with an ARM? It’s true, the FHA has a 3.87 five year adjustable rate mortgage option designed to help keep payments affordable. Unfortunately, it may simply delay the pain until interest rates continue to rise later. However, with a 2 percent cap on each adjustment/rate increase, it could conceivably buy time for those in unusual short term situations such as temporary illness, job loss of other large expenses. It also has the benefit of “buying time” for the banks and lenders who are in no hurry to acquire even more properties given the current backlog of non-performing properties in their portfolio.

What is a California short sale investor to do? Get ready for the coming wave of ARM properties to hit the market. Be sure your mindset is in place and position yourself to solve problems for both homeowners and lenders in need of a new start. Well first off, please come back shortly to http://www.shortsalewealthbuilders.com/
We can show you how to take advantage of California’s short sale market, and in 2010-2011 it will become California’s second Gold Rush… So saddle up, and get ready for the ride of your life.

Popularity: 39% [?]

To All California Realtors/ Investors/ Wholesalers/ whomever:
California Revitalization Group is in need of your short sale listings:

My name is Bernie Germani, I work with a group of CASH BUYERS and were interested in working with you and your team, we would like to purchase at least 5-10 Short Sales each and every month, we can have a CASH offer within 24-48hrs on all properties that fit within our buying criteria.

Have you been trying to do Short Sales, but can’t get them completed?

Do they take too much time?

It’s time you discovered:
California Revitalization Group, Exit Real Estate Group, and Short Sale Wealth Builders!

No fees or costs of any kind to you the Realtor, or your seller in default
Get your FULL listing commission of 5-6% on average
Let us negotiate the short sale discount, saving you many hours of time and increasing your success rate
You, as the Realtor, will retain the listing AND your client
No more long phone calls and frustrations dealing with loss mitigation
Access the progress of your short sales online, 24/7!

In other words….

YOU list and sell the property
YOU make your commission
WE do the short sale negotiations

It’s THAT SIMPLE!

That leaves you time to do what YOU do best:

• Finding Sellers
• Finding Buyers
• Marketing and Listing Properties
• Cash Big Fat Commission Checks!

Popularity: 36% [?]

There is news that I just saw that was astounding to me, and could make for a great run for investors in the short sale market.

A record-high 23,117 trustee sales are scheduled for sale Monday, November 30^th coverage area (CA, AZ, NV, WA, OR).

Since state laws do not allow trustee sales on state holidays, we are now hit with an overabandunce of sales today. The total number of trustee sales per day for the region is typically five to six thousand.

To cover Thursday, Friday and Monday, the number of sales should reflect three days (15,000 – 18,000). In addition, trustee sales typically slow during the holidays and see a bump in January.

So it’s a little surprising to see four-day’s worth of sales from a three-day period right after Thanksgiving. That being said, it doesn’t mean 23,117 families will lose their homes on Monday. Lately, ninety percent of trustee sales are just postponed to another day.

Susan Park, a short sale investor in Southern California mentioned “that she could not believe all the trust deed sales scheduled for today just in Los Angeles County.”

Jeff Coga, said “more than likely half of those foreclosures will get postponed.”

Bernie Germani, another short sale investor said in his market place Lakewood, Long Beach California that he is starting to see the affects of the mortgage meltdown starting to affect the higher end luxury homes, and a lot more people from the higher economic financial status is now starting to call me more in need of help.”

Jesus Yinh, and Exit Real Estate Group Realtor, said that he got a large number of calls over this Thansgiving weekend to help new clients from foreclosure.”

Popularity: 52% [?]

Fannie Mae announced a program aimed at helping ordinary home buyers compete with investors for foreclosed homes. We are not sure this is a right choice, because across the nation real estate investors have less than 10% foreclosure rate.

Under the program, dubbed First Look, Fannie plans to consider offers only from potential owner-occupants and certain public-housing entities during the first 15 days in which a foreclosed home is on the market.

Fannie and its main rival, Freddie Mac, are government-controlled companies that buy or guarantee home mortgages. They are among the biggest owners of foreclosed homes. As of Sept. 30, Fannie said it had 72,275 single-family foreclosed homes on its books. Freddie had 41,133 as of that date.

