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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: fsu foreclosures
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
Is the place you want to rent in foreclosure?
In representing bank owned properties, one of the unpleasant tasks I handle is to confirm occupancy on a property that has been recently foreclosed on. Almost every time I check on the property, there is someone living there and they are usually surprised to see me. They are usually leasing the property and paying rent and had no idea that the property was in foreclosure. It’s very upsetting to them and we have to work together towards a smooth transition.
In talking with the last tenant, she asked me how would she have known the house was in foreclosure? It got me to thinking that there are probably many more people like her out there who may be renting a place and need this information. Probably the easiest way to make sure that your landlord is current with their lender is to ask to see their latest loan statement. While a landlord may be reluctant to share this information, tell them that it’s justifiable for you to see it, given all the foreclosures on the market. You can also call the Homeowner’s Association and ask if your landlord is in good standing.
Another option is to do a search of the public records. You can do this by accessing the website of the clerk of the court in the county where the property is located and searching under your landlord’s name for any legal actions. If there is a Lis Pendens filed with your property address, then there is a good chance the property is in foreclosure. There is also a section on Foreclosures where the sale dates are posted. You can check this calender to see if your landlord and/or property is listed.
There are laws protecting a tenant’s rights to finish out their lease, even if the property is foreclosed on. You will need to document your lease and prove that it is valid by providing a written lease that is not expired and is signed by all the parties along with copies of your last five (5) rental payments.
How to buy a home after a short sale……can it really be done?
The answer is yes, but it depends. If you missed payments prior to the short sale you are out of luck. It seems that the short sale itself isn’t the end of the world (according to the current lending standards). Missing payments prior to the short sale is what hurts your credit..
Dear Dr. Don,
We were forced to do a short sale with our home due to a huge salary cut. Our credit rating beforehand was great, but the mortgage holder required us to fall two months behind on our payments before they would allow the short sale. Of course, that hurt our credit score. We would like to buy again but struggle to save much beyond our rent for a down payment. Are there mortgages available after a short sale that don’t require a 20% down payment, and will we be able to get a conventional mortgage after the short sale?
- Brian Bungalow
Dear Brian,
Not all lenders require you to be past due on your payments to qualify for a short sale. Your lender did, so you have to work within that constraint. The good news is you successfully navigated the labyrinth that is a short sale, and you made it to the other side.
I’m sure you’d like a second chance at buying a home in today’s market with today’s low interest rates. Unfortunately, you must spend some time in the penalty box before lenders will once again consider you for a conventional mortgage or even a mortgage through the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA.
In general, you’ll have to wait two to four years to qualify for a conventional mortgage that meets the standards of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages on the secondary market, pool them and sell them as mortgage-backed securities to investors on the open market.
The shorter end of the wait period is for borrowers with 20% down or who faced extenuating circumstances in the short sale of their last home. The longer end of the wait period is for borrowers who can put 10% down. In both cases, the borrower needs a traditional credit history that isn’t a “thin file,” or a limited or short credit history.
FHA loans have lower down-payment requirements — 3.5%. Borrowers who weren’t in default when they closed on the short sale can get an FHA loan right away. Borrowers who were in default have to wait three years, although lenders can make a case for extenuating circumstances.
Can’t wait out the time in the penalty box? If you’re open to some creative financing, you might be able to negotiate a lease option on a rental home you’d consider owning. What’s interesting about the lease option versus a lease-purchase agreement is the opportunity to back away if you don’t like what happens to the home’s value over time.
Congress Calls for Principal Reductions
Twenty-one members of Congress sent a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Edward DeMarco urging him to encourage principal reductions on loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“We do not urge that the enterprises reduce principal on mortgages as a kindness to homeowners,” the letter stated.
Instead, the congressmen support principal reductions on the basis that they will save taxpayers from some further potential losses.
The lawmakers cite first-quarter data from the GSEs stating 17.7 percent of Fannie borrowers are underwater, as are 19 percent of Freddie borrowers. These borrowers, they say, “are obviously at great risk of eventual default.”
With 44 percent of loans modified in the past two years more than three months past due, according to Freddie Mac data cited in the letter, “the performance of the enterprises’ mortgage modifications leaves much to be desired for homeowners, for the housing market, and for taxpayers,” the letter stated.
The representatives urge DeMarco to disregard the short-term effects of principal reductions on the GSEs’ balance sheets in favor of looking at the long-term positive effects these reductions might have.
They point to an Amherst Securities study that negates the “moral hazard” theory, which hypotheses that offering principal reductions encourages homeowners to default.
“Right now, the FHFA is preventing underwater homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac from receiving balance reductions, even when a principal modification would save the investor – in this case meaning taxpayer – money compared to foreclosure,” said George Miller (D-California), one of the representatives who signed the letter.
Courtesy of DSNews
