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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: nationstar short sales
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.
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!
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.
