Antioch CA – Many homeowners bought their home at the peak of the market. In the hardest hit areas, they paid $500,000 for homes that are now selling for $250,000 (or even less.) Their home is costing them $4,000 a month. (That is the total after paying property taxes and insurance.) Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Renters have moved into the neighborhood and are paying less than $2,000 to rent a comparable home. It just seems like these homeowners are getting an unfair deal all around. Should these homeowners dump their homes in favor of a lower priced home? Some people say No! “That is breaking your word. If everyone did it, just think of what would happen?” they say. There is a little problem with that logic. Many o... 01/21/2013

    Antioch CA – Have you ever attempted to get a loan modification? If you have, then you probably get bugged when you hear banks talk about how they supposedly care about their customers. Somehow these banks think we will believe it. They must think that, or they wouldn’t be running ads that say: “Come to ABC Bank. We answer you by your first name. You’re not a number. We care about you.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. What a bunch of garbage. Anyone who has attempted to negotiate a loan modification feels like they just went thru the meat grinder. “Sir, we can’t approve your loan modification until you send us the APG form”, the person at the bank tells you. “But, I already faxed that to you five different times over t... 01/14/2013

    Antioch CA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Paul. Here is Paul’s Question. “I am thinking about a short sale, but I am behind on my property taxes. Will I still have to pay them if I short sale my home? Max.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is the answer to Paul’s Question: In most cases your lender will pay those property taxes. Property taxes are a first priority lien on a property. That means that if a property is foreclosed upon, then they still have to be paid. They don’t go away for any reason. This is also why most lenders want to charge you monthly and then pay the property taxes themselves. They know that the taxes are a big bill that only comes once a year. Not everyone ... 01/09/2013

    Antioch CA – Here are a few things you should not be surprised to see crop up during the short sale process. Unscrupulous Debt Collection Tactics. If you are facing financial hardship, then paying credit cards and other unsecured debts is your lowest priority. An unsecured debt is a debt where they can’t take away your car or house. A secured debt has something as collateral, such as your car, house, or anything else of value. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. The most common unsecured debt is a credit card. When you stop paying them, they will call you non stop. The reason is because they don’t have any other way to collect from you. They can’t come get your car or take your house. So, they make up for that by blowing u... 01/07/2013

    Antioch CA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from John. Here is John’s Question. “I just received a full price offer on my house. My main concern is that I don’t get stuck having to pay off the deficiency. I have a first and 2nd with Chase and owe 270K on the home. The buyer’s loan is also with Chase. How can I work this out so that I can walk away from this without owing any money? Is it even possible with such a large difference between what the house is worth and what is owed? John.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is the answer to John’s Question: John, you need to read thru the short sale approval letter. See if is contains any language like “Payoff”, “Forgiven”, or “agrees to rele... 01/04/2013

  Antioch CA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Max. Here is Max’s Question. “If I pay mortgage insurance and default on my loan, wouldn’t that cover the deficiency amount? Max.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is our answer to Max’s Question: Yes, the Mortgage Insurance should pay your lender for any loss. So that reduces the amount that your lender will lose on the short sale. There are a couple of problems. Many Mortgage Insurance Companies have gone bankrupt. They can’t pay on their claims. In this situation your lender may or may not pursue you for the loss. (I’ve written extensively on deficiencies on other blog posts. In 60-75% of all short sales, you won’t owe a deficiency. E-ma... 01/03/2013

Real Estate Investor Tip of the Day – 12/4/12 Investment Properties are getting hard to find and prices are going up. As mentioned in my Investment Post Last Week – it is still a great time to buy and you should buy ASAP. But what can you do to get a Rental Property? Search Investment Properties Now! When Buying a Rental Property Now you really need to think outside of the box. I used to recommend against buying certain types of properties; properties with pools, properties on the water, properties with an HOA, properties with less than 3 bedrooms – 2 baths – and a garage. Get the Free Real Estate Investing Book Well now it is time to Think Outside of the Box: A pool or water front home might be economically viable compared to other available Investment Properties. I would suggest you g... 12/04/2012

Real Estate Investor Tip of the Day – 11/30/12 Real Estate Investors are wondering, “Gene in yesterdays post you predicted increasing rents in the future, but what if rents stay flat?” Search Investment Properties Now! Well there is one constant in our economy (in fact most economies) over the long haul and that is inflation. The rate of inflation varies, but looking at the indicators many people think hyper-inflation is inevitable. Get the Free Real Estate Investing Book But let us suppose rents do not go up because our economy gets healthy and there are fewer people renting. In that case there will probably be a higher demand for home ownership. It does not matter if people rent or buy – they have to live somewhere? So if that happens selling and taking the capital appreciation might ... 11/30/2012

  Real Estate Investor Tip of the Day – 11/29/12 This market is brutal with sometimes 30 offers on one property. Prices are rising fast and Investors regret that they did not buy a year or two ago. Search Investment Properties Now! Well that is a bad attitude and not the way to get success. Focus on the future. Properties purchased now at low interest rates will have fixed mortgage expense for 30 years. But as we appear to be becoming a nation of renters and with hyper-inflation on the horizon, rents will go up and long term profits will go up. Not only that we can expect the see the value of the property go up significantly. Although Real Estate Investing can offer great short term profits, the long run is were most investors will make the most money. I think it is very important that ... 11/29/2012

    Antioch CA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Werner. “I am behind on my payments and thinking of just letting my home go into foreclosure. What does that do to the neighborhood?” he asked. Here is our answer to his question. It does hurt the neighborhood. But, it also hurts you. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Most banks do not do a good job and processing and handling foreclosures. They take 12-18 months to foreclosure on a house and then sell it. In the meantime they do little to maintain the home. I estimate that half of all the properties I have seen in foreclosure have never even been checked on by the lender. It has gotten so bad that one homeowner even started up a website to rep... 11/07/2012

