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February 28, 2013
Open House This Saturday, March 2nd from 12-3 p.m.
April 17, 2012
Short Sell, Bankruptcy, Loan Modification, Foreclosure… What do I do?
I know times are tough, you aren’t sure what to do, but you know one thing, you need to do something. Maybe you are upside down in your home (www.123shortsalenow.com) and tired of throwing good money at a bad problem. Maybe you can’t afford your house payments anymore due to an adjusting loan. You’ve tried talking with your lender about a loan modification and after months you have gotten nowhere and you are frustrated and scared.
Your bills are mounting, your credit cards are maxed, you are starting to receive creditor calls…well it could be time to talk to an experienced a real estate professional and possibly a bankruptcy attorney to step in and help you with your problems. Watch this video to see me, Julie Cosgrove (Owner/Broker of Keller Williams Realty), interview bankruptcy attorney David Drivon. Listen to what he has to say about how a bankruptcy can benefit you in these tough times. Get some of the answers you have been searching for. They will steer you in the right direction for YOU. They can assist with BOTH your real estate needs (short sales, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, avoid foreclosure, loan modification) and/or your bankruptcy needs.
Whichever option fits you and your needs the best; you can rest assured that our experience can assist you quickly and competently. And with our offer of a free consultation you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
April 5, 2012
Can the Home Affordable Refinance Program 2.0 Help You?
The primary expectation for Home Affordable Refinance is that refinancing will put responsible borrowers in a better position by reducing their monthly principal and interest payments, reducing their interest rate, reducing the amortization period, or moving them from a more risky loan structure (such as an interest only mortgage or a short-term ARM) to a more stable product (such as a fixed-rate mortgage). If you want to know if you can qualify for this, but want more information, do not hesitate to call me at 209 298-0252 or email me at jcosgrove@kw.com.
Visit www.123shortsalenow.com and see when your home will be an asset again.
March 28, 2012
How to Be a Millionaire Real Estate Investor – Advice from Warren Buffett
This could be the year of Real Estate investments! Warren Buffett says, “along with equities, single-family homes are a very attractive investment right now.” He said that “he would buy up a couple hundred thousand single family homes if it were practical to do so.”
I agree with Mr. Buffett that if they are held for a long period of time and purchased at low rates, houses are even better than stocks. He advises buyers to take out a 30-year mortgage and refinance if rates go down. With that being said, rates are at an all time low, prices that will give you a positive cash flow, what better mix can you have for success.
Right now and there are real estate deals to be found all over the country. Your job is to find the right agent to work with that can help you meet your financial goal.
One of the best books I have read about investing in real estate and becoming a millionaire is the Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller. Gary’s motto is “THINK GOALS, BIG MODELS, AND BIG HABITS” There is plenty out there for everyone, short sales, foreclosures, flips. It is just up to you to get started.
Call me today and I will help guide you down the path to being a Millionaire Real Estate Investor. Toll Free: (866) 485-9641
November 28, 2010
Wachovia / Wells Fargo reaching out to Homeowners
Wachovia / Wells Fargo reaching out Homeowners
Wachovia has been very aggressive in recent months, training some California Realtors® to work within the system they’ve set up to Fast-Track qualifying Short Sales. They’ve also sent out over sixty-six thousand packages to borrowers who are struggling with their payments, notifying them of their Fast-Track program.
Owners of California Real Estate who are having a tough time paying their mortgage (or even those who can forecast a hardship in the near future) are advised to seek the help of a Wachovia Fast-Track Trained Realtor® who can help them understand their options.
Benefits to the seller include:
•Quick approval of hardship (3-4 days)
•Quick approval of sale price and purchase offer (5-7 days)
•Offer approval good for 30 days
•YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE DELINQUENT
•DEFICIENCY IS RELEASED
•May be eligible to receive “Cash for Keys” payout
•Okay for investor to purchase and rent back (But the investor may not be a family member.)
Qualifying loans may have been originated by one of the following lenders:
•Golden West Financial
•World Savings
•Wachovia
Contact Aim Real Estate Group to speak with a Wachovia Fast-Track Trained Realtor® and see if this might be the right option for you!
VERY IMPORTANT! DON’T WAIT UNTIL YOU ONLY HAVE 2 WEEKS BEFORE A FORECLOSURE DATE! IT WON’T GET APPROVED.
Fast Track Realtors know already that you have been denied for the Loan Modification program.