Bernie Germani said” many of us real estate investors can move faster on home purchases because we are able to pay cash and don’t have to wait to qualify for a loan and get an appraisal. Investors often turn the homes into rental units or resell them to other buyers for a quick profit. People seeking to take advantage of the drop in housing prices to buy their first homes have been grousing that they often lose bidding wars to investors.”

Fannie said it also would help owner-occupants acquire homes by reducing deposit requirements to as little as $500 and giving them a chance to renegotiate offers after appraisals. Such buyers also are to be allowed as many as 45 days to complete the transaction, up from the usual 30 days.

A Freddie spokesman said the company has similar pilot programs and is helping owner-occupants pay closing costs.

Fannie announced Tuesday that 4.72% of the single-family home loans it owns or guarantees were 90 days or more overdue in September, up from 4.45% in August and 1.72% in September 2008.

Jesus Yinh, and Susan Park, short sale investors in Southern California said ” We are not sure why Fannie would even consider this program. Us investors are the ones who are helping the economy not adding to the foreclosure challenges, but at the same time we welcome the competition of non-investors.”

Popularity: 17% [?]

Do you remember when the mortgage meltdown crisis started and all we could hear was how the mortgage companies allowed this by giving mortgages to those who could not afford one in the first place?

Do you remember how we were told that it was the “stated incomes” that anyone could just claim an amount they earned that would qualify them for a mortgage.  Then as the bubble was deflating in the real estate market we were seeing foreclosures on the rise, and continuing to this day.

Well today there is a new story that is unfolding to the old foreclosure story.  We are now seeing people with good credit who did not use stated incomes in order to get their mortgage, now going in default.  We are seeing fixed rate home loans that were made to good credit applicants now in foreclosure, a big difference from a year ago.  It was the sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages that was driving the housing crisis then, and that is not the case today.

A report from the Mortgage Bankers Association found that an alarming large percentage of mortgages were either in foreclosure or behind, 14 percent as of the end of September.  This was a record high for the ninth quarter in a row, which is a very scary situation, because this could mean we have not seen the bottom of the real estate market despite what other reports on TV, and the news are telling you.  This report went on to say that it was unemployment that was the main cause of foreclosures.  We have seen prices fall on real estate and that gave us a little “bump” in the market during the summer.  There is a new wave of foreclosures that will hit the market within the next year and that will drive the price of real estate down further.

We here in California along with Nevada, Florida and Arizona make up 47 percent of all new foreclosures. 

How much lower can we expect real estate prices to fall?  A chief economist at Moody’s Economy. com, Mark Sandi is predicting that on a national basis, home prices will fall another 10 percent between now and next fall.  Will this be the bottom?  Susan Park, an Exit Real Estate Group Realtor said “In her opinion it is all going to depend upon the private sector and jobs.  If unemployment continues to rise then we will see more and more foreclosures and the price of real estate falling further than 10%. In my market I’m now seeing more high end homes going into foreclosure.”

Today we are seeing fixed rate, prime loans to borrowers who had good credit accounting for almost 33 percent of new foreclosures and that number is up over twelve percent from a year ago. These figures are based on the last quarter.  FHA loans are beginning to see problems in their loans; over 18 percent are either behind or in foreclosure as of last quarter.

The current real estate situation is like a cancer that is quickly spreading across all sectors of the financial landscape and is affecting all sectors of employment.  As we continue to see layoffs, downsizing and underemployment, we will continue to see more and more foreclosures and consequently the value of real estate falling more and more.  The job market will drive the number of foreclosures not Wall Street.  Until we get a handle on just how and where we, as a nation, are going to increase jobs, we will continue to see this spiral go deeper and get tighter and tighter.

Jeff Coga, a short sale real estate investor in California said “that he hears so many sad stories as he is in the trenches every day helping people from fore closure that he wishes he could help more people, but many times the banks are not interested in peoples situation and foreclose anyways.

Bernie Germani, another short sale investor said “People are in such need of hope, and there is a lot of desperation in California, and he has noticed many homeowners just giving up hope, because their loan mod failed,  that was their last shot at staying in the home, and now they just thrash the house before giving the house back to the bank.”

Popularity: 28% [?]

