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About Teresa
Teresa Turner, Realtor & Broker, with The Teresa Turner Realty Group at Keller Williams Town & Country Realty, is one of the most established and respected names in NW Florida Real Estate with 25+ years of experience in Residential Real Estate. Over that time, she has developed a superior pipeline of connections and is the go-to person for getting results in Residential Real Estate. She understands and cares for people and is excellent at coming up with unique marketing strategies to solve complex problems and get homes sold. She keeps your personal information confidential and considers discretion to be her duty in dealing with your real estate situation. Teresa maintains a strong work ethic and is committed to building relationships based on trust and integrity. She is a Real Person with Real Solutions to your real estate needs.
Category Archives: Short Sales
Bank of America Short Sale Agent Update
Process Refined for Valuation Disputes
Bank of America has refined the process for settling valuation disputes during a short sale.
The value of a property is established by independent third-party vendors shortly after a short sale is initiated. Occasionally, however, a Listing Agent may wish to contest that value. When that occurs, there is now a revised process for reconsidering the value.
Process Steps
1. Tell your Short Sale Specialist that you would like a reconsideration of the value.
2. Receive an investor-specific, easy-to-complete form from your Short Sale Specialist that specifies all requirements for a successful value dispute.
3. Fill out the form and attach specified evidence.
4. Stay in touch with your Short Sale Specialist for results.
5. Expect a value dispute review within 10-12 business days once all required information has been received.
Learn about the evidence needed to dispute a value.
Your Short Sale Specialist can provide additional guidance.
Has Housing Hit Bottom…Crash Officially Over?
What is the current state of the US Housing Markets according to the US Secretary of Housing Shaun Donovan?
Lets start with the good news…
“We’ve just been through the best winter of home sales in five years, really since the crisis began. The number of folks in distress, the number of people who are delinquent in their mortgages, falling into foreclosure, is down dramatically. The number of new foreclosures is down by more than 50 percent since 2009.”
Now, the not so good news…
“The one place where we continue to see struggles is looking for a consistent strong recovery in house prices,” Donovan continued. “We’re seeing that in a lot of markets. But in the most distressed markets … it’s these foreclosures that are still coming on the market — what we call the shadow inventory — that are dragging down prices in a lot of places.”
“A full recovery is really going to depend upon moving this shadow inventory,”
Post courtesy of Tim & Julie Harris, Harris Real Estate University
How to Avoid 2 Possible Deal Killers
Use these Strategies to help get everyone to the closing table!
33% of real estate professionals reported that a contract fell through in December 2011- up from 9% in December 2010, according to National Association of REALTORS® survey data.
1. HOME INSPECTIONS
Problem: When home inspectors spot problems, buyers may want to back out if the seller isn’t willing to fix every single item surfaced on the list.
“Say a buyer notices some missing caulk around a vent and wants it fixed,” Dean Moss of Keller Williams Realty Partners told the Chicago Tribune. “In a stronger market, a seller would say, ‘Caulk your own vent.’”
Solutions: Try to not let buyers haggle over minor items and encourage give-and-take between parties. Do buyers really want to risk losing out on an already good deal over something minor? Sellers may need to be willing to compromise, too. Sellers might consider having a home inspection done prior to placing the home on the market to make sure their price reflects any defects with the property, the Chicago Tribune article notes.
2. TIGHTER FINANCING
Problem: Banks have tightened their underwriting standards making it more difficult for some buyers to qualify for financing.
Solutions: Encouraging your buyers to get pre-approved for a loan prior to searching for a home is a good idea, but don’t let your buyers assume that means they have final approval for a loan. A Pre-Approval letter can help buyers gauge how much they can afford, but the final eligibility for a loan doesn’t occur prior to closing. As such, your buyers need to be careful about not doing anything that could potentially harm their credit prior to closing, such as running up existing credit cards, taking out new ones, or making big purchases on credit like for new furniture or appliances.
3. APPRAISALS: Read more about how to handle another possible deal killer–low appraisals that threaten real estate transactions.
Source: “When Good Deals go Bad,” Chicago Tribune (March 16, 2012)
FHA Announces Changes that will be Effective April 1st, 2012
FHA announced a few new underwriting guidelines last week that are going to have a significant negative impact on many home buyers.
These changes are effective with FHA loan applications on or after April 1st, 2012:
1) Borrowers with individual or multiple disputed credit accounts or collections with singular or cumulative balances equal to or above $1,000 must resolve the accounts prior to closing (pay in full or set up a payment plan with 3 payments made prior to closing).
2) If more than 3 months has passed since the most recent tax return was filed for a self-employed borrower, a year to date profit and loss statement is required to verify the borrowers income.
In addition, the following changes have announced and will be implemented on April 9th, 2012:
3) FHA monthly MIP is increasing 10 basis points, to 1.25% of the mortgage balance annually (increases payment $8.33/month per $100,000 financed).
4) FHA Up Front Mortgage Insurance (UFMIP) is increasing from 1% of the original loan balance to 1.75% of the original loan balance (adds $750 to the borrowers loan amount per $100,000 financed).
Lastly, FHA has proposed for seller concessions to be limited to the greater of 3% of the contract sales price or $6,000. This change should be implemented in the next 45 days as well.
These changes, most notably how collection accounts are treated, will have a major impact on many of your clients’ ability to qualify for FHA financing. Since these changes were announced, we have reviewed our active FHA pre-approvals and approximately 35% will be impacted. For some, these changes will now require the clients to prepare a P&L, for others it means they will not qualify without paying off thousands of dollars of years old collections.
With a few weeks until this is fully implemented, there are a few steps to take to protect your current prospects and clients:
1) All FHA buyers under short sale contract should formally apply for a mortgage and have their FHA Case # ordered before April 1st.
2) Contact all buyer agents on your listings and make sure their buyers and lenders are prepared for these changes.
3) Make sure all of your active buyers have spoken to a lender to determine if they will be impacted by these changes.
While these changes are both sudden and unwelcome, they are here whether we like it or not. All we can do is educate our clients and be prepared when they are implemented. I am here to help you and your clients through these challenging times.
Have a great week!
How does a Previously Approved Short Sale Work?
A previously approved short sale is NOT a pre-approved short sale, and in some cases, the lender’s will nevertheless require the process to begin anew. However, with a previously approved short sale, some lenders will not require the process to begin completely anew (or will offer a more streamlined approval process), but more importantly, the parties will have the benefit of knowing what the lender is likely to accept the second time around, thus maximizing the chances of a successful closing prior to foreclosure.
