Short Sales

Has recovery hit Connecticut? Are prices finally appreciating so short sales will dry out?

You can't escape the media hype about appreciation...while some areas nationwide are in fact recovering, recent market reports of local towns show no such appreciation in central CT towns just yet.

In fact when examining the past 12 months of real estate sales here in CT, we find that the overall percentage of sales that are short sales has in fact increased again as it has for the past 5 years:

It seems we have aways to go before we can call this an improving situation.

Considering a short sale in Connecticut? Contact me for a free and private consultation.

Many CT home sellers, especially those facing a short sale have questions as to how to properly price their home. Most short sellers have a tendency to believe that what their home sells for will impact whether the lender will be less likely to approve their short sale. The common held myth is that the larger the loss - the less likely the lender is to approve the short sale, which is just not the case. 

The truth is the most important number that will sway the lenders decision in a short sale is MARKET VALUE of the property - Market value is the price at which a particular property in its current condition will sell for in todays market. Once a lender is presented with a request for a short sale - the lender will order a valuation of the…

April 29 2013, Southington, Connecticut: While the year is not even halfway over yet, so far 2013 seems to be a year of improvement in Southington. Of all residential sold inventory since 2008 (when the MLS required disclosure of potential short sales) sales of short sales as a share of the market peaked in 2011 and has been slowly climbing down since:

The reason for this is unclear as other market reports suggest values in Southington are still on a downward trend. Perhaps news of "recovery" and improving conditions have left many Southington homewoners hesitant to list their home as a short sale, and instead continue to wait for their home's value to improve and get them out of their negative equity. The wait may be a long one.

Credit events such as short sales, foreclosures, bankruptcies and deed-in-lieus present special challenges to former homeowners wanting to get back into homeownership after a home loss. While these former homeowners are generally in a better position financially after relieving themselves of an overleveraged home or excessive debt - there are usually some obstacles in the way of being able to purchase a home again, such as:

Credit score: All these events have some impact on the credit score. It will take some time of establishing good credit again to get yoru FICO scores back up to where you will considered for a new loan.

Down payment: Although there are a few programs that will loan at 100% of value, most lenders will want at least 3.5% of the…

Short sales can be good deals - they are usually in significantly better condition than foreclosed properties, and while short sales don't sell for 50 cents on the dollar - they do generally sell slightly under market value. But before making an offer on one - check out these 5 Tips:

• Make sure your buyers agent understands the short sale process and is able to qualify the sellers agent as well as the particular short sale situation to see if it is likely to close. You don't want to waste 8 months in contratc to not close because your agent didn't know well enough to qualify the listing agents short sale knowledge.
• Be flexible about a close date. A short sale approval can take a few weeks to a few months, but once it comes, you'll need to be able…

More and more often, lenders are asking homeowners requesting short sales to come up with cash or sign a promissory note in order to get their short sale approved. 

This is likely due to the changing profile of the average short seller. As the first years of short sales in the late 2000's were comprised mostly of folks with nothing, desperate to avoid foreclosure, times have changed. Due to the massive losses in home values, more folks have become imprisoned in their upside down homes despite being able to afford their payments. Equity may disintegrate but life still happens - jobs move, families grow, folks divorce, get married, retire...etc., leaving otherwise stable homeowners to have to sell their homes, but lacking the cash to make up the loss.…

Should I short sell or file bankruptcy?...I hear this one a lot. There is no right answer. A short sale and bankruptcy are solutions for two different problems, and can not replace each other. 

A short sale is a solution for when you owe more than your home is worth, lack the funds to cover the difference, but need to sell anyway. In a short sale your short sale professional negotiates debt forgiveness on the balance of the loan so that the house can sell. A short sale will do nothing to help you with your other debts.

A bankruptcy is a solution for when you have too much overall debt and can't keep up. A bankruptcy can discharge the mortgage along with your other debt, however - the house is still yours. Unless you want a foreclosure on top of…

Has Connecticut finally hit bottom and is starting to recover? Perhaps...there are some signs that we have hit an upswing in sales recently, and increases in values would reasonably follow. However, even if we have turned the corner here in CT - the massive lost equity since the boom years for purchases and refinances ensure a slow recovery as folks remain underwater in their homes for years to come. Meanwhile - short sales and sales of foreclosed property (REO) continue on. 

So far - first quarter closed short sales in 2013 are up just a tad from first quarter of the prior year (+1%), while REO sales are up 13% in the same time period. It may be too early to tell exactly where we will end up by the end of this year but a look at the past 5 years…

After being relocated to another state for work, this homeowner had rented out her New Britain, CT home waiting for the market to recover. After several failed attempts at a fair market sale, she decided a short sale was her only realistic option to get out of owning the home. 

The home was priced agressively and a cash buyer was secured in a week. Bank of America was quick to respond to our short sale request and started working the file right away. Unfortunately, the brand new negotiator improperly processed the file and several weeks later, the entire file had to start again from the beginning. Despite this setback, an approval arrived in less than 8 weeks total. Usually, when homeowners are current on payments and have good income and credit (as…

McCue Mortgage strikes again! Never failing in their eternal effort to make every short sale a painstaking nightmare, McCue makes this Meriden, CT short seller pay dearly for trying to do the right thing and avoid foreclosure...

With employment lacking, this Meriden couple had employment opportunities several states away, but found themselves over $50,000 short to be able to sell their home. Looking to cut everyones losses they decided to short sell the home. The home was listed and immediately a short sale package headed to McCue on this FHA short sale.

Unfortunately McCue doesn't care about homeowners or saving money (perhaps because taxpayer funded FHA picks up he losses???), and a WHOPPING 6 months of McCue fumbling around followed. The two…