Contact The Cosgrove Rea Estate Investment Group @ Keller Williams Realty. http://www.cosgroverealestateinvest.com
April 14, 2010
Short Sales Resource
Make sure if you are going to do a “short sale” on your home that you have an agent that knows what they are doing and has your best interest in mind. You are still the owner of the property. I had an agent in my office tell me today that when he went to preview a home for a potential buyer the seller was there. The seller started telling him things that were wrong with the house, as my agent acknowledge those things the seller proceeded to tell my agent that HIS agent told him NOT TO TELL PEOPLE all the things that were wrong with the home. He didn’t feel right about this and that is why he was sharing it with my agent (and he was right in doing so). Folks this is not a foreclosure and you as the seller are still responsible to tell about any problems with the home. DON’T SET YOURSELF UP FOR A POTENTIAL LAWSUIT. It is called disclose, disclose, disclose! Should your agent not have you sign all the disclosure paperwork then you know something is wrong. If you have more questions about your “Short Sale” don’t hesitate to contact me at www.fastneasyshortsale.com
March 10, 2010
Saving HAMP–HAFA May be the New Push to Speed up Bank Losses
HAMP, or the Home Affordable Modification Program, is the government program Obama announced later last year that makes available $75 billion in funding to help 3-4 million homeowners at risk for foreclosure stay in their homes.
It was designed to allow eligible mortgagees lower their monthly payments to 31% of their pre-tax income, or lower, through a loan modification. Modifying the home loan must equal net more value than foreclosing would.
However, it has only resulted in 116,000 permanent loan modifications according to a Treasury Department report on February 17th.
Wait, wasn’t their goal 4 million by December 2012? They have some catching up to do!
According to the report, 57% of the permanent modifications were for borrowers who are suffering from unemployment or diminished income. The report also highlights 830,000+ trial loan modifications that are currently under way.
So, it took a year to modify only 2.9% of the goal. Boy, they have a long way to go. As far as refinancing programs go: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Treasury, have refinanced more than 4 million loans. One out of every 5 homeowners are “upside-down” or have negative equity according to Zillow’s report released February 10.
The refinancing program allows those with Fannie or Freddie loans who have this problem to lower their interest rates. Taking the country’s overall foreclosure stats into consideration in comparison to the few that have received assistance, there are millions of homeowners who need options besides modifications or refinance. A short sale may be the best alternative for one out of every 5 homeowners who find themselves in a “must-sell” situation.
In lieu of these findings, a new government push to clean up bad home loans could dent bank earnings because the industry may have to take losses on the assets sooner than some investors expect.
The new effort, called Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, or HAFA, kicks in April 5. Some banking and real estate industry experts see it as a response to the limited success of HAMP
“The administration wouldn’t want to categorize it this way, but HAFA is an acknowledgement that a lot of loans won’t meet the criteria for a HAMP modification — even a trial one,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac, which compiles data on foreclosures.
Slumping house prices and surging unemployment have triggered a wave of foreclosures that will continue washing over the U.S. banking industry for a few more years.
There could be foreclosure filings on 3 million to 3.5 million homes in 2010, according to RealtyTrac. There were a record 2.8 million homes with at least one foreclosure filing in 2009, the firm recently reported. Foreclosure activity will likely remain high until at least the end of 2012.
Foreclosures would probably have been higher last year if not for government and industry efforts to cushion the impact, including HAMP and state legislation extending the process.
HAMPered
Under HAMP, over 1 million homeowners have started trial modifications, which reduce monthly mortgage payments. However, less than 116,000 homeowners have a permanent modification under the program.
“HAMP hasn’t worked,” Nancy Bush, president of bank industry research firm NAB Research, said. “It’s just a massive expense of time and money.”
Wells Fargo /quotes/comstock/13*!wfc/quotes/nls/wfc (WFC 29.07, +0.09, +0.31%) has 15,000 people working on HAMP, she noted. In a recent meeting with Wells Fargo executives Bush said she asked when the program might end.
“They just shrugged their shoulders and said maybe never,” Bush said. “The expense of that is huge. HAMP may turn out to be the most expensive thing the banking industry has ever done.”
HAFA go
Under the new HAFA program, if a homeowner doesn’t qualify for a HAMP modification they must be offered a short sale. Borrowers can also be offered a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
Homeowners who qualified for a HAMP modification, but have missed two consecutive payments, will also be offered a short sale or deed in lieu through HAFA.
A short sale happens when the borrower and the mortgage servicer agree to sell a home for less than the value of the loan or loans. A deed in lieu of foreclosure occurs when a homeowner voluntarily gives the deed of the property to the servicer.
