Buying a home via a short sale or from a foreclosing lender is making lots of headlines in today’s news.
But there’s plenty of confusion about how short sales, foreclosure auctions and bank sales are conducted.
Read the posts below to get a better idea of how to take advantage of the home buying opportunities (and avoid some of the pitfalls) presented by distressed home sales!
If you have questions about short sales or REOs, please feel free to ask . . . . no charge, no obligation!
From the category archives:
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[post_content] => With the recent news that the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is failing to help the overwhelming majority of distressed homeowners in the country (see Money.com's article “10 foreclosures for every home saved”), we may see more short sales and foreclosure auctions in coming months.
New short sale program designed to help
The new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) took effect this month and is designed to help streamline the short sale process.
Short sales are sometimes referred to as “pre-foreclosure sales" and up to now have been characterized by long bureaucratic delays and frustrated would-be buyers and sellers.
45 page HAFA download makes things simpler?
HAFA is intended to fast-track and regularize the short sale process.
But it is an extremely complex program. It's supported by a daunting 45 page download of rules and forms, so get ready for some heavy reading.
Know the rules and use the right forms
Not all distressed homeowners will qualify for the program and whether HAFA succeeds or fails to make short sales quicker and easier remains to be seen.
But what’s important for prospective short sale sellers and buyers alike is that you may now have standard forms to use and uniform rules lenders and servicers must abide by.
So the real estate agent helping you better be up to speed on this important new program or you may still encounter disappointments in your efforts to either sell or buy a home via a short sale.
Helpful links
Here are some links to information on both the loan modification and short sale programs; just click on the icons below:
Insightful video
The following video is geared towards real estate agents but is helpful to anyone thinking of selling or buying via a short sale:
For more help and guidance
Please contact me to discuss your individual needs relating to any short sale; I have experience in short sales that will prove helpful to you!
Copyright ©2010 02038.com
[post_title] => Will new short sale program help homeowners avoid foreclosure?
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[post_content] => Improving economic conditions across the US are creating new obstacles to short sales, according to an article in the current edition of BusinessWeek magazine. The firmer economy reportedly is prompting more mortgage lenders to refuse to cooperate with short sales or seek extra money from short sellers at closing.
Click the link to learn more about what short sales are and how they have helped distressed home sellers get out from under their onerous mortgage debt burdens.
BusinessWeek claims that many lenders now are reluctant to consent to short sale requests.
Some lenders withhold consent unless short sellers come up with significant extra money at closing. Other lenders reportedly are demanding that short sellers sign a promissory note in return for the lenders’ approval of the short sale. You can read the entire BusinessWeek article here.
5.6% of MA homes for sale are “short”
Only 5.6% of all single family home listings in Massachusetts are short sales, according to data maintained by MLSPIN, the dominant MLS in MA.
The numbers stay roughly the same if you look only at the Greater Boston metro market. In Franklin, MA only 5.4% of all single family listings are currently "short".
Given that short sales comprise such a small percentage of all single family homes currently for sale in Greater Boston and the overall MA real estate market, the increased lender resistance to short sales reported by BusinessWeek does not seem likely to be a major problem in this state.
Many more short sales in old mill towns
But the percentage of short sale listings gets a lot higher when you look at the economically downtrodden Massachusetts mill communities and inner city markets.
Short sales in Brockton comprise 21.5% of all active single family listings in Brockton on MLSPIN. It’s only slightly better in Lawrence (18.8%), and Lowell (16.1%) and other hard-hit markets.
So the new mortgage lender resistance to short sales reported by BusinessWeek may become a very significant problem in the still-depressed mill town and inner city markets in the Commonwealth.
More of a problem with multi-family homes
The short sale picture is even grimmer in the MA multi-family market.
Roughly 15% of all multi-family listings in Massachusetts are short sales on the MLSPIN system.
And the numbers soar into the low-to-mid 30% range in cities such as Worcester, Brockton, and Lawrence.
More foreclosures coming?
