Happily Ever After A Short Sale On Your Brooklyn Home

Happily Ever After A Short Sale On Your Brooklyn Home

As this story will tell you, it’s not all doom and gloom after a short sale on your Brooklyn home. Finding an Licensed  Real Estate professional with experience handling the  short sale process  can negotiate with your bank,  give you a fresh start and in many cases, a new beginning without the burden of having a huge debt on your back.

About two years ago I assisted a seller who was in desperate financial need and I felt their situation would be perfectly suited to recommend a short sale for their home. They could no longer afford to live in the Brooklyn house they were in mid process of renovating due to an untimely illness. The housing market plummeted and the very high monthly payment on their first and second mortgage, placed this couple in a dire financial situation.  They were trying their best to live normally, going about their daily routines avoiding the numerous daily phone calls, voice mail messages and piles of mail from the bank that was threatening foreclosure on their home. There were notices left on their front door, a stack of mail unopened and the duress they were feeling seemed never ending. By the time this lovely couple called me, they were both under so much stress they could barely explain their situation, without breaking down into tears.

We sat for a long time going over their finances and assessing the best appropriate action for them to take. They had been ignoring the problems, bills & harassing calls for so long, they felt their situation was hopeless. I then explained to them the differences between a short sale and a foreclosure on their  home and how both could affect their future. If the bank should foreclose on their home , the mark it leaves on your credit score lasts for many years. Your credit score will not only plummet, but after the foreclosure sale the bank can still come after any of your assets for a deficiency judgment. A deficiency judgment is an unsecured money judgment against a borrower whose  home’s resale or mortgage foreclosure sale did not produce sufficient funds to pay the underlying note or loan, in full.  Even though we are all reading & watching the news reporting’s of people just walking away from their homes, it is not without a huge penalty that will catch up to them one day in the future that will affect their way of living one way or another.

A Short Sale on the other hand, allows for a negotiated sale price somewhere between the money owed on the note and the current market value of the property. Some lenders are even willing to allow a fixed amount of money set aside for the sellers to relocate.  In many instances, a deficiency judgment can be avoided by proactively pursuing a short sale rather than allowing a home to go into foreclosure. One of the most important differences, according to Fannie Mae guidelines, a qualified borrower who completed a short sale is eligible for financing in just 24 months. By comparison, a foreclosure could be more than double that amount of time.

It has been two years since the short sale of this couples home. I am happy to report they are now qualified to purchase another home and I am actively searching to find them their new perfect place they can  call home. Now that’s living happily ever after a short sale!

Attention Brooklyn Home Owners – HARP Refinance To The Rescue!

When this whole mortgage crisis began, calling your mortgage service provider to find out if they are participating in the HARP program (Home Affordable Refinance Program) seemed hopeless. After being placed on hold numerous times, you would be lucky to get transferred to a representative who could even answer your question. The HARP program’s website told us all to be persistent. There were not enough hours in my life to be that persistent! For eighteen months, I could not find a lender who would refinance my home because I am self employed.

Fast forward to a week ago – I received a letter in the mail from my current service provider – saying YES – they will refinance! I don’t have to pay off all of my debt in order to do so! I don’t have to show my tax returns! And if I stay with my current lender, I will not have to pay the mortgage transfer taxes associated with the refinance process! Eureka! I felt like I had struck gold.

After discussing my situation with my current mortgage service provider I was able to save over $800.00 per month in my mortgage payments and you can too! All I needed was an insurance declaration page, a letter from my accountant and I was good to go.

The deadline for the HARP program is coming to an end on June 10, 2011. This means all mortgage notes must be dated on or before then. Below is a link to the HARP website to find out if your mortgage service provider and investors are on the list of participants. Keep in mind that all servicers for loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are required to participate. Additional servicers are strongly encouraged to participate. You will find the list of current service providers at

www.MakingHomeAffordable.com/contact_servicer.html.

