Orlando Short Sale Expert | Orlando Short Sales, Orlando Short Sale Realtor

You may run into financial difficulties that impact your FICO score. Some difficulties may change your score by a small amount, others can drop your score significantly. What your score was before the difficulty appeared on your credit report also can make a difference.

Here is a comparison of the impact that credit problems can have on the FICO scores of two different people: Alex and Benecia. Note that their initial FICO scores are 100 points apart.

First, let’s give you a general snapshot of Alex’s and Benecia’s credit profiles:

As you can see, maxing out a credit card has the smallest impact of these credit missteps. Declaring bankruptcy has the biggest impact to their scores. For someone like Benecia with a high FICO score of 780, declaring bankruptcy could lower her score by as much as 240 points. That’s because the FICO scoring model generally gives the most weight to payment history when calculating the score, and bankruptcy is included in one’s payment history. Also, a bankruptcy often involves more than one credit account, compared with a foreclosure which often involves just a single account.

High scores can fall farther. Notice that Benecia would lose more points for each misstep than would Alex, even though her FICO score starts out 100 points higher. That’s because Alex’s lower score of 680 already reflects his riskier past behavior. So the addition of one more indicator of increased risk on his credit report is not quite as significant to his score as it is for Benecia.

Settling a credit card debt is the third credit problem listed. It means that the lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on the account. A settled account indicates a higher level of risk and typically happens only when an account is overdue. So in Benecia’s case, to help make the debt settlement plausible we also added a 30-day delinquency to her credit report. Her new score reflects both changes. Alex’s credit report already included a recent delinquency.

Are you more like Alex or Benecia? Many different combinations of information on a credit report can produce a FICO score of 680 or 780. Depending on what’s on your own credit report, your credit score experience may vary from that of Alex or Benecia. By taking a look at your own credit report and comparing it to the profile of Alex and Benecia, you might be able to learn what to expect if you happen to encounter a credit misstep.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert and Foreclosure Specialist who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake, Osceola and Brevard County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent and realtor who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.

We also have now expanded to help homeowners to Stop Foreclosure in Brevard County Florida. Servicing Melbourne, Coco, Coco Beach, Satellite Beach, Palm Bay, Indian Harbour Beach, South Patrick Shores, Palm Shores, Rockledge, Cocoa West, Merritt Island, Port Saint John and Titusville Florida

Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Orlando Short Sales, expert, specialist, Realtor, Keller Williams Realty, agent, broker, short sale, stop foreclosure

Fannie Mae recently announced new rules that will require mortgage servicers to act more quickly and consistently in helping troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure.

Fannie told servicers they must strive to build a “strong customer service relationship,” better understand why the borrower is missing payments, and educate them on ways to prevent foreclosure.

“We want homeowners to be able to understand their options when facing foreclosure, and we want servicers to reach homeowners early in the process, communicate frequently and clearly, and help them avoid foreclosure,” says Jeff Hayward, senior vice president of Fannie Mae’s national servicing organization.

Also among the revamped guidelines, Fannie told servicers they will be required to contact homeowners verbally and in writing within 120 days after a loan first becomes delinquent. They will need to try to complete a loan modification or other option that keeps the borrower in their home or helps the borrower avoid the foreclosure process.

If foreclosure is unavoidable, servicers will need to follow a clear timeline and must begin the foreclosure process once a loan has been delinquent for more than 120 days. Servicers also must make it clear when a property in the foreclosure process will be sold.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert and Foreclosure Specialist who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake, Osceola and Brevard County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent and realtor who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
We also have now expanded to help homeowners to Stop Foreclosure in Brevard County Florida. Servicing Melbourne, Coco, Coco Beach, Satellite Beach, Palm Bay, Indian Harbour Beach, South Patrick Shores, Palm Shores, Rockledge, Cocoa West, Merritt Island, Port Saint John and Titusville Florida
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.
Orlando Short Sales, expert, specialist, Realtor, Keller Williams Realty, agent, broker, short sale, stop foreclosure

Back in June 2006, when the housing market peaked, the prospect of a five-year national housing bust seemed unimaginable to most people. And yet here we are, with the latest Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index showing that prices hit new bear-market lows, falling back to 2002 levels nationally and to 1990s levels in some battered regions, such as Orlando, Florida. Despite all the gloom, however, there are growing indications that it is a good time to buy. Mortgage rates, which fell to 4.55% for the week ending June 2, according to Freddie Mac, are near 50-year lows.

Homes have become more affordable than they have been in years: According to Moody’s Analytics, the ratio of home prices to income is now 20.9% lower than the 15-year average through 2010, and 12.5% lower than the 1989-2004 average. A historic glut of homes, meanwhile, has created a buyer’s market: There were about 15 million vacant homes in the U.S. last year, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting, Inc.—some 3.1 million more than normal.

Such conditions might not last long. Moody’s Analytics predicts that the number of distressed sales will begin to fall in 2013, and that prices will begin to edge upward then. Home building is at a virtual standstill, so the supply overhang isn’t likely to get much worse. Meanwhile, demographic indicators such as “household formation”—the number of new households each year—are on the rise, and promise to take a bite out of the glut in coming years.

The upshot: “While we might not see rapid growth in the next couple of years, there are a tremendous number of positive signs that could lead to a rebound,” says Anthony Sanders, a real-estate finance professor at George Mason University. The short-term outlook isn’t encouraging. Job growth remains weak, foreclosure sales are making up more of the market, and economists are predicting that home prices will fall more in the coming months.

But the long-term benefits of homeownership remain very much intact. For now, at least, you can deduct the mortgage interest on your taxes—a big perk for people in higher tax brackets. You get to paint your walls any color you wish, without having to clear it with a landlord. And assuming you can buy a home for about the same price as you can rent one, buying will give you the ability one day to live rent-free. Come retirement time, a paid-off mortgage means your monthly expenses are significantly reduced, and you have a chunk of equity to play with.

So what might the next five years look like? Once the foreclosure mess begins to clear up, say housing economists, the traditional drivers of the housing market—demographics, affordability, loan availability, employment and psychology—should take over. Here is a glimmer of what the future may hold: While overall home prices fell by 7.5% in April over the same period a year earlier, according to CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif., provider of real-estate data and analytics, if you exclude distressed sales, prices were off just 0.5%. So if you are in a market that isn’t battered by foreclosures, you may be close to a bottom already.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert and Foreclosure Specialist who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake, Osceola and Brevard County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent and realtor who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
We also have now expanded to help homeowners to Stop Foreclosure in Brevard County Florida. Servicing Melbourne, Coco, Coco Beach, Satellite Beach, Palm Bay, Indian Harbour Beach, South Patrick Shores, Palm Shores, Rockledge, Cocoa West, Merritt Island, Port Saint John and Titusville Florida
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.
Orlando Short Sales, expert, specialist, Realtor, Keller Williams Realty, agent, broker, short sale, stop foreclosure

Last week the latest data was released by Standard & Poor’s for their S&P/Case-Shiller index. According to their latest stats, a double-dip in the U.S. home prices is confirmed.

The National Index posted a decline of 5.1 percent from the first quarter of 2010, with prices now at mid-2002 levels

“This month’s report is marked by the confirmation of a double-dip in home prices across much of the nation. … The National Index fell 4.2% over the first quarter alone. … Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight.” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices.

Much of the rise in home sales last year was due to the first-time home buyer tax credit. This year pending home sales, based on contract signings, were down 26.5 percent from pendings in April 2010.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the dip in contracts may be due to temporary factors. “The pullback in contract signings is disappointing and implies a slower than expected market recovery in upcoming months,” he said. “The economy hit a soft patch in April from sharply rising oil prices, widespread severe weather with the heaviest precipitation in 20 years, and a sudden rise in unemployment claims.”

According to the Case-Shiller Index, Minneapolis posted a double-digit annual decline of 10.0 percent. The only metro areas surveyed which posted gains were Washington DC, up a marginal 1.1 percent, and Seattle, up just 0.1 percent for the month. Washington was also up year over year by 4.30 percent. Seattle, on the other hand, was still down 7.5 percent from March 2010.

Twelve major markets fell to their lowest level as measured by the current housing cycle, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, and Portland.

A key factor in restoring health to the housing market will be to make credit more accessible once again. The National Association of Home Builders is a strong proponent for keeping mortgage within reach of buyers.

Certain members of Congress are pushing to close down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a source of loans for many lower income buyers. “NAHB opposes legislation pending in the House and Senate that would effectively wind down the operations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac without offering a clear vision for the future housing system and a non-disruptive transition to a new secondary market framework. Similarly, NAHB believes that more than a dozen short-term legislative proposals offered by House Republican lawmakers to reduce the support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide to the mortgage markets represent a piecemeal approach to reform that would disrupt the housing market and could push the nation back into a deep recession.

The NAHB is also concerned with the unveiling of proposals to establish a “Qualified Residential Mortgage” (QRM), which would make standard a minimum 20 percent down payment on a home loan.

NAHB estimates that it would take 12 years for a typical family to save enough money for a 20 percent down payment on a median-priced single-family home and other research has found it would take even longer. With over 62 percent of first mortgages not qualifying under the QRM, the fear remains that the housing market would continue to decline.

“If buyers are denied access to affordable housing credit, the shadow inventory of foreclosed homes will not be drawn down, a housing recovery will not take hold and economic growth will stall,” said NAHB First Vice Chairman Barry Rutenberg.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert and Foreclosure Specialist who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake, Osceola and Brevard County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent and realtor who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.

We also have now expanded to help homeowners to Stop Foreclosure in Brevard County Florida. Servicing Melbourne, Coco, Coco Beach, Satellite Beach, Palm Bay, Indian Harbour Beach, South Patrick Shores, Palm Shores, Rockledge, Cocoa West, Merritt Island, Port Saint John and Titusville Florida

Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

“Home prices began double-dipping months ago, but now that S&P/Case Shiller has chimed in, it really must be so.  This report is the most widely-followed home price index, equally quoted in bank boardrooms, Treasury Department back rooms, and Congressional Committees.  The report finds home prices in Q1 of this year are now 2.9% below the previous quarterly bottom in Q1 of 2009, effectively giving up all the gains of the past few years, which were of course fueled by the home buyer tax credit.

Just about everybody agrees we’re going to miss the seasonally strong period in 2011, which we should be at the very beginning of right now with May, but nobody thinks that will make any difference,’ says S&P’s David Blitzer. ‘Everybody’s now keeping their fingers crossed for 2012 and wondering whether people just don’t want to own homes anymore.’  Keeping your fingers crossed for the housing market is just the tip of the iceberg. Prices have now fallen, on this index, more than they did during the Great Depression. ‘On that occasion, the peak in prices was not regained until 19 years after they first fell,’ notes Paul Dales at Capital Economics.

So what about the banks? Sure, they took huge write-downs already, but there is clearly more pain to come, especially given that this report out today is actually a three month running average based on home sale closings in March, so really you could say the whole thing is based on sales contracts signed around six months ago. We’ve seen considerably more housing weakness since then.  ‘All will have to take new markdowns if these price pressures continue, which everything points to the fact that it will,’ says Peter Boockvar at Miller Tabak.

Bank balance sheets are still cluttered with mortgage loans, and they are still being asked to take back bad mortgages from those that bought them, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so the lower home prices go, the risk rises that another round of balance sheet write downs may be necessary.’  And speaking of Fannie and Freddie (and I’ll throw in private label and FHA), when you consider the enormous volume of bank-owned (REO) inventory of foreclosed properties they’re holding, you have to also consider what a drop in home values means to all that.

The chart we have shows all the REO without the banks included, as we don’t know that, but if you take additional data from RealtyTrac showing total REO inventory at 872,990 in May and multiply it by the latest median home price from the National Association of Realtors ($163,700 in April), you get around $142.9 billion in value at risk minus at least a 25% discount because it’s a foreclosure already.  ‘With each subsequent dip in home prices, the portfolio is worth less and the banks will suffer increasing losses,’ notes RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga.

It’s impossible to say what the bank losses are right now, especially when you have to add in more potential put backs, where Fannie and Freddie force the banks to buy back bad loans.

All we know is that the more home prices fall, the more the banks stand to suffer, and we all know what happened the last time they suffered.  If we don’t see a meaningful recovery in home prices by the end of the year, we may need to contemplate impairment charges on first liens owned by banks and wholesale write-downs of second lien exposures.”

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake  or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.

Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Home prices fell below the 2009 housing bust bottom in the first quarter, dropping 4.2% from the prior three months, according to the S&P Case-Shiller national home price index. The 20-city composite index was at 138.16, falling below the 2009 low of 139.26. It was the third straight quarterly drop for the index, which was down 5.1% from a year earlier. National prices are now down 32.7% from their peak set five years ago. The S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index covers 80% of the housing market. “This month’s report is marked by the confirmation of a double-dip in home prices across much of the nation,” said David Blitzer, spokesman for Standard and Poor’s.
The housing market went through a brief recovery period starting in mid-2009.

Home prices recovered nearly 5% of their earlier losses. After homebuyer tax credits, which were in effect during the rebound, expired last April, the slump resumed. “The rebound in prices seen in 2009 and 2010 was largely due to the first-time home buyers tax credit,” said Blitzer. “Excluding the results of that policy, there has been no recovery or even stabilization in home prices during or after the recent recession.” A separate S&P/Case-Shiller index covering 20 major cities also dropped during March, its eighth straight monthly decline. This is the second month of the post-recession double dip for the 20-city index. Prices peaked in July 2006 and then fell steadily through April 2009. They then went on a winning streak that ran through last June and prices, adjusted for seasonal differences, have plunged every month since.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Your buyers have found the home of their dreams, started packing their stuff and have mentally moved in when suddenly a challenge arises that could put a serious wrench in the home buying process. In today’s market, finding the home is only the start of a transaction that can have many stumbling blocks along the way.

Here are the top 10 deal breakers buyers and sellers encounter that can impact the sale of a home:

1. Fixtures and Personal Property Pitfalls

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen deals falter because of disagreements over silly stuff like who gets the fireplace screen, the wall sconces or the appliances. For some buyers and sellers it can be difficult to distinguish between personal property and fixtures that come with the house. I once had someone try to take a beloved bathtub. Like the buyer wouldn’t notice?

How to avoid it- Disputes over fixtures and personal property are common. It is important to educate your client about the difference between attached appliances and personal property but there are times when the lines get blurred. Wall mounted flat screen TVs are frequently an issue. If something is really special to a homeowner, recommend the sellers remove the item before you put the house on the market. Have a beloved chandelier? Replace it before you start showing the home with an acceptable alternative. If this isn’t possible, exclude it in MLS along with frequently confused items like that flat screen and make sure it is excluded at the time the offer is written as well. Buyers should investigate and include any items that are important to them.

2. The dreaded ex-wife/husband

There may be many reasons to dread an ex, but when it comes to selling a property, it can impact the sale of a home. We often see situations where the owners got divorced but he/she didn’t sign off. Finding this out late in the process can be problematic, especially when one of the parties no longer has a financial interest in selling the home. This scenario along with other clouds on the title can take time to clear. Bank owned properties often come with title issues such as unpaid garbage fines that can impact your closing.

How to avoid it: Get a preliminary title report as soon as possible and be sure to ask your seller if there are any potential claims on the title.

3. Buyers Buying “Stuff”

Your first time home buyers are moving into their new home. They don’t have a washer and dryer of their own and the local appliance store is offering a smoking deal – get a store credit card, and save 15% on the purchase of your new appliances! Sound like a steal? It might just kill your deal.

Time and again we counsel buyers not to make major purchases before close of escrow such as a new car or major appliances, and time and again, some appliance store has a great “deal” that kills the deal. Any major purchase the impacts your credit can also impact your loan being funded too.

How to avoid it: Regularly remind your buyers to wait on appliance purchases, new car purchases, furniture and more until they the loan has been funded. Tell them to put those credit cards away until the paperwork is recorded.

4. Failure To Disclose

“But Ginger, I didn’t know I had to disclose that the hill behind the house next door came down last spring. It didn’t impact my part of the hill.” I have had to fight with sellers to get them to disclose certain facts about their home, but it is almost always better to over share when it comes to disclosure. Inevitably, a neighbor is going to tell the prospective buyer about the sliding hill, the formerly moldy basement or about the meth lab around the corner.

How to avoid it: When in doubt, disclose, disclose, disclose. Problems always seem much bigger when they are uncovered by a buyer after they are in contract.

5. Appraisal Nightmares

We went through a period of time when appraisals always magically came in at the offer price. For the most part, those times are gone. Appraisals are common deal breakers, and in many transactions, you don’t just have one. Review appraisals of the first appraisal are commonplace.

How to avoid it: Make sure the lender has a qualified appraiser. When possible, accompany the appraiser on the inspection. Prepare your clients in advance that the purchase price may have to be renegotiated or a higher down payment may need to be brought in if the appraisal comes in low.

6. Who Owns What?

Your buyer thinks they are getting a 6000 square foot lot, only to find out that the fence is built on the neighboring property. Or they think they own the driveway, but it is really an easement on property owned by the cranky old neighbor. Lot lines, shared driveways, and fences are common stumbling blocks in a transaction.

How to avoid it: Review the preliminary title report carefully. Legal descriptions aren’t always easy to read, but take the time and effort to have your client do so carefully. Have a title officer walk you through the title report to explain anything unusual. You should have your client go to the city/county authorities to review the items on file. If your client is concerned about the lot boundaries, have them perform a survey. While surveys can be costly, not knowing the actual boundaries can be costlier. If a client is only concerned about one side of the property, she has her clients perform a partial survey for just the side in question.

7. No permits

In many areas, unpermitted additions or remodels have become serious deal killers. Many cities and towns have implemented pre-sale inspections to fill their dwindling coffers.

How to avoid it: If city/town inspections are required, get them in advance, correct any required issues, and get your clearance. Some municipalities don’t operate on the swiftest timeline, so start as early as you can.

How to avoid it: Get inspections before the property is actively on the market. Buyers will probably still get their own, but at least you can resolve serious problems that may send a buyer running in advance. Repairs almost always cost a seller less if the buyer knows about it before they write their offer.

8. Unexpected inspection findings

I used to work with an inspector that other agents called the deal killer and honestly, he was. But he was also a lawsuit saver. When you have a client paying hundreds of thousands if not multiple millions of dollars for a house, they should know what they are buying. I call inspection periods the second negotiation phase of the deal. Inspections are common deal breakers when agreement cannot be reached over repairs.

How to avoid it: Get inspections before the property is actively on the market. Buyers will probably still get their own, but at least you can resolve serious problems that may send a buyer running in advance. Repairs almost always cost a seller less if the buyer knows about it before they write their offer.

9. The lender changed the rules

This may be hard to imagine, but sometimes you are ready to rock and roll, you got your buyer pre-approved, not just pre-qualified, you are in contract and everything looks great until- poof- the lender changes the rules. Suddenly your buyer can’t meet the lender documentation requirements. This would have been helpful to know in advance.

How to avoid it: Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to avoid it other than working with a reputable mortgage broker or lender with a solid record of closing transactions. If you represent the buyer, you may want to recommend the buyer leave their loan contingency in place until the loan is funded. If market conditions don’t permit this, make sure your buyer is aware of the ramifications if the loan doesn’t fund.

10. The bank doesn’t care

If the property being purchased is a short sale, the bank is pretty much in charge and they simply don’t care about your timeline. I have heard of people celebrating two and three year anniversaries of working on a short sale. When it comes to short sale timelines, anything goes, or better yet- who knows?!

How to avoid it: The best way to save a deal when a bank is involved is to make sure your buyers have appropriate expectations about the process. Educate them of the pitfalls of working with a bank. You might want to share the handout found in this article on the 5 Most Common Complaints of Short Sale and REO Buyers.

One of the best ways to avoid killing a deal- educating your clients about the entire home buying/selling process to make sure everyone is properly prepped goes a long way to holding deals together.

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake  or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.

Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

“If you have no desire or need to sell your home, then falling home prices are just on paper and likely temporary, right?

Depends on how you look at it.  Falling home prices put more borrowers in a negative equity position, that is owing more on their mortgage(s) than their homes are worth. We call that ‘underwater,’ and for good reason, because for some borrowers that sense of drowning in debt has profound implications.

Today Zillow.com reported a new high in negative equity: 28.4% of single family homes with a mortgage (remember, 32% of all homeowners do not have a mortgage).  That’s a national average, but the numbers are far worse in some of the nation’s big metros.

Atlanta, for example, has a 55.7% negative equity rate. Denver, 41%, Chicago nearly 46%. This is on top of all the foreclosure hot spots like Phoenix, where close to three quarters of all borrowers are underwater.

‘Higher rates of negative equity are creating a lot of latent vulnerability in the housing stock, where if the household then encounters some economic shock, like the loss of a job or divorce or death, then that household is much, much more likely to go into foreclosure,’ notes Zillow’s Stan Humphries. ‘So it just means that higher rates of negative equity, we’re going to see elevated rates of foreclosure for the next two to three years.’

But higher rates of foreclosure put increasing pressure on home prices, causing them to fall further, which in turn puts even more borrowers underwater.

One begets the other begets the other. Humphries thinks this is a bigger deal than the ‘walkaway’ issue (or strategic default); that’s where borrowers see no chance of ever having equity in their homes, so they walk away rather than