The large numbers of “upside down” home owners in these inner city markets seem primed for trouble if lenders are now tempted to obstruct their short sales as the BusinessWeek article suggests.
If lenders refuse to cooperate with short sales in these depressed markets, more distressed MA home owners seem headed towards foreclosure. Quite a surprise given all the recent good news about MA real estate and the Massachusetts economy in general.
The real question may become whether the foreclosing lenders will, once their new REO properties hit the market, net more money than they would have had they continued approving short sales in lieu of foreclosure auctions.
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
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[post_content] => Many REO home sales in Massachusetts have stalled recently, unable to close due to a MA Land Court ruling back in March that invalidated two MA foreclosure sales.
As described in the current edition of Banker and Tradesman, home buyers and Realtors® are now reporting that many post-foreclosure sales of REO (Real Estate Owned) homes in MA can’t go to closing. The sales are delayed pending resolution of a foreclosure title glitch relating to backdated “assignments of mortgages,” a common but obscure aspect of mortgage practice in Massachusetts.
The Land Court’s ruling has caused many title insurers to stop issuing coverage for new REO sales. This has halted many REO closings, making a lot of buyers very angry.
So if you are considering buying a bank-owned property in Massachusetts, you should be aware that there may be a serious impediment to your closing on that home, at least until after this foreclosure title issue is resolved.
The Background
Mortgages and the promissory notes they secure are routinely bought and sold as investments. “Assignments of mortgages” is a high volume business with lots of paperwork that often gets backlogged. Lenders are flooded with foreclosures, creating an environment already fraught with delays, confusion and mistakes.
One way of easing the bureaucratic burden is to “backdate” some of the paperwork supporting the mortgage assignment. Assignments of mortgages has become sort of an ‘I’ll buy it now and we’ll handle the paperwork later’ transaction.
The Trouble with Backdating
Even mortgages in arrears are assigned (they are sold at a steep discount). The trouble with backdating assignments of mortgages heading into foreclosure arises where the entity initiating foreclosure proceedings lacks clear ownership of the mortgage, relying instead on backdated documents sometimes signed AFTER the foreclosure sale is completed.
This backdating of mortgage assignments can create conflicts with the strict notice and publication requirements of Massachusetts foreclosure law designed to protect the interest of mortgage debtors.
The conflict can call into question the validity of a foreclosure sale and can seriously delay the post-foreclosure re-sale of the property by the foreclosing lender. Quite a mess!
REO Buyer Beware
So until the conundrum is resolved in the courts, it’s “buyer beware” with REO property: you may not be able to close on that REO home as scheduled!
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
[post_title] => REO Home Sales In Limbo
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[post_content] => As you may know, short sales abound in the current MA real estate market. With a short sale, the home being sold is worth less than the mortgage debt secured by the property. The lender agrees to accept less at closing than the outstanding mortgage loan balance.
One of my recent listings was a short sale which successfully closed May 22, 2009. The seller was in a very tough financial situation, being unable to make the monthly payments on his mortgage loan and owing roughly $140,000 more than his home was realistically worth.
After months of the delays and bureaucratic bank bundling so typical with short and REO sales we got the bank’s approval of the sale last week and closed within a few days.
The result was a home seller able to start a new life free of a crushing debt burden with his credit mostly intact and a home buyer who got a good deal by being very patient and understanding about the repeated closing postponements we had to endure at the hands of the lender.
Here’s what the home seller had to say:
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am. This has been a long and arduous journey and your help and guidance during every step has been nothing short of remarkable. It would have been next to impossible to get this done without your continued assistance. You went above and beyond your normal role to ensure there were no delays from my end. Kindly accept my heartfelt thanks for a job well done.”
The lender won also, because it very likely netted substantially more at the short sale closing than it would have received as a REO seller after an expensive foreclosure sale.
So if you are in financial trouble, a short sale can be the intelligent, proactive way to shed debt, avoid foreclosure and salvage your credit rating.
