I have been asked this question a lot recently over and over. Most consumers tell me that they are unsure if now is a good time to buy real estate of not. I think there hasn't been a better time in history to buy real estate, but what do I know?? With that in regard I have some factual information for both consumers and agents to support why I think there has never been a better time to buy, if you can find something affordable to you. Buying a house to simply be "house poor" is not a good financial decision.First off, more wealthy people become wealthy buying assets in a downturn. Stocks, real estate you name it. It was Warren Buffet who said "Be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful" but this seems to be the opposite for the housing market. People where bu... 11/03/2010

Our short sale seminar and foreclosure prevention had a great turnout! Was picked up by the local newspaper who did an article about it, as well as the local TV station. Article below from the Dailey Times, will post the TV clips later. Just goes to show you how much people really don't know about short sales!SALISBURY -- With the number of housing foreclosures still climbing and home sales slow, now is the time for homeowners in mortgage trouble and their lenders to turn to short sales and a relatively new financial tool that could ease their dilemma.Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, of HAFA, streamlines short sales, or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, offering the seller relocation funds that could ease their transition into more affordable living space.The relocation incentive c... 10/19/2010

As a lot of you may know as agents, short sales can have a lot of red flags or road blocks. With my experience in short sales and through my teaching and training I try to alleviate agents from my experiences to not have to hit these road blocks. Recently I have been getting a lot of phone calls and emails about bankruptcy and how it relates to short sales. Now I am not a financial advisor or attorney, I don't play one on TV, and I didn't stay at a holiday inn express last night! I work with a team of attorneys to try to stay versed on short sale law for my own education, but I never try to interpret law in any way shape of form, With that being said: If you have a potential client who wants to perform a short sale and is planning on filing bankruptcy, or has recently filed bankruptcy, ... 10/13/2010

It seems as though every time you turn on the news or open the paper there is some big news story as to how bad the housing market is doing. Granted there are some regions in the United States that have been hit extremely hard, locally in the Salisbury/Wicomico County area, the numbers tell a different story. The Salisbury area as a whole did have some major appreciation, but not as much as some other comparable markets, so the downside has not been as much as comparable markets. Although we are still out of what is considered a normal market, our numbers have actually improved in the last year while a vast majority of the nation's numbers have declined! Looking at the numbers year to date will probably be quite surprising to most, as it doesn't support the "doom and gloom" you hear on ... 10/05/2010

The short sale: a viable option to avoid foreclosure. It's likely you've heard the term "short sale" thrown around quite a bit. But what, exactly, is a short sale? A short sale is when a bank agrees to accept less than the total amount owed on a mortgage to avoid having to foreclose on the property. This is not a new practice; banks have been doing short sales for years. Only recently, due to the current state of the housing market, has this process become a part of the public consciousness. The short sale, in almost every situation where a homeowner is having trouble making their payments, is the best option. Recent government legislation has greatly increased the incentive for banks and homeowner's to participate in short sales. Under the new HAFA government short sale program homeown... 09/21/2010

I have recently run into several sellers recently all over the eastern shore of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia that have told me they didn't know that a short sale was an option for them. They thought they wouldn't qualify, or they would be denied for whatever reason. I found this to be quite astounding as now lenders are sending "short sale" letters out, and short sales are in  media tv, newspaper etc.. I was starting to think that the short sale was becoming a house hold name for the consumer. The reality is that it really isn't. Most sellers if they are behind on their payments do not open the mail from the bank or take the calls. The information that is out there on a lot of websites is not 100% accurate and there is a lot of misinformation and lack of knowledge out there on short ... 09/01/2010

Who says blogging and internet presence doens't work?? My blogs and website has generated me a huge amount of business and produced seminars all over the country. Was just picked up in the local paper, full page article below. Word to the wise, if you get put in the media, proof your content!! They got a couple things not a couple things right, but overall the article was great. Check out my site at www.moorebrittingham.com and my blog at www.easternshorehomesolutions.blogspot.com Moore Brittingham Properties Check out are article in the daily times, full page interview!!! http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F201003220432%2FBUSINESS%2F3220336Salisbury agent finds short-sale success | delmarvanow.com | The Daily Times www.delmarvanow.com SALISBURY -- Meet Brandon Britt... 07/28/2010

