Success Rate of Loan Modification Program Blurred

When President Obama launched the loan modification program, there was much hue and cry about the same as many distressed homeowners pinned their hopes on the mortgage bailout program. However, very soon it was realized that the same doesn’t hold true for all and sundry. When you request your lender to allow you to opt for loan modification the lender evaluates your existing mortgage terms and works out a loan modification plan so that

The 3 Biggest Misconceptions that Real Estate Agents have about Short Sale Listings

First of all, “yes” some short sales take long to sell and “yes” some short sale listings can be frustrating.  But let me tell you this; not all are created equal! With a little patience and a little creativity you can overcome some of the shortcomings of listing pre-foreclosure/short sale properties and make a lot of money by helping homeowners get out from underneath the huge burden of debt and stress they are under.

Don’t Waste the Foreclosing Lenders Time!

The real estate short sale industry is booming and lenders are so overwhelmed with new and existing over debted properties in default that they need our help!  What I mean by that is, if you are doing short sales, please DO THEM correctly!  I keep getting feedback from lenders that there are too many investors and real estate agents that are wasting their time because they don’t understand and don’t take the time to get properly trained.

If you are in the business or thinking of getting in the business of short sales, it is your job to make foreclosing lenders’ lives easier. If we take the time to learn and educate ourselves on how the short sale process works and we do it correctly every single time, then lenders will be able to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively which will allow them to get our deals closed

The BPO and Short Sale

A short sale is a term that Realtors and Investors alike are oh so familiar with but rarely understand.  Nearly 40% of all real  estate sales nationwide are either a short sale or bank owned property.  Short sales are made up of several components, but the most important aspect of any short sale is the BPO.

BPO stands for Broker’s Price Opinion.  It’s a process similar to that of an appraisal where a licensed Realtor gives their opinion of value on the property, takes photos, and

What is a Short Sale

In today’s economy with so many foreclosures, there are still a number of homeowners that don’t know what a short sale is and a number of agents that don’t fully understand a short sale or how to use it to build their business.  The technical meaning of a short sale is an agreement with a  lender to accept less than the amount owed by a borrower via a sale of the property to a third party. 

Loss Mitigators interest in Short Sales

Loss mitigators have a unique and challenging job.  Here at 1st Choice, our goal is to get the short sale accepted and follow up with the buyer to insure closure.  We work with a number of Realtors and have tremendous success.  These agents refer our services to others which is where 80% of our new files originate. 

There’s one question I get from agents when I talk with them in regards to using our service and that is, “How can you negotiate the deal when you don’t represent the seller?”  To begin with, this is a good question and as the seller’s rep, the agent wants to protect their client’s best interest.  But now the question becomes, what is your client’s best interest? 

In a short sale, the listing agent represents the seller, and the buyer’s agent if any, of course, represents the buyer.  As a loss mitigator, our interest lies in negotiating the offer price to get the deal closed!  Neither the seller, seller’s rep, buyer, buyer’s rep, defaulting lender, nor 1st Choice benefit from a short sale that doesn’t close.  We, at 1st Choice, are like Realtors in that

What is loss mitigation

Loss mitigation is a term used to describe a third party helping a homeowner, a division within a bank that mitigates the loss of the bank, or a firm that handles the process of negotiation between a homeowner and the homeowner’s lender.  The term ”mitigation” seemly means to control or manage a   certain loss amount.  Loss mitigation works to negotiate mortgage terms for the homeowner that will prevent foreclosure. 

Lenders have a department typically called “loss mitigation” that processes potential short sale transactions.  Again, a short sale is a process whereby a lender accepts a payoff that is less than the principal balance of a homeowner’s mortgage, in order to permit

Short Sale Hardships

As you know, short sales are plentiful in today’s market.  If you are an agent, Realtor, or loss mitigator, you must be careful on which short sales you decide to tackle.  A short sale must meet certain criteria before the bank will even consider taking a loss.  One important requirement is that the seller needs a legitimate hardship.  If the seller doesn’t have a true hardship and simply didn’t pay his/her mortgage as they agreed, they will find themselves going into foreclosure with no mercy from the lender. 

A true hardship would include several  situations.  One case would be the home is “upside down”.  When a home is upside down, that means the seller owes more then the home is worth.  Another situation of a hardship is a loss of income, medical expenses or death of a spouse, a divorce or expenses relating too, or something preventing the ability of the mortgagee to keep up with the mortgage. 

As long as you do your homework, and have a helping hand in pre-qualifying your deals before you start the process, or turn it over to a mitigation service, you will be just fine.  By the way, we help our clients qualify their deals before we contact the bank to make sure everything is in line, and if it’s not, we won’t be wasting our time and yours.

Full Commission Short Sale Solution for Realtors

Why not work with professional short sale negotiators and get your Full Commission?

1st Choice Loss Mitigation is willing to offer No-Cost negotiations to Homeowners and Full-Commissions to Realtors.

There is a way to outsource the entire short sale negotiation and still keep your Full Commission. There are many advantages to you and your client when you let 1st Choice Loss Mitigation handle everything.  These advantages can only be utilized with a transaction facilitator.

We work with a group of investors that buy short sales for cash from the lender and facilitate the transfer of them to a retail buyer.  We are paid by the investor to negotiate the Short Sale, not by the Realtor.  This will allow time for you to do what you do best, Sell Homes. 

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact Troy at 336-880-3028 or  via email.

Realtors and Short Sales

A loss mitigation team is a group of debt negotiators.  Most lenders have loss mitigators that are trained within the company.  These individuals are also known as the negotiators when negotiating a short sale.  Due to the swarming number of pre-foreclosure properties that’s coming on the market today, almost all of these homes will need a short sale in order to sell it.  Most listing agents act as the negotiator for their short sale listings.  Once they receive an offer, they began to work with the lender in hopes of obtaining an acceptance letter on the short sale and close the deal.  If only it was that simple.

As more and more real estate professionals are seeing today, it is easier to seek the services of a loss mitigation company that will negotiate the buyer’s offer price with the lender.  If you haven’t negotiated a short sale, it is a time consuming process.  Not only that, if you don’t present the package in it’s entirety, your file will be pushed back and the closing will be delayed.  Buyers have little to no patience in this market and if a better deal comes by, they’ll go for it. 

There are several benefits for agents to use a loss mitigation company.  To begin with you can sell more properties and increase your listings.  A number of sellers today are over leveraged and have no equity.  You can turn these properties into listings and close more deals. 

You can speed up the process of a short sale when using an experienced loss mitigation company.  They are usually a step ahead of the rest and are aware of changes in the short sale business.  Most  have current requirements for all major lenders, know lender and loan type policy changes before they occur, and have direct access to loss mitigators.   When dealing with loss mitigators, you don’t have to deal with the tedious paperwork that’s usually involved.  Agents/Realtors can spend more time in the field selling properties.

Finally you can increase your success rate by using a loss mitigator.  The short sale process is simple once you understand it, but there are many small mistakes that can completely derail the process.  Loss mitigators know what those mistakes are and how to avoid them. 

1st Choice Loss Mitigation is an excellent company to partner with on short sales.  There are no upfront fees and they generally get the lender or buyer to pay their negotiation fee.  1st Choice assist Realtors, agents, Homeowners, Investors, Attorneys, and Lenders.  For more information please visit www.help.managemyshortsale.com.