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
[post_title] => Short Sale Success
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[post_content] => It’s often ‘buyer beware’ with Massachusetts foreclosures. This is especially the case for unwary buyers of MA foreclosed homes that lack public sewer service. The Title 5 regulations can make buying foreclosed homes with private septic systems a tricky proposition.
As you probably know, the Title 5 regulations in Massachusetts mandate that all homes not on town sewer have their on-site sewage disposal systems (typically a septic system) inspected prior to the sale of the property.
Most home sellers routinely pay for the Title 5 inspection as part of the process of selling their home
You’d think that this would mean that when you buy a foreclosed MA home from a lender (often called an REO property) the lender would offer it to you with a passing Title 5 inspection report.
This is unfortunately not the case with Massachusetts foreclosures; there is an exception in the Title 5 regulations which specifically allows foreclosing lenders to avoid the Title 5 inspection obligation.
This exception in practice puts the onus of ensuring compliance with MA’s Title 5 regulations squarely on the buyer of the REO property.
Here’s how this works:
The regulations colloquially referred to as “Title 5” comprise 96 legal-sized pages of text codified under 310 CMR 15.000.
You can download the Title 5 regulations here.
310 CMR 15.301 sets forth the inspection requirements of Title 5.
Title 5 requires that all on-site sewerage disposal systems be inspected prior to the sale of the property they serve. The inspection must take no earlier than 2 years prior to the sale (3 years if the waste disposal system was pumped annually after the inspection).
If weather conditions preclude inspection prior to the sale, the inspection can he performed no later than six months after the closing.
310 CMR 15.301(3)(b) makes the important exception for foreclosure sales.
Essentially, this provision allows a foreclosing institution to avoid performing the Title 5 inspection for up to six months after the Massachusetts foreclosure sale, so long as within that time period it contractually allocates responsibility for the inspection to an “unaffiliated third party” (i.e. the buyer at the subsequent REO re-sale).
Thus, lenders selling a REO Massachusetts foreclosure property can refuse to pay for or perform the Title 5 inspection, seeking instead to make the buyer deal with the Title 5 hassles.
If you as the buyer need financing to fund your acquisition of an REO property, your mortgage lender will require a passing Title 5 inspection before the closing. So you’ll have to go out of pocket to pay for the Title 5 inspection of a home you don’t yet own. This can cost you anywhere from $350 to $700 or more.
If the inspection can’t be done prior to the closing, your mortgage lender will expect you to put many thousands of dollars into an escrow fund to cover the cost of the inspection and any system repairs that might be indicated by the results of a post-closing Title 5 inspection.
Either way, the Title 5 inspection gets done at the expense of the buyer of the MA foreclosure property.
A potential trap lies in wait for cash buyers of Massachusetts foreclosures: a cash buyer may be tempted to skip the Title 5 inspection, because there is no purchase money mortgage lender demanding that the inspection be done or funds escrowed.
So cash buyers sometimes buy REO homes with the septic system uninspected in the (mistaken) belief that no Title 5 inspection need be done at all.
These cash buyers may not realize that the Title 5 inspection is mandatory and must be performed within 6 months of their purchase of the REO home.
And if the on-site system fails the Title 5 inspection, all system repairs must be performed at their, the new owner’s, expense. That can be a costly proposition!
In reality there are no “septic police” out there stringently monitoring compliance with Title 5.
So a cash buyer of an REO property may encounter no ramifications for his failure to get the Title 5 inspection performed.
But local boards of health are charged with enforcing Title 5 and your cash purchase sans Title 5 inspection may catch a health agent’s eye – with potentially very expensive consequences for you!
So cash buyer beware . . . or buy Massachusetts foreclosures only on public sewer!
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
[post_title] => MA Foreclosures & Title 5: Something to Avoid?
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[post_content] => “After weeks of negotiating the purchase (of a bank-owned home) . . . it turned out the bank didn’t actually own the property, and had wrongfully foreclosed on the home.”
This amazing quote is from an irate employee of an affordable housing organization trying to buy a foreclosed home.
