Stop Michigan Foreclosure

When you tell people you’re trying to sell your house, do they act like you’re crazy? I constantly hear people say “You’re never going to sell in this economy” or “You’re never going to get what your house is worth.” Both of these statements can be very untrue.

First, let’s look at reasons why people are selling right now. While some people are able to “ride out” the housing crisis in hopes that their equity will soon return, others are not so fortunate. You may have taken a pay-cut, or lost your job altogether which has left you unable to pay your bills. You may have had a death or illness in the family. You may have been forced to relocate for work or for other reasons and cannot afford to pay for two residences. All of these are hardships, which can make selling the house difficult – but we can help.

The reason that most people cannot sell their houses is that they need to price it high to pay off their mortgage (and in many cases, their second mortgage equity loans). This debt is often more than the house is worth, and people are unwilling to pay that inflated price. This is where a short sale can come in very handy. With a short sale, we will negotiate with the bank to accept an amount that’s less than what you own. Buyers are much more willing to pay the amount that a house is worth, and with the extension of the Homebuyer Tax Credit, buyers are getting more motivated. This greatly increases your chances of selling! Heck, half of our cases have buyers already!

Now, we know that people are having a hard time right now. Michigan foreclosure and unemployment rates are astronomical. We can take a lot of stress off of your shoulders, though. You do not have to negotiate a short sale with your bank yourself – we do it for you! We can even set you up with an experienced REALTOR®, all at absolutely no cost to you. We want to help you, and we’re good at what we do. If you’re facing a Michigan foreclosure, and could benefit by doing a short sale, give Emily a call.

Holly

I overheard a statistic today that 12% of all Real Estate Sales are now Short Sales. The commentator went on to say that it would probably be more except that Short Sales take Stamina. Stamina for the buyer to hang in there, Stamina for the seller facing foreclosure to hang in there, Stamina for the negotiator and REALTORS® to keep working on the Short Sale.

Well I have Good News for you if you are a seller facing a Michigan Foreclosure. Our team has Stamina! I have seen Emily work 8 hours in the office then go home and take calls from new referrals and existing sellers in the evenings and weekends. I have seen Melissa sit on hold for 45 minutes or more to talk to a lender about a case. And then she hangs up and calls another one and goes through it again. I have seen Holly call extension after extension at a lender or attorney office until she finds someone who can answer a question or help us move a file forward. And I have seen Joel work tirelessly from 6:00am until sometimes 8:00pm or later  to do whatever he can to get a deal to close.

One of our 4 promises is that we will work harder than anyone to help you get back to better times and that is the Stamina in action. Our track record speaks for itself. The Stamina pays off in terms of results. We have techniques to keep the buyers motivated and we have methods to help the seller deal with the lender. Give us a call and let us put our Stamina to work for you.

Ann

This article “Meltdown 101: What is a Short Sale of a Home?” does a pretty good job of answering commonly asked questions about short sales. If you are facing a Michigan foreclosure or know someone who is, this information will help educate you on “short sales” which are one of the most useful, and often misunderstood tools available to help get a homeowner back to better times.

I want to zero in on the last 2 questions in the article.

Why is the process so complicated and why does it take so long? The writer does a good job of naming the common pitfalls with short sales. These errors are made by inexperienced homeowners and REALTORS® trying to do a short sale with no training. Trust me, with more than 10years experience and 100s of short sale approvals, our negotiators know the right paperwork to submit and who to submit it to so your short sale gets attention and is not kicked back or neglected. Plus, they follow up unrelentlessly.

And talk about being educated about short sales.  Joel, our President and lead negotiator/closer as the only State of Michigan Approved continuing education course for REALTORS® that’s taught by a full time short sale negotiator.  REALTORS® are coming to him to learn from “The Master” on how to get close to our 80% success rate (vs. the 10% national average).

What should I do if I am interested in a short sale? That’s easy – call us. We do nothing but short sales. We have a trained and dedicated staff waiting to help you evaluate your options and negotiate your short sale if that is the right answer for you.

While this article gave you the 101 basics of short sales, our team has a graduate degree in short sales and we are ready to work for you. Give us a call today.

Ann

If you have an FHA loan that is in default, you may have heard that the federal government launched a program in August to help you since other government programs excluded FHA loans.

Before you get your hopes up, read this article.  It boldly says this program will only help 45,000 of the approx. 850,000 FHA loans that are in default. Those odds are not very good that the program can help you (about 5%). This “success rate” is about the same as lenders helping borrowers on their own (without the government’s help) through the lenders’ own “loan modification” programs.

Fortunately for you, the odds that we can help you if you are facing a Michigan Foreclosure (regardless of the type of loan) are much higher. Still, we cannot help everyone and the earlier you call us in the foreclosure process, the better the chances we can help you. Give our team a call and see what we can do to help you get back to better times.

Ann

There’s been a lot in the press lately about banks accepting short sales but still requiring all or part of the balance to be paid by the seller. Let’s talk about that and what we do to help avoid that from happening.

When a short sale has been negotiated and approved, there will always be a difference between the amount approved by the bank to release the lien against the property, and the principal balance that was originally owed. Most of the time, that amount, called the “deficiency”, will either be charged off by the bank and they will issue a 1099 IRS form showing the deficiency as income to the seller. Usually, a good accountant will be able to balance that amount out at the end of the year, so that the seller ends up paying nothing out of pocket. This scenario is, of course, ideal.

However, in certain circumstances – usually in the case of a second mortgage – the seller may be asked to sign a promissory note for the deficiency. The amount on the note may be the balance due minus the fee paid to release the lien (which is usually $1,000-$5,000), it may be a percentage of the balance, or it may just be an amount determined by the bank based on your assets, income & expenses.