It's not Equator its Bank Of America. I just wanted to share my two recent experiences with the Equator system. One short sale was with GMAC and the other was with BOFA. BOFA insisted when I sent in my short sale package that the Equator system was going to "speed" up the process dramatically. That I found was untrue. The funny thing is I was doing another short sale with GMAC simultaneously, and I got an approval in 37 days, and this property had two mortgages!! The BOFA short sale had only one mortgage and both BPO's had been done PRIOR to an offer being on the table!! I have done several short sales through the equator system and I can say for the most part it has been quicker turnaround time, but as we all know it is because we are doing more of the workload. This does not ring true... 06/02/2010

Are you sending Short Sale clients to an accountant first? I mentor, train and teach agents on a regular basis how to perform short sales correctly, and most agents I have talked to fail to perform one of the most important steps before even starting a short sale: sending the client to a qualified CPA/accountant who is versed in short sales. Why? This is very, very important for several reasons. 1.  In a lot of short sales there can be a "taxable gain" on the sale. That's right-your client lost money, and owes the IRS money, but it goes on their tax return as income! (I didn't make that rule-that's just how it is.) Even in some rare cases, there can be tax liability on a principal residence. In almost every situation there is a taxable gain on secondary, investment properties. In second... 03/15/2010

What do I do if I'm facing foreclosure? In today's current real estate market, it's an unfortunate reality that many sellers are at risk of facing a potential foreclosure. The good news is there are several options available to help avoid the pain and hassle of a foreclosure.A foreclosure does not benefit the consumer or bank, and should be avoided at all costs. Please keep in mind that if your property does go into foreclosure you are liable for the difference of what is owed on the property versus what is sells for. (For example if you owe $200,000 on the property and it sells at auction for $150,000, you are liable for the $50,000 difference.) Not only are you liable for the difference to the bank, but you will also be liable to the IRS! Hard to believe? Well, believe it or not, the ... 03/03/2010

All of you who are performing short sales know that in your short sale package you have to include a sample HUD-1. I'm not sure where all of you fellow agents are currently getting them from; a lot of my agents that I teach and train get a local attorney or title companies to do it. This is no big deal but sometimes, you need to get multiple HUD's because with most short sales, there is some type of change. Sometimes that turnaround time from the attorney/title company it not as quick we would like, or quick enough to get back to the bank under their timeline (They take forever to do anything and want you to get paperwork to them as soon as they request it!! Yet another great perk of dealing with banks in a short sale!) In some situations if the title company/attorney is not settling th... 03/03/2010

I know we all constantly run into this on short sales, you get to the point of getting an approval and the bank/investor wants to cut your commission. I hope most of you know that on FHA and Fannie Mae backed mortgages you are to receive a 6% commission no matter what. A servicer, or investor will try to cut your commission if you let them, so one easy thing to do is check at the beginning to see if the property is FHA, or Fannie back. You can go to http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/ , to check to see if it is Fannie backed, and for HUD, you can go directly to their website to check as well. Your commission, regardless of who the servicer or investor is,   should never be cut to less than 6%, on any short sale, but you have to stand firm, and have to know how to negotiate to ke... 03/02/2010

As real estate agents I think sometimes we can forget what are job is, and can easily become let our costumers turn us into uninformed tour guides. Have you been a tour guide in the past? Have you shown buyers 10, 20, 50 homes, only to get to the end and find that the buyers can't even remember the first house they saw? There is another approach you can take to give your buyers a better experience, and make your life much easier. As an agent, you certainly have to show buyers whatever houses they want to see, but instead of letting them contact you and tell you what houses they want to see, why not show them great neighborhoods and some great deals that are out there.  We are armed with information, great information at that, so why not use it to your advantage. We as agents need to off... 02/17/2010