The man wasted weeks of time and effort dealing with the seemingly overworked and overwhelmed loss mitigation department of a major lender. The department didn’t even know the bank didn’t have ownership rights to this home, one of the hundreds of foreclosed properties it was trying to sell!
This cautionary story appears in the current edition of Banker and Tradesman, the respected Massachusetts real estate trade publication.
It illustrates the nightmare of frustration and wasted time sometimes encountered by buyers seeking to buy REO (bank-owned) property.
Quoting again from the article:
“Lenders have been woefully unprepared to deal with the administration and listing of their properties; often, they aren’t even aware that a property is theirs.”
A look at the numbers helps explain why REO lenders are often so dysfunctional with the management and sale of foreclosed properties: there are approximately 5000 REO properties currently in Massachusetts, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. Of those, about 1,700 are being administered by US Bank and Deutsche Bank, the two largest servicers of REO properties in the state.
That’s a lot of homes to handle!
When you add in the 1000s of short sales that are currently ongoing in MA, you can imagine how much potential there is for misunderstandings, delays and mistakes while trying to negotiate a transaction with the loss mitigation staff of a lender.
While there are good deals to be had with REO homes and short sales, just beware that many buyers are reporting frustrations and blown deals due to the inability of the lenders to cope with all the bad mortgage loans that keep landing on their doorsteps.
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
[post_title] => Delays, Mistakes Common with REO & Short Sales
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[post_content] => If you're interested in buying a foreclosed home in Massachusetts and will live in the property as your principal residence, there is a new program that may help you.
Massachusetts recently announced modifications to the previously existing “SoftSecond” loan program which are aimed at encouraging low-and-moderate income buyers to purchase foreclosed homes in designated hard-hit areas of 39 Massachusetts communities.
The modifications to the traditional SoftSecond loan program created an “Enhanced SoftSecond” program.
The key features of the Enhanced SoftSecond program include:
• Broadened loan eligibility. (You do not have to be a first time home buyer as is required under the traditional SoftSecond program.)
• Increased income ceilings. (Income limits under the Enhanced SoftSecond program were raised to up to 120% of the median income in each of the designated areas of the 39 communities covered.)
• Low down payment and no PMI. (As low as 3% down.)
• You must occupy the home as your principal residence. (Single family homes, condominium units, and multi-family properties with up to 3 units are eligible.
Foreclosed homes in designated areas of the following 39 Massachusetts communities are eligible for Enhanced SoftSecond purchase money mortgage loans: Attleboro, Barnstable, Billerica, Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Chicopee, Dracut, Everett, Fall River, Falmouth, Framingham, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Lynn, Marlborough, Marshfield, Methuen, Milford, New Bedford, Peabody, Plymouth, Quincy, Randolph, Revere, Salem, Saugus, Somerville, Springfield, Stoughton, Taunton, Wareham, Weymouth, Worcester, and Yarmouth.
In an additional move aimed at encouraging the purchase of foreclosed homes in designated Massachusetts communities, the Enhanced Softsecond loan program has been further improved by giving Enhanced Softsecond borrowers access to property rehabilitation grant money via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), a Federal program.
NSP grants will pay home buyers to renovate the foreclosed homes they purchase under the Enhanced SoftSecond program.
Grants are available if the foreclosed property is located in select areas of 17 Massachusetts communities: Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Chicopee, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, Revere, Somerville, Springfield and Worcester.
As much as $20,000 will be available for renovations of single-family homes and and up to $40,000 will be granted for renovations of two- and three-family homes.
Click here learn more about the Enhanced SoftSecond and NSP rehabilitation grant program in Massachusetts for low and moderate income buyers of foreclosed homes.
Did you know that foreclosed homes are for sale on the MLS? Click here to see all homes for sale in select regions of Massachusetts!
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
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[post_content] => Buying a home from a bank after the foreclosure auction can be very lucrative. And by buying a foreclosed property, you are performing an important function in helping stabilize the real estate market in general as well as the neighborhood in which the home is located.