The way we structure our cases here at Great Lakes Home Solutions, Inc. allows us to negotiate with the bank to have the account in question “settled” (almost all the time). Settled means that there is no amount due from the seller at closing and no promissory note to be paid by the seller in the form of installments for a specified length of time. We exhaust every resource and explore each alternative to avoid this type of situation, which allows the seller to start fresh with a clean slate.

This is more of a complex topic regarding short sales. For further explanation, give us a call and we will answer all of your questions so you can make the best choice. Bottom line is of course the alternative of a Michigan foreclosure is going to be much worse.

See my next article to find out more about what happens when a note is unavoidable.

Melissa

I don’t have a lot of time to BLOG today.  Ann and I just got back from another one of our Short Sale mastermind meetings.  Over 2 days in Cleveland.  We were hanging out with the country’s best short sale negotiations teams.  It was yet another excellent opportunity to learn from each other, get even better at what we do, so we can help more Michigan families who are facing foreclosure stop them dead in their tracks.  Some of what we picked up included:

• More “back door” numbers at some of the major lenders (Countywide aka Bank of America, Citi Financial, HSBC, Homecomings and more).
• Changes on how most lenders want to see their short sale packages presented to speed the process
• The top 5 secrets to get lenders to realize the true market value of houses in today’s’ market
• How to structure our 5-member team to become more efficient.

All of this information will allow us to more rapidly get short sales approved for you!  Call us and we’ll put our newly found knowledge to work for you today!

Joel

Many families are struggling with this question when facing a Michigan foreclosure. Remember, I’m not an attorney, so I can’t advise you which is best for you and your family.

I have ask a simple question to help you decide on your own what direction to start in:

“If it weren’t for the foreclosure, would you still consider the bankruptcy?”

More often than not the answer will be “well, no”.

I suggest you consider trying to sell the house on a short sale. If we’re all successful with working with you on this, and we stop the foreclosure and save you from putting a bankruptcy on your credit, why not give it a try? Also consider that filing for bankruptcy could cost you thousands of dollars while working a short sale with us won’t cost you a dime.

If you are seriously considering a bankruptcy, before meeting with a bankruptcy attorney, be sure to write out these questions and ask them all at your first meeting.

Give me a call and I’d be glad to discuss your options with you!

Emily

I often have sellers ask me if they can purchase the house back from the buyer after a short sale. I really wish you could, but unfortunately, you can’t.

One of the stipulations from your lender is that you can’t benefit from the short sale. Staying in the house after a short sale, regardless of who buys it, would constitute a benefit to you. Whether through a land contract, lease/option or lease – we don’t want you committing loan fraud by going against your lenders short sale requirements.

There are plenty of other benefits from the short sale that you can receive: saving your credit from a Michigan foreclosure and keeping the mortgage company from coming after you for the foreclosure deficiency are the two biggest ones.

If you want to find out if it your best option, give me a call. You can reach me at 269-685-5921.

Emily

To be successful, every Short Sale should be a partnership in which each member of the team takes their responsibility seriously. When we work with a seller facing a Michigan foreclosure, this is what the team responsibilities look like.

Realtor® – markets house and finds buyers.

[GLHS] Great Lakes Home Solutions, Inc (us) – negotiates the Short Sale with the foreclosing lenders, handles all communications with the lenders.

Seller (you) – maintains house for showings, cooperates with showings, stays in communication with GLHS & notifies GLHS of any changes in their situation such as moving, notices from the bank, inability to pay utilities, etc.

One of the reasons our Short Sale acceptance is 8 times the national average of 10% (we are close to 80%) is that we insist that you take responsibility for your part. After all, we are investing time and resources to resolve your situation without charging you, the Realtors®  or the buyer. What better way to show your gratitude than to shoulder your load. Yes, we understand you have a hardship and life is not great right now. We are trying to get you back to better times as quickly as possible. We will be much more successful when we work as a team.

Some examples of good teammates and not good teammates.

Not So Good Teammates

• Refuses or limits showings because of pets, work/sleep hours, children, company, etc. (Realize in today’s market, if a buyer can’t see the house when they want to, they probably won’t be back. They have far more homes available to them then you have buyers available to you).
• Moves without telling us, turning off utilities and leaving house vulnerable to damage from freezing pipes, vandalism, etc. or repossession by lender (yes, they can repossess if they deem the house abandoned. We can prevent this but we have to know it is vacant).
• Does not return our phone calls in a timely manner possibly preventing us from getting critical information needed to complete the Short Sale or update you on a critical development.

Good Teammates

• Makes sure house is clean and de-cluttered for showings, looking and smelling nice.
• Leaves for showings so the buyer can look in privacy and start to feel like they can make the house their home.
• Reports any phone calls, letters, postings from the lenders to us immediately.
• Maintains an attitude of gratitude realizing that they have no other options and we are working harder than anyone to help them.

See there, your responsibilities on this team really aren’t that hard when you consider we take the burden of all dealings with the lenders off your back, plus answer all your questions about options and what is happening. I guarantee that we will work harder than anyone else on this team or any other to get your situation resolved.

Ready to join the team? We’re ready to have you! Give us a call today and join a winning team!

Ann

Who better to answer this question about how qualified your Realtor is to negotiate your short sale besides Michigan’s premiere Short Sale Negotiator and Trainer?

Joel will teach you the exact questions to ask so you can learn your Realtor’s chances of helping you with your short sale so you can avoid a Michigan foreclosure.

Check out the video on this page.

Joel