To kick-start HAFA, there are government incentives. Borrowers get $1,500 to help them move to a new home and up to $3,000 in short sale proceeds can be given to holders of second mortgages on the homes in the program
March 5, 2010
Don’t Be Short-Sided by Short Sales: 4 Reasons Why Short Sales WILL SURGE This Year!!
Taking a Closer Look at Short Sales
There was an interesting article that was posted on The KCM Crew fan page the other day titled: Surge in Short Sale Requests Unlikely to Impact Housing Market. In this article, it was reported:
–In the first half of 2009, only 40,000 short sales were completed, according to the most recent data available from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency shows.
–In addition, (the study) said only an estimated 8 to 12 percent of all homeowners who request short sales accomplish a completed transaction.
Though both of those points were true for 2009, they are based on past results. I believe the short sale process will change radically now that we are in 2010. The change will create a surge in short sales. Let me give you the evidence from which I draw that conclusion:
1.) Short Sales are already increasing rapidly.
Though, according to the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, there were only 35,428 short sales completed in the first half of 2009, there were 30,766 completed in the third quarter alone which represents a 22.4% increase over the previous quarter. The fourth quarter numbers are not yet in, but they will show another major increase.
2.) The government has determined that short sales are the answer.
The administration announced new short sales guidelines (HAFA) that will go into effect on April 5, 2010. These guidelines address the major challenges to the process which negatively impacted close ratios.
The Inspector General of TARP, in his most recent report to Congress, said:
HAFA creates financial incentives for borrowers, servicers, and investors to avoid a foreclosure by utilizing a short sale or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. According to Treasury, these options generally provide borrowers, investors, and communities with a better outcome than a typical foreclosure sale.
In an article in Housing Wire this week, it was reported that Seth Wheeler, senior adviser to the US Treasury Department, while at the American Securitization Forum 2010 conference in Washington DC, said the focus of the Administration is shifting somewhat away from modifications:
“Short sales, deeds in lieu are other ways to prevent foreclosures to help achieve [housing] stability,” he said. “Modifications are only for a certain subset of distressed homeowners.”
3.) Banks are realizing that they lose less money on a short sale than they do on a foreclosure.
In an article in the Las Vegas Sun titled: Short Sales Soar while Foreclosure Sales Slacken it was reported:
–In Las Vegas, banks make $80 per square foot on foreclosures but $130 per square foot on average in short sales, said Steve Bottfeld, executive vice president of Marketing Solutions.
“I think the bottom line is that short sales ultimately replace foreclosures because of the financial impact on the financial institutions,” Bottfeld said. “The banks are going to look at it differently and opt for more short sales.”
From the same article:
–Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, said short sales will be the “story of the year” because of the effect they will have on the housing market.
“It should cause prices to increase a little,” Smith said. “We have seen prices flatten the last five to seven months, and one reason is because we haven’t been flooded with all these foreclosures. They are doing more short sales.”
4.) Companies are gearing up for the surge in short sales.
Wilshire Credit Corp., the mortgage servicer bought by IBM in October, is getting set to receive a substantial servicing portfolio (short sale possibilities) from the mortgage giant Fannie Mae according to industry sources. In the article announcing this, Housing Wire said:
–Any mortgage servicing put with Big Blue and Wilshire Credit, however, would not include management of bank-owned properties within the portfolio. REO Insider, a sister publication, broke the news Wednesday morning that Wilshire Credit would shed its REO operations by March 1 — seemingly to gear up for the weight of the Fannie portfolio.
Even the banks are getting ready. According to an article in DS News:
–Major banks are preparing for an influx of short sales. Many claim to have hired extra staff to handle short sales, and some have purchased new software to assist in the process. JP Morgan, with one of the highest default rates in the industry, says it has hired 5,000 new employees to handle distressed sales.
–Bank of America services about 14 million mortgages, including millions of troubled loans it acquired in the purchase of failed Countrywide Home Loans. The lender says it has also taken steps to prepare for an increase in short sales by upgrading its system to handle these types of transactions.
For these four reasons, I believe short sales will have a major impact on the housing sector in 2010.
If you are a homeowner who finds themselves underwater on their mortgage, it is a much better alternative to foreclosure. Call me today and find out how I can help you. You can also visit my website and click on Short Sale FAQs to get more information and request a Short Sale package.
If you are a buyer (and you have some patience), you have a fabulous opportunity. I can help you find a great deal on a Short Sale home in your area.
And finally, if you are in real estate or mortgaging, educate yourself to the process so you can help as many families as possible!