But REO home sales carry a hidden problem for prospective purchasers: the properties frequently have been “winterized” to protect them from the cold Massachusetts weather.
If you’ve ever seen a home that has had burst pipes, you know the terrible damage water can cause to a structure.
Where a water pipe bursts on an upper floor, the water damage quickly spreads. Ceilings on lower levels collapse, walls sprout mold, wood floors buckle – whole sections of a structure must be gutted if water runs unabated for even one day. It’s easy to run up repair bills of $50,000 and more.
That’s why lenders which foreclose on properties during the cold winter months in MA will “winterize” the structure immediately upon taking title at the auction.
They turn off the utilities, drain all pipes and often add anti-freeze. Sometimes electrical service is left on, but everything else is turned off, disabled and drained.
This creates a lot of challenges for the post-foreclosure marketing and sale of REO homes.
It’s impossible for buyers to do a full home inspection of a winterized home.
“Dry” inspections are easily done, but there’s no way to judge the functioning and condition of the home’s heating and plumbing systems. You just assume the risk of undiscovered problems with mechanical systems if you buy a home with only a “dry” home inspection.
Buyers may get the REO lender’s OK to pay to dewinterize the structure for a home inspection, but the buyer will also have to foot the bill to re-winterize the place after the inspection is done. Together, the dewinterize/rewinterize process can cost well over $1,000.
You can say everything is negotiable and seek to get the REO lender to pay to dewinterize and rewinterize a property.
Some REO lenders will pay at least part of the dewinterize/rewinterize costs. But communications with REO lenders (or their 3rd party asset management company) are notoriously slow and difficult. Many buyers give up on a REO purchase in frustration after lots of lost time.
Lack of open, easy communications between real estate agents and REO lenders greatly complicates inspections and sales of REO properties. It’s the part of the buyers’ cost of doing business with REO properties.
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
[post_title] => How to Inspect a Foreclosed Winterized Home
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[post_content] => Buying a home at foreclosure auction or from a lender post-foreclosure is a very hot topic these days. And where there’s widespread popular interest in a complicated, poorly understood aspect of life involving lots of money, the scam artists are quick to set up shop.
It seems there are hundreds of web sites featuring photos of nice homes going to foreclosure auction here in Massachusetts and across the United States. Many of these sites sell access to what they say are lists of names and addresses of homeowners facing foreclosure and inventories of bank owned homes.
There are safe, secure ways to peruse pre-and-post-foreclosure sale information on the Internet.
But unless you know for sure the web site you’re visiting is honest and reputable, you should think twice before paying for access to foreclosure lists. Guard your credit card information carefully!
Here’s what I found yesterday when I was doing real estate searches on Google:
I have blanked out the name of the company that is running the advertisement shown above. I do not identify this company in this post in any way.
The company is touting what it purports to be a home in pre-foreclosure status. The street name (without house number) is given along with an image of the house and a map showing the general location in Franklin, MA are displayed.
To get the complete address and details about this upcoming foreclosure sale, you need to register with the company and give them your credit card number (‘only an initial $1.49 charge – cancel any time!’).
There’s a big problem with this ad: this foreclosure sale was held 6 months ago!
I attended this foreclosure auction with one of my clients and he was the successful bidder. He bought the home, fixed it up (including adding central heat to unheated 2nd floor). He then listed the property for sale with me and I successfully sold this home late last year to a nice young couple.
Here’s the home as one of my “sold” listings.
Yet this home is now being actively advertised as being in “pre-foreclosure” by a company that wants your credit card number. The ad is showcased on AOL Real Estate which states the ad was first placed with them February 18, 2009. (I contacted the current owners who assured me they are current on their mortgage and very happy with their home.)
I Googled the company’s name with the term “complaint” and got back quite a number of hits detailing what look to be many consumer grievances against this company. Many consumers allege they are the victims of fraudulent credit card billings by this firm. I have no personal knowledge of whether these allegations are true. All I am doing here is relaying that others have posted complaints about their experiences with this company.