To find out if your loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac:

For Fannie Mae:
1-800-7FANNIE (8am to 8pm EST)
www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup

For Freddie Mac:
1-800-FREDDIE (8am to 8pm EST)
www.freddiemac.com/mymortgage

For more information on HARP: http://www.harpprogram.org/index.php

Exciting new happenings at Fillmore Real Estate’s 2926 Avenue J Office. First, Continental Home Loans, Fillmore Real Estate’s preferred lender, is offering our Brooklyn home buyers a $500.00 credit towards their closing costs as well as an opportunity to get a mortgage commitment before you find your perfect Brooklyn home for FREE. CHL will take your information and actually put it through underwriting to ensure you will get the mortgage you need to buy your Brooklyn home. As a buyer, you can start your Brooklyn home search with confidence, knowing exactly how much the bank is willing to approve you for and exactly what your monthly payments will be. All you then need to close is find the perfect Brooklyn home for you, a contract of sale & an appraisal done on the property you wish to purchase. This is great news for sellers as well because having an offer made on your property with a mortgage commitment from Continental Home Loans means your home will get sold the first time. As a seller, you have the comfort of knowing your potential buyer is serious and will without a doubt, get their mortgage. A win – win for all involved!

Another new offering for our sellers will be an exclusive single property website that allows potential buyers unlimited photographs, virtual tours, maps with local stores, schools & houses of worship, financial tools and a personal on screen tour guide! The vast listings syndication ensures all Brooklyn  properties for sale with Fillmore Real Estate gets the maximum amount of exposure possible to get your home sold ASAP. Fillmore Real Estate is the only firm offering this invaluable service to our clients. Ask me, Tina Del Toro, to show you an example of how these new property sites work. You will be amazed!

For a demonstration of the new single property websites or if you are thinking of buying or selling a home, call me – Tina Del Toro, Licensed Real Estate Associate Broker of Fillmore Real Estate Today!   Direct: 917-364-1070

Part 6 – Stage the kitchen to wow buyers

The kitchen is a key area of the home for many reasons. Kitchens have a lot to do with resale value, so the buyers will want to be impressed with this area of the home. People also spend a lot of time in their kitchens, so a nicely staged kitchen will help them see themselves in the home.

All of these things will help you increase the likelihood of a sale, and that’s the whole point of home staging in the first place.

With that in mind, here are some ways to stage your home’s kitchen in order to wow buyers.

Staging the Kitchen

• Spend some extra time de-cluttering. Kitchens are notorious for being full of clutter. So when you stage this area of your home, be ruthless about removing unnecessary items. This includes countertop appliances, utensils, the coffee pot, etc.
• Clean like the sale of your home depended on it … because is does. Pay particular attention to the sink, counters, stove, etc. “Clean and bright” should be your motto for kitchen staging.
• Turn the lights on and open the curtains to showcase the sparkle. Shed some light on the subject. If you have dark areas of your kitchen, you might even consider adding supplemental lighting, such as recessed lighting around the edges. Remember your kitchen staging motto — clean and bright.
• Consider making upgrades. If you’re in a buyer’s market, it might be wise to go beyond cleaning and actually upgrade some of your kitchen features. Cabinets and counters is the rule of thumb here. If your cabinets and counters are outdated or ugly, an upgrade can make a huge difference in resale.
• If, based on your circumstances, it doesn’t make sense to pour extra money into cabinetry, you might try staining the cabinets. This can make a big improvement at a fraction of the cost. In addition to staining, you could also paint the cabinets.
• If your cabinets are in decent shape, you can modernize them simply by updating the knobs and handles, or adding them if you don’t have any. This is a low-cost way to improve a kitchen, and that’s what home staging is all about.
• The same goes for your kitchen faucets, lights and other fixtures. You can make the entire space more modern just by updating these items.
• Give the walls a fresh coat of paint, following the paint tips mentioned previously. If the kitchen is connected to the family / living room, use the same color paint — or one shade lighter or darker. This will make the eye flow from one room to the next, making the entire place seem more spacious.
• Do you have an eat-in kitchen? If so, accentuate it by setting a small table. This will showcase the fact that the space serves double duty. Don’t leave it up to the buyers to envision the eat-in kitchen — show it to them!

Remember, people spend a lot of time in their kitchens, and most people realize that they are a resale value item of importance. If you spend some extra time or money anywhere while staging your home for sale, the kitchen is probably the place to do it.