February 23, 2010
Short Sale Before You Buy: Information you Want to Know Before You Purchase a Short Sale Property
As a buyer watching the real estate market, you are undoubtedly aware that there are more “short sale” properties out there than ever before. A short sale is a home where the market value of the property is LESS than the loan amount owed to one or more lenders. Many sellers are seeking a short sale of their home nowadays because it is a better alternative than foreclosing and makes better fiscal sense as well as works with their credit rather than against it. Buyers often realize that short sales are the best deals, along with foreclosures. Don’t be scared off by these short sale properties. It is the perfect time to take advantage of their prevelance, and they may turn out to be a great deal for you!
Here are a few things you should know about the process of a short sale before you decide if you want to pursue a purchase:
-A seller must disclose if the home is a short sale
-A short sale MUST be approved by the seller’s lender. Even though a seller might accept your offer, it will be subject to approval by the lender
-The listing agent is required to put together an extensive package for the seller’s lender. It is a comprehensive folder with a lot of the seller’s info, as well as agreements you and the seller must sign once you make an offer, your pre-approval letter from you bank, a copy of the deposit check, etc. The listing agent is also most likely going to put together a Comparative Market Analysis as well for the seller’s lender. Putting this package together can take some time, but it is in everyone’s best interest to get it done as swiftly as possible.
-If your offer is approved, the seller’s lender will (likely) send out an appraiser to evaluate the property in light of recent sales – they are looking for market value, too (i.e., it may not be a great deal after all)
-The seller’s lender will likely request that the sale be “as is” and due to hardship will probably not approve any credit for repairs
-Despite its name, be prepared for a short sale to take anywhere from 45-60 days after the package is submitted
If you are making an offer:
-Make sure you make the offer contingent on the short sale being approved by the lender and set a time frame for approval
-An addendum form is advised in the state of California to outline the short sale contingency terms and conditions
-Know that there is a good chance there will be more than 1 offer
-It is still prudent (I would say it is ESSENTIAL) to conduct a home inspection even though the lender will probably require an “as is” sale – you still want to know what you are buying and what repairs need to be made. This home inspection is optional, but it is popular with home buyers and gives them peace of mind in a very important purchase
-It is possible the seller will not be able to do any Section 1 repairs resulting from the Wood Destroying Pest Inspection (e.g., termites) due to hardship of funds. This is important to know if you are buying a property through a VA loan. Many VA loans have certain requirements on a home they’re finding, such as a termite inspection, that the seller’s lender will not fund. Ask your lender about this.
-Be sure to discuss issues and questions with your agent before proceeding, preferably someone who has some experience with short sales
Important Note: I would not recommend taking on a short sale purchase without representation by a qualified, knowledgeable licensed agent. There is too much at risk for you, the buyer.
February 9, 2010
Current Real Estate Market in San Joaquin county
According to this article in AOL news, the average estimated value of a home in San Joaquin, CA was $85,810 in December 2009, up 0.23% from November 2009, compared to a CA state average of $329,960 in the same month and a national average of $253,865. Homeowners can use average estimated value to gauge the current equity in their home or to determine a potential sales price. Average estimated value can help indicate if purchasing a home in this area will yield a positive return.
Even more interesting is the average sales price of a house in San Joaquin, CA was $95,000 in December 2009, up 0.78% from November 2009. Homeowners can use average sales price to help them determine a price point for their home. Conversely, home buyers can use average sales price to estimate the price they could expect to pay. Higher average sales prices may indicate better than average homes, while lower average sales prices may indicate homes in less demand (discounting special circumstances such as foreclosures).
According to the present market condition, the valley has made certain progress. Although the market condition of San Joaquin county is going up, the difference between sale price and sold price is big. There are heavy negotiations done over the market and as a result of which there is much difference between sale and sold price. Some of the important points to be noted are as follows:
-Inventory has fallen in the valley.
-Pending and selling activity has grown up to a higher extent as compared to the past 7 years.
-There is a moratorium on REOs / Bank Owned Foreclosures.
For home buyers, it is a great opportunity to buy homes as there are a lot of bargain is going on at the market. In addition to that, the interest rates have become very low. They are as low as 5%, so the buyers can now take the advantage of market. Now home buyers will see an increase in the bidding on more desirable homes.
This is the right time for the investors to invest in San Joaquin County. There are lots of homes availablein which the price tag is less than 100K, so this is the perfect time for the investors to invest. Since the supply and demand continue to converge, it proves to be more beneficial for the home owners. The present day real estate market is very beneficial for the investors, home buyers and home owners.
Short Sale Expert 