Don’t become a victim of Internet fraud. Maintain a good dose of skepticism about what you see on-line concerning foreclosures – until you are sure about with whom you are dealing, keep your credit card information to yourself!
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
[post_title] => Foreclosure Web Sites & Credit Cards Equal Trouble
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[post_content] => There’s seems to be some confusion about what the phrase “as is” means in practical terms in a real estate sale.
You’ll see “as is” with an increasing number of listings on the MLS as more and more homes are hitting the market either as short sales or as REO sales.
Here’s what an “as is” typically means in actual practice: the seller will not make any repairs to the property nor will the seller credit the buyer at closing for physical problems that may be uncovered during the home inspection.
So your analysis as a buyer is very simple: if a home has been neglected and the listing says “as is”, you’d better plan on handling repairs at your own expense after the closing when you are the owner. (There are ways to finance repairs; Section 203K loans are a good avenue to explore with certain ‘as is” sales.)
To help clear up what seems to be widespread confusion about what an “as is” listing entails, here’s a review of what an “as is” sale does NOT entail in Massachusetts:
1. “As is” does not relieve home sellers of the obligation to truthfully reply to buyers’ questions about what the sellers knows about the home.
2. “As is” does not relieve listing agents from complying with Massachusetts laws requiring an agent to disclose to buyers information the agent knows about the property that might reasonably be deemed to be material to a buyer’s purchase decision making. Note that with bank owned homes (REO sales), the bank (and hence the listing agent) rarely knows anything about the property, so you’d best perform a lot of buyer due diligence with bank-owned homes.
3. "As is" does not prohibit buyers from inserting a home inspection contingency into a purchase offer. Home inspections can be conducted and sale agreements may be terminated pursuant to a home inspection contingency, just as with any other home purchase.
So with an “as is” listing, by all means get a home inspection. Just understand that “as is” typically means the seller will not undertake repairs, so if your inspector finds expensive defects, you’ll most likely have to terminate, get your deposit money back and move on to another home.
Here’s a complication with REO (bank-owned) sales: often during the cold months of the year, the homes have been“winterized” (water and utilities turned off, water pipes drained and often filled with anti-freeze.) So there is no way to do a complete home inspection without “de-winterizing” the home and then re-winterizing it again once the inspection is done – a very expensive proposition that lenders frown upon (if not outright bar) and thus not very practical.
Copyright ©2009 02038.com
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[post_content] => With the recent news that the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is failing to help the overwhelming majority of distressed homeowners in the country (see Money.com's article “10 foreclosures for every home saved”), we may see more short sales and foreclosure auctions in coming months.
New short sale program designed to help
The new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) took effect this month and is designed to help streamline the short sale process.
Short sales are sometimes referred to as “pre-foreclosure sales" and up to now have been characterized by long bureaucratic delays and frustrated would-be buyers and sellers.
45 page HAFA download makes things simpler?
HAFA is intended to fast-track and regularize the short sale process.
But it is an extremely complex program. It's supported by a daunting 45 page download of rules and forms, so get ready for some heavy reading.
Know the rules and use the right forms
Not all distressed homeowners will qualify for the program and whether HAFA succeeds or fails to make short sales quicker and easier remains to be seen.
But what’s important for prospective short sale sellers and buyers alike is that you may now have standard forms to use and uniform rules lenders and servicers must abide by.
So the real estate agent helping you better be up to speed on this important new program or you may still encounter disappointments in your efforts to either sell or buy a home via a short sale.
Helpful links
Here are some links to information on both the loan modification and short sale programs; just click on the icons below:
Insightful video
The following video is geared towards real estate agents but is helpful to anyone thinking of selling or buying via a short sale:
For more help and guidance
Please contact me to discuss your individual needs relating to any short sale; I have experience in short sales that will prove helpful to you!
Copyright ©2010 02038.com
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by Warren Reynolds on April 15, 2010
With the recent news that the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is failing to help the overwhelming majority of distressed homeowners in the country (see Money.com’s article “10 foreclosures for every home saved”), we may see more short sales and foreclosure auctions in coming months. New short sale program designed to help The [...]
Tagged as: Home Seller Tips, Short Sales
{ 1 comment }
by Warren Reynolds on October 13, 2009
Improving economic conditions across the US are creating new obstacles to short sales, according to an article in the current edition of BusinessWeek magazine. The firmer economy reportedly is prompting more mortgage lenders to refuse to cooperate with short sales or seek extra money from short sellers at closing. Click the link to learn more about [...]
Tagged as: Short Sales
{ 0 comments }
by Warren Reynolds on June 11, 2009
Many REO home sales in Massachusetts have stalled recently, unable to close due to a MA Land Court ruling back in March that invalidated two MA foreclosure sales. As described in the current edition of Banker and Tradesman, home buyers and Realtors® are now reporting that many post-foreclosure sales of REO (Real Estate Owned) homes [...]
Tagged as: MA Foreclosure, Massachusetts foreclosures, REO
{ 2 comments }
by Warren Reynolds on May 24, 2009
As you may know, short sales abound in the current MA real estate market. With a short sale, the home being sold is worth less than the mortgage debt secured by the property. The lender agrees to accept less at closing than the outstanding mortgage loan balance. One of my recent listings was a short [...]
Tagged as: REO Homes, Short Sales
{ 0 comments }
by Warren Reynolds on April 21, 2009
It’s often ‘buyer beware’ with Massachusetts foreclosures. This is especially the case for unwary buyers of MA foreclosed homes that lack public sewer service. The Title 5 regulations can make buying foreclosed homes with private septic systems a tricky proposition. As you probably know, the Title 5 regulations in Massachusetts mandate that all homes not [...]
Tagged as: MA Foreclosure, Massachusetts foreclosures, REO, Title 5
{ 11 comments }
by Warren Reynolds on March 26, 2009
“After weeks of negotiating the purchase (of a bank-owned home) . . . it turned out the bank didn’t actually own the property, and had wrongfully foreclosed on the home.” This amazing quote is from an irate employee of an affordable housing organization trying to buy a foreclosed home. The man wasted weeks of time [...]
Tagged as: Foreclosure Sales, REO Homes, Short Sales
{ 0 comments }
by Warren Reynolds on March 3, 2009
If you’re interested in buying a foreclosed home in Massachusetts and will live in the property as your principal residence, there is a new program that may help you. Massachusetts recently announced modifications to the previously existing “SoftSecond” loan program which are aimed at encouraging low-and-moderate income buyers to purchase foreclosed homes in designated hard-hit [...]
Tagged as: Foreclosure Sales, SoftSecond Loans
{ 0 comments }
by Warren Reynolds on March 1, 2009
Buying a home from a bank after the foreclosure auction can be very lucrative. And by buying a foreclosed property, you are performing an important function in helping stabilize the real estate market in general as well as the neighborhood in which the home is located. But REO home sales carry a hidden problem for [...]
Tagged as: Foreclosure Sales, Home Inspections, REO, Winterized Homes
by Warren Reynolds on February 22, 2009
Buying a home at foreclosure auction or from a lender post-foreclosure is a very hot topic these days. And where there’s widespread popular interest in a complicated, poorly understood aspect of life involving lots of money, the scam artists are quick to set up shop. It seems there are hundreds of web sites featuring photos [...]
Tagged as: Foreclosure Sales, Home Buyer Tips
by Warren Reynolds on February 3, 2009
There’s seems to be some confusion about what the phrase “as is” means in practical terms in a real estate sale. You’ll see “as is” with an increasing number of listings on the MLS as more and more homes are hitting the market either as short sales or as REO sales. Here’s what an “as [...]
Tagged as: As Is Home Purchase, Home Buyer Tips, Home Seller Tips
{ 1 comment }
Warren Reynolds, Esq, GRI, e-PRO
Tel: 508.613.2889 | Contact
Century 21 Commonwealth
9 Main Street
Franklin, MA 02038
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