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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.
Tag Archives: bank of america short sales
Understand the difference between a “backup contract” vs “multiple contract”
Most short sale addenda have provisions for backup offers if your Realtor checks the appropriate box. It is the opinion of Berlin-Patten Attorneys that, generally speaking, your Realtor should not check the box permitting backup offers when dealing with a short sale. It creates too many unnecessary legal and practical issues.
Most importantly, many lenders and their automated systems (such as Equator) will not allow two contracts to be under review simultaneously. As such, once a second contract is presented to the lender, the time frames run anew with that second contract. Moreover it has been have found that the two buyers are not adequately counseled with respect to the implications of permitting two or more contracts, and it is the attorney’s universal experience that one buyer will be very unhappy (sometimes to the point of legal threats) when all is said and done. In other words, the buyer with the lower offer will obviously have an issue if a higher offer is subsequently submitted to the lender. As such, if the seller is going to entertain more than one contract, they had better do so very carefully, with proper legal counsel, and with adequate disclosure.
There are also significant legal considerations. For example, one needs to understand the difference between “backup” contracts and “multiple” contracts. There is a significant legal distinction, a distinction that is important to understand when encouraging more than one contract for the same property at the same time. A backup contract is just that, a contract that is clearly subordinate to a prior contract. It contains a backup contract addendum or similar verbiage that makes it clearly subject to a prior contract. If, however, two contracts are executed for the same property, and neither contains a backup contract addendum or similar verbiage, this is a multiple contract situation and potentially creates significant legal liability to not only the seller, but the realtors as well. You cannot have two valid contracts for the same property without backup language in one of them.
As such, we strongly encourage any party who is considering the execution of more than one contract to consult with an attorney to determine (a) is it the best thing to do under the circumstances, (b) do they have the right to do so, (c) is the prior contract still in full force and effect, (d) if so, does it permit backup contracts, and (e) is adequate backup contract language contained within the second contract. Each of these decisions carry significant timing, factual and legal implications, and should not be taken lightly.
Information provided by Berlin-Patten, PLLC, Attorneys at Law
You may owe federal income taxes in 2013 if you have a short sale
You may owe federal income taxes in 2013 if you have a short sale on your primary residence after this 
year. Now is the time to make the hard decision: Are you going to short sale your home this year?
Uncle Sam is still giving homeowners until Dec. 31, 2012, to go through a short sale on their primary residence without tax consequences – as long as the lender officially releases the debt.
But on Jan. 1, 2013, the rules change: The amount a lender forgives, ether in a short sale on a primary residence will be taxable on federal income taxes.
So if a house sold $50,000 short of what is owed on the mortgage, then the selling homeowners will owe federal income taxes on that $50,000. Homeowners would owe $12,500 if they’re in the 25 percent bracket; $7,500 if in the 15 percent tax section.
Homeowners would be on the hook even if the house sold but the bank had not formally forgiven the loan in a letter: The banks must officially sign off in writing before Dec. 31.
“It’s a huge issue – it will be a shock to many taxpayers after 2012,” said Mark Steber, the Florida-based chief tax officer for Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.
The law first came into affect five years ago as the housing market went bust nationwide.
The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 “generally allows taxpayers to exclude income from the discharge of debt on their principal residence,” according to the Internal Revenue Service. “Debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as mortgage debt forgiven in connection with a foreclosure, qualifies for the relief.”
Up to $2 million of forgiven debt can be forgiven this year, $1 million if married and filing separately, according to the IRS.
Homeowners declaring bankruptcy could escape paying income taxes on any cancellation of debt income if the debt is forgiven in the bankruptcy even if the debtor is solvent, said Nick Jovanovich, a board-certified tax attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“Bankruptcy trumps everything,” he said.
Or homeowners might not have to pay income taxes on any cancellation of debt income to the extent that they are insolvent immediately before the cancellation – that is, their debts exceed the value of their assets, Jovanovich added.
Steber and Jovanovich said homeowners should decide now what they are going to do – to give themselves time.
Short sales can take a long time and even if banks quickly approve a short sale, the would-be buyer may get cold feet and the deal fall through, Singer said.
Then the sellers have to begin again, he said.
Information provided by the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Donna Gehrke-White. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
Update! State of Florida’s Foreclosure Mediation Program Ends
This information was just released…
Florida’s statewide managed mediation program for residential mortgage foreclosures is finished. Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady signed an administrative order on Monday, December 19th, 2011, terminating the 2-year old program. This follows a panel recommendation in October that Florida’s 20 judicial circuits should, instead, be allowed to set up local programs.
The Florida Supreme Court ordered the mediation program last year. It was designed to help clear foreclosure cases that have clogged Florida’s courts in recent years. Canady appointed the workgroup in September to determine if the program was working. However, Canady said reports suggest it didn’t work as well as hoped, and the courts could no longer justify the system.
The panel cited several problems, including economic incentives for lenders not to settle cases. According to some homeowners facing foreclosure, lenders did not take the process seriously.
Foreclosures already in the mediation process will continue on that path as they work their way through the system. New foreclosure cases, however, will not be referred to mediation.
Information provided by The Tallahassee Democrat and Florida Realtors®
Can Foreclosure Mediation Really Help You?
Many of my clients that are in foreclosure have asked me about the mediation option and how viable it really is in the State of Florida. Mediation is a process in which both sides of a dispute meet with an unbiased third party trained to help people work out their differences. In mediation, each side has a chance to compromise and agree to a solution so that a judge doesn’t force a solution on the parties. Mediation can end in a successful settlement or it can reach an impasse in which the parties don’t agree to a resolution.
Two years ago, the Florida Supreme Court ordered that mediations must take place in every foreclosure case involving a person’s primary residence. The homeowner has to fill out a lot of paperwork and submit financial information before the mediation.
Unfortunately, the program has been expensive for lenders and not successful in resolving the foreclosure problem. Statewide, between March 2010 and March 2011, only 3.6% of all cases referred to mediation ended in a written agreement. A committee is recommending changes to the program.
It appears that there is a systematic failure by the program managers to get the borrowers to participate, and unprepared lenders are only going through the motions. Also, many homeowners mistakenly think their foreclosure cases are somehow on hold until after the mediation.
Mediation should not be mandatory, but it should be available to homeowners by request only. For a successful mediation, you must send in all of the required paperwork on time and go in with realistic expectations. If you have more than one lender and/or lien, you have to get all the parties to agree, which can be somewhat involved.
Information courtesy of Gary M. Singer, Sun Sentinel
Do You Know Who Really Owns Your Mortgage Loan?
Most people know who the servicer is for their loan because that’s who you make your mortgage payment to each month. But many banks are just servicers for the investors. The best way to get this information is to send a letter called a “Qualified Written Request or QWR”.
Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (or RESPA), borrowers may request certain information from their servicers. Most servicers will acknowledge this request within twenty (20) days and comply with the request within sixty (60) days. During the 60 days while the servicer is preparing the info, the lender may not report overdue payments to the credit bureaus. Information requested can include: payment and escrow amounts and history, other charges and expenses billed to the borrower and who the current holder of the note and mortgage is, as well as the transfer history.
You may be surprised to know who the investor is on your loan. Mortgage Notes are being sold frequently these days and sometimes to private investors in your own community!