  Antioch CA – We receive this question a lot. “I am upside down and need to move. I would like to buy another home. Can I do that?” they ask us. Today they can. FHA (the Federal Housing Administration) has a new program that enables you to short sale your existing home and buy a new home right afterwards. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. The home you purchase would have to meet FHA’s standard lending guidelines. FHA is a great mortgage program. In fact, more people buying a home in today’s market are getting an FHA loan. Here is what you would need to do to participate in the program: 1. Determine if you qualify to participate in the program. We have been told that you will need the following. (Guidelines can change at any... 11/05/2012

    Antioch CA – I read in the newspaper that a short sale will destroy the seller’s credit. The article made it sound as though a short sale equaled doom for your credit. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. I wanted to clarify exactly how a short sale does affect your credit. Does a short sale damage your credit? Yes. Consider if the benefits from a short sale outweigh the credit damage. If you are in foreclosure, your credit has already been damaged. What happens if you do nothing and allow your lender to foreclose? The credit damage will be much worse than a short sale. In addition you will not be eligible to buy another house for 5-7 years. With a short sale you are eligible for another mortgage in 2 years. You will have t... 10/08/2012

    Antioch CA – It sounds weird that a lender would approve a short sale when a homeowner is current on their payment. There is a logical reason that they do it. Let me explain. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Let’s look at a person who owes more than their home is worth and moves for a job transfer. Their lender does not approve their short sale. The lender tells them, “We granted the loan thinking you were a credit worthy borrower. We expect you to repay us every dime”, The borrower moves out of town and rents out the house. Unfortunately the tenant only pays 60% of the mortgage payment. So the homeowner has to come up with $800 every month. They manage to do that for a year. Then, the tenant moves out. Unfortunately, t... 10/04/2012

            Antioch CA – If you are upside down, then you might be tempted to walk away. You’ll mail your keys to the lender and move out. Before you move out, I have some important information to tell you. You should stay in the house for as long as possible. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. In fact, the average length of time you can live for free is 461 days. That number is a statistic I’ve seen lots of people throw around. I just tried to Google the official source, but it isn’t coming up in several searches. I do know that number is true, based on all of the foreclosures I’ve seen recently. Many lenders take around 12 months to file foreclosure. Then, the foreclosure process can last 6-12 months, if not longer. Here is... 10/02/2012

    Antioch CA – Is your loan with a large lender such as Wells Fargo or Bank of America? They usually don’t make the final decision on your short sale. Here is why. In most cases, the lenders are working as a servicer. They are handling the loan for a third party (the actual owner of the loan.) Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. This third party owner can be a corporation, a pension fund, a wall street firm, or split up between thousands of different people. Or the owner can be a government entity such as Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac. This means you still have options if your lender rejects your short sale. Find out who the owner of the loan is and contact them directly. They will often reconsider the short sale. Simply presen... 10/01/2012

    Antioch CA – If you are in financial trouble, then I’m sure you’re worried. Here are a few things I see people worry about that aren’t as bad as they think. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Financial Worry #1: We could be forced to move out of our house at moment’s notice. If you own your house, then I have some good news. Most lenders are taking 6-12 months to file foreclosure. The debt collectors don’t always tell you the truth. Many get paid bonuses based on how much they collect. That encourages them to stretch the truth. They might tell you the foreclosure is going to filed next month. Yes, even if it’s not true. Here is the other good news. It can take months for a foreclosure to go thru. The court system is bogge... 09/27/2012

    Antioch CA – Short Sales and foreclosures have a big impact on home values. But, how they affect them varies dramatically. Every short sale helps stabilize the housing market. The reason is because short sales sell for much more than a foreclosed property does. Most short sales have a homeowner who still lives there. The homeowner has kept the home in good shape. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. They mow and water the lawn, trim the bushes, and keep up on the house. Now, let’s contrast this with how banks keep up on their foreclosed properties. A bank usually takes 2-6 months to put a foreclosed property up for sale. Sometimes they take even longer. They usually do not turn the power until the home is put up for sale. S... 09/12/2012

  Antioch CA – Many people don’t think they are eligible for a short sale because they have unpaid homeowner’s association dues. Don’t worry about paying them yourself. When you short sale your home the association dues will be paid by your lender. Most of the time the amount owed to the homeowner’s association is a very small percentage of the overall sales price. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Lenders know that a short sale will net them substantially more money than a foreclosure. I have an example in the post below. I recently saw a home that was for sale as a short sale. A buyer offered to buy the home for $237,000. The lender rejected that offer. The home was foreclosed on and sold for $190,600. The lender lost arou... 08/30/2012

  Antioch CA – Many people are embarrassed that they are short selling their house. They feel like a failure. Others think that they are somehow being dishonest or shady. Neither one of those is true. A lot of the people short selling today never had a blemish in their credit. They lived responsible financial lives. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Then the real estate market crashed and left them owing hundreds of thousands of dollars more than their home was worth. For years everyone had told them that couldn’t happen. Many of those people also lost their job for the first time in their life. It’s interesting because today we are seeing as many short sales in the upper income brackets as the lower income brackets. I’m not... 08/14/2012

  Antioch CA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Daniel. Here was his question. “I am trying to buy a short sale property. I put my offer on the property a few months ago. The property was priced about 50% lower than the other homes in the area. The bank finally approved the short sale. However, they said that I have to pay the back taxes, unpaid homeowner’s association fees, and the seller’s closing fees. I agreed to do that because the home was such a good deal. However, now that I’ve agreed to that the bank won’t get back to the agent. Now the agent is saying that they won’t approve the sale price even with my paying all of those costs. I don’t understand what is going on? Please help. Daniel.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did ... 08/03/2012