more about SHORT SALES

What's the 1st Step before deciding to do a Short Sale?

In your initial Consultation with Ginger Hopp, she can determine if you qualify for the "Short-Sale" or you may possibly qualify for one of these new "Loan Modifications" if you want to keep your property with a lower payment and lower loan balance.

If you have no income, then it will be a Short Sale you need.

The Lender must approve your Short-Sale, and they make that decision based on your Hardship and other financial informaiton included in your "Short-Sale-Package".

How Much will it Cost to List my Property for Sale with Ginger Hopp?

NO COST to a distressed home seller, who "Qualifies" for a Short-Sale, when that Property is Listed for Sale with Ginger Hopp. The Seller(s) are required to co-operate in the preparation of the "Short-Sale Package" as outlined on **Exhibit A. Additionally, the seller(s) will be expected to co-operate fully during Open House Showings and other showings of the Property to potential Buyers. In a normal Listing, it is always the Seller who pays the 6% Listing fee to sell their property.

What is a "Short-Sale Package" ? Your "Short-Sale Specialist", will need to gather financial information from you in order to prepare this "Special Short-Sale Package. So, understand that this Package is like a blue-print and is mandatory so that the Lender can make the decision to sell Short of your loan balance; it has to make sense to them. Even if I bring them several Pre-Approved Buyers all putting offers on the property at current Market Value, the Lender cannot accept the deal without this "Short-Sale Package". If the lender is able to see the entire picture at a glance, they usually take the deal, and can then decide if they approve of the Buyer and his offer.

Why is a "Short-Sale Package" so important? The bank does not have a department capable of putting together a "Short-Sale Package" and they rely on the Listing Agent to prepare these documents for them in order to bring the matter before their board and make a wise financial decision for the bank. If it makes sense on paper, they are willing to act. If they don't have any facts in front of them, their hands are tied and they can do nothing except wait for the buyers to bring in all of the cash, including fees that were added due to a Notice of Default and other fees. Obviously, the borrower couldn't even pay the payment, how are they going to find the additional expenses? But, with the "Short-Sale Package" showing the bank a win-win for both the bank and the borrower, now they can say "Yes" to the Short-Sale. Banks are not in the business of owning property; they don't really want to own it.

Remember, the Bank is in the business of earning interest, NOT selling houses. In years past, a short-sale was only granted with extremely severe hardships, for instance you were thrown off a horse and one of your arms is now paralyzed keeping you from doing any kind of work. So, now you can't make enough money to pay the mortgage payment. Today, because of all the foreclosures, lenders have much more relaxed rules; they want to make a deal. Having a "Short-Sale Package" gives them the CYB documents they need to write it off, too. You cannot hire just any agent, you need a "Certified Foreclosure Specialist" who knows how to prepare your complex package for the lender.

It is important to you, the home owner, to know that you need this special "Short-Sale package" put together by someone who knows what they are doing.... because you want to avoid Foreclsure and salvage your credit from any further damage, so that I can help you purchase another home again when your income situation is remedied.

Can I use any Real Estate Agent, for instance my Cousin? Yes, but NO, you shouldn't. Even if your cousin or neighbor is going to work really hard for you, it is not a good idea for you to hire them unless they are trained and know how to do the short-sale package; you may end up in foreclosure after all. Even though your Cousin or neighbor agent didn't mean to hurt you, they just might anyway from lack of know-how.

If an Agent has lots of Short-Sale Listings, they're an Expert, right? NO, not necessarily. You should always use a Realtor who is also a "Short-Sale Specialist", not just an agent who happens to List a lot of Short- Sale Homes for sale; there is a big difference.

During the first six months of 2008, the statistics have shown that the majority of real estate agents who took Listings for Short Sales, only had a 10% success rate in getting the Lender to accept an offfer of a Pre-Approved Buyer. What, only 10%? Even when there were multiple offers of many Pre-Approved Buyers? Sad, but true. That means that 9 of those 10 homeowners were counting on that agent to save their house from foreclosure, and the agent didn't come through for them. Many of those agents simply complained that they had lost the listing, saying now it was going into foreclosure and another agent would get their deal. They also made comments such as, "the Lender didn't want to lose so much money", or that "the lender was just taking too long to decide", as if it was the Lender's fault that no offers were accepted on time. What about the home owners who lost out? The truth of the matter is, that the lender didn't have the proper documents because the agent didn't have a clue about "Short-Sale Packaging", and so, the lender didn't get the necessary docs needed to be able to say "YES" to an upside down offer. The property ended up in the next stage of the foreclosure process, where an Asset Management Company would be responsible to hire another real estate agent to re-List the property as a bank-owned property, also called an REO. So the unknowing borrower lost the battle to save their home from foreclosure, plus their credit is marred with a foreclosure now. Their credit was not Saved for a future home purchase. It's nobody's fault, just a total lack of information with the agent, the lender and the seller.