Trent Chapman

That is the loan balance. The loan is in default, not foreclosed. When the property is 'in default' it just means that the homeowner has 90 days to cure the loan or sell the property before the lender has the right to file a Notice of Trustee Sale. The Trustee Sale will usually take place 3 weeks after public notice is filed.

This homeowner has many options as the value of their home is double their defaulted loan balance of $164,700.00. If they have a second mortgage, that may cut into their equity position and also their options for selling the home, but it is unlikely that the second loan balance would be higher than the first... but it could happen.

Hope this clarifies things a little.

Trent@ShortSaleGeni.us - Wed Sep 24 2008, 21:14

The bank wants the highest net offer. What that means is whichever offer will give them the most money. So, an all cash offer for $20K less than your 90% financing offer will not beat you out, IF your pre-approval and proof of funds (VOD or bank statement) are solid. What I mean by a solid pre-approval is a bank underwritten approval AFTER they have reviewed your financials and checked your credit. The bank will ALWAYS take the most solid offer that returns MORE of their money, UNLESS the bank never sees your offer. You see, it is a misconception among most uneducated Real Estate Professionals that your offer MUST be submitted to the lender. The truth is, the seller must allow any offer to go to the lender, they can decide to NOT send your offer if they don't want to. The bottom line is, get a strong pre-approval and have your proof of funds ready and make sure that your offer has been submitted for approval. Many times you are wasting your time if the agent or person negotiating the short sale is not too experienced. My company trains hundreds of agents each month on how to negotiate with the bank, so maybe the agent listing the home or your agent would benefit from a little education... - Sat May 31 2008, 22:18

Mike,

A short refi is hard to come by, mainly because your current lender will need to approve it before you miss a payment, otherwise you will not be able to quailfy for the refi with the new lender.

I have a client in Las Vegas who I am helping do exactly what you are trying to do. Please email me the best phone number at which to contact you and I we can talk and assess your situation (appraised value, income vs liabilities and credit repair options). Most likely the lender allowing the short refi is not giving you enough of a discount to make the new mortgage less than 80% LTV. Meaning, your home will not appraise for $875K to make the new loan amount of $700K an 80% LTV loan.

You are probably running into problems with the high LTV with the 6 or 7 lenders you have dealt with so far.

Worse case scenario, find a competent short sale agent to list your home. We can discuss questions to ask the listing agent when we talk about your short refi. Good luck.

trent@opproperties.com - Wed Nov 21 2007, 08:43

I would only buy a pre-forclosure if:

1- They had sufficient equity to drop the price below current value to give me a great deal.

or

2- If they had no eqiuty, they at lest had a competent agent or negotiator working with the lender to get my offer accept for less than what is owed on the property (short sale).

Most agents do not have the knowledge or experience to deal with short sales, thus the 10% successful close ratio on a national average. With an offer within 15% of current market value, I can close 80% of the short sales I list.

Again, make sure the 'listing agent' is competent in negotiating. The buyer's agent that claims to be a short sale or preforclosure expert and just shows you homes for sale (not their own listings) always cracks me up. The listing agent is the one that needs to be the expert, the buyer's agent sits back and waits for the deal to get accepted.

Happy house hunting. - Wed Nov 21 2007, 08:32

I paid to go to seminars and gone to the 'title rep' seminars where one of the title agents teach and got little to nothing out of the seminar except what paperwork to send to the lender.
I found a loss mitigator in IndyMac banks loss mitigation department that was willing to teach me short sales from the banks perspective. From that I have been able to close deals that everyone said were impossible.
One client owed $568K on their home and lost his job and was moving out of state. He had enough money to stay current on his payments while I got the lender to accept a short sale for $438K, which after buyer closing concessions and closing seller's costs netted the first lender $393,400 and $2,000 to the second lender. THIS CLIENT NEVER MISSED A PAYMENT!
I got this loss mitigator to leave IndyMac and he now works with me to teach agents nationwide to do short sales. http://becomea.shortsalegeni.us is where you can RSVP for upcoming events. The portal for the agents that we work with is http://www.shortsalegeni.us
It is a free seminar with tips that have worked against all of the top ten lenders (my office has tested everything that Lee taught us). The next LA event is mid-December and will be posted on the site next week. - Wed Nov 21 2007, 08:21