According to a securitization research note by Barclays Capital, short sales have been boosted by mandatory and voluntary foreclosure prevention efforts that prevent mortgages from entering real estate owned (REO) status.  As federally-funded modifications made through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) grow in frequency and lenders are expected to hold off on foreclosure proceedings, the REO pipeline shrunk, according to BarCap researchers. The foreclosure prevention efforts have had the effect of “artificially” boosting short sales.  “The artificial constraints to foreclosure auctions have resulted in a reduction in REO stock,” BarCap said. “As a result, the net volume of REO liquidations has also dropped.

As short sales are not affected by moratorium, their rate held up and their overall share in distressed sales increased.  It has now risen more than 10 points from the lows to about 35% of overall liquidations. It remains to be seen if this increase will sustain itself once the large number of loans sitting in foreclosure are finally released into REO.”  BarCap researchers pointed to the difference in severity seen in foreclosure and short sale scenarios as one of the drivers behind servicers choosing short sales.

Servicers that pursue foreclosure on non-performing loans held within securitization have to make principal and interest advances until the loan’s liquidation, BarCap said. If the asset declines in value during the liquidation timeline and it neighbors other REOs, the final selling price will likely come in far below the current broker price opinion (BPO), which leads to high severity.  Short sales, on the other hand, pose a shorter timeline during which fewer principal and interest advances are needed. The asset has less time to depreciate, and borrowers have a strong incentive to maintain the property in order to sell it. After all, a better-maintained house attracts stronger bids, reducing overall severity in comparison with the REO liquidation scenario.  A short sale also tends to cost the lender less than foreclosure and it spares the borrower the negative credit score implications.

Jeff Coga, a California short sale investor said “We don’t need to do transactions outside of California because we have our hands full with all the short sales that Realtors are bringing to us to write a No contingency offer on and help their clients from a foreclosure. Realtors are now flocking to us, because they know we can get these transactions closed.”

Susan Park, an Exit Real Estate Group Realtor, said in the Los Angeles area west of down town  short sales make up about 1-3 transactions in that market space.”

Popularity: 26% [?]

Housing stats slowed significantly in October, falling by 10.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000, the Census Bureau and HUD reported yesterday.

Housing starts are 30.7 percent below the October 2008 rate of 763,000. Single-family housing starts in October were at a rate of 476,000; this is 6.8 percent below the revised September figure of 511,000. The October rate for units in buildings with 5+ units was 48,000, down 33.3 percent from 72,000 in September.

Total housing stats are at their lowest level since April, single-family starts are at their lowest level since May and multifamily starts are the lowest in the history of the series, which goes back 50 years.

All regions saw declines in single-family starts; the Midwest had the smallest decline with 4.8 percent, followed by the West, down 5.9 percent; the South, down 7.3 percent; and the Northeast, down 9.6 percent.

Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 552,000. This is 4.0 percent below the revised September rate of 575,000 and is 24.3 percent below the October 2008 estimate of 729,000. Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 451,000; this is 0.2 percent below the revised September figure of 452,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 85,000 in October.

Privately owned housing completions in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 740,000. This is 1.9 percent above the revised September estimate of 726,000, but is 29.9 percent below the October 2008 rate of 1,055,000. Single-family housing completions in October were at a rate of 528,000; this is 10.7 percent above the revised September figure of 477,000. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 200,000.

Earlier this week, the National Association of Home Builders reported that its Home Builder Index remained unchanged at 17. According to the index, a reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment; still, the index is up from its low of 9 earlier this year.

Additionally, the Labor Department reported yesterday that its Consumer Price Index rose by 0.3 percent in October, with core inflation (excluding energy and food) rising by 0.2 percent.

Data show the higher numbers were driven by an increase in energy prices in October, as well as higher prices for new cars, used cars and used trucks, all of which saw their highest price jumps since 1980. The Labor Department said the increase in new and used car prices, fueled in part by the Cash for Clunkers program, represented 90 percent of the increase in core inflation. Cash for Clunkers increased demand for new cars and reduced inventory.

Jesus Yinh, a Realtor with Exit Real Estate Group said ” that in the mid Wilshire area of Los Angeles I have seen a slight drop in value the last 6 months, but it appears to have affected the commercial market more than residential.”

Popularity: 10% [?]