There has been a lot of controversy recently (and even a CNN news story) about sellers not being fully released when they sell their property through short sale. I think, for the most part, a majority of the information that I have read has been accurate, but there is a major glaring issue that no article or blog has touched on. As agents we can get our sellers released from deficiencies!   This is all part of the negotiation, and I think there is a huge lack of education when it comes to this subject. First off, in some states (depending on state law), the bank cannot pursue the seller for a deficiency, so check your state law to see if you are in a state that qualifies. Where I am in Maryland, banks can. I think a lot of agents assume that if the bank accepts the short sale, they are ... 02/09/2010

Recently, in the middle of teaching a foreclosure seminar, I gave a brief moment to the importance of social media in growing your presence and business as a real estate agent. The response I got from most of the agents was that they simply don’t know where or how to start. I couldn’t believe it; they have no clue about how to even begin the process of social marketing, and don’t know where to turn to find out. This Coupled with the fact that a lot of agents do not understand the importance, or potential return on investment of social media, means most agents just overlook this aspect of marketing. Even those who do embrace this form of marketing typically only scratch the surface, and do not use it to its full potential. The fact of the matter is social media marketing can bring you le... 02/05/2010

In today's real estate market foreclosures are a huge part of our market. This is an area of real estate as an agent that can be very hard to get into. Agents who do foreclosures very rarely reveal how to get into getting listings from banks. Well I'm here to tell you that you can start making extra income today, and start on the path to get banks listings! To get national banks listings you first have to do BPO's(broker price opinions) which is very similar to a CMA. You get paid anywhere from $50-200 per BPO, and the more BPO's you do the more chances of getting a bank listing. Banks do not do assign the BPO's in house, they hire third party servicers to contact agents to do BPO's. So in order to do BPO's, you have to sign up with these third party companies. How do you do this? I hav... 01/23/2010

Here is some good news!!! If you are an investor or real estate agent, I'm sure you have run into this before. I know as an investor this has held up settlements of my investment "flips" several times, and in some cases has caused me to lose a buyer. HUD has decided to lift the ban for one year. Follow the link at the bottom for HUD article. If you're not familiar with the HUD guidelines on "flips", HUD requires that a seller must hold title to a property for over 90 days before it can be resold if it is going to be purchased through an FHA mortgage. If you are a property investor this can cause a problem because in most cases you can get your rehab done in thirty days, and then turn around and sell the property quickly.  This rule limits the speed of your turnaround. This rule had inve... 01/18/2010

HUD Help on FHA-Backed Short Sales Tuesday, December 22, 2009 Just wanted to let all you fellow agents out there know that HUD can be of great assistance if you need to perform a short sale on an FHA-backed mortgage. I just had a short sale that was denied by Chase, but HUD got it reopened and got it approved!!! This is information that any agent who deals with FHA-backed mortgages needs in their toolbox.     First off, you need to familiarize yourself with HUD guidelines. (Click here for a copy, and link to their loss mitigation department...)Working directly with HUD, as well as the bank involved, can give you a better chance at a successful outcome when performing a short sale. This can also ensure that the bank follows all rules (most of the time they don't) and can ensure that your... 12/23/2009

Owner's Title Insurance a Necessity If you're not telling your clients to get owner's title insurance on purchases-especially foreclosures-you're not doing your job.     In today's market, foreclosures are very prominent-and they come with a lot of potential issues. Owner's title insurance is a onetime expense that can cover any title issue that may arise for the lifetime of the property. Just one title lien/cloud or issue can be a five to six figure headache! If you think about it that way, you're getting a great return on your money.   We all know lenders are covered in mandatory, but owners are not. Don't think your clients need O.T.I. because a title search was done? THINK AGAIN. Let me tell you about something that happened to me... Recently, I purchased a foreclosed REO property a... 12/22/2009

What is a short sale? It's likely you've heard the term "short sale" thrown around quite a bit. But what, exactly, is a short sale? With having completed over 200 successful short sales, let me give you so good general information. A short sale is when a bank agrees to accept less than the total amount owed on a mortgage to avoid having to foreclose on the property. This is not a new practice; banks have been doing short sales for years. Only recently, due to the current state of the housing market, has this process become a part of the public consciousness. To be eligible for a short sale you first have to qualify! To qualify for a short sale, a.) Your house must be worth less than you owe on it, and b.) You must be able to prove that you are the victim of a true financial hardship, su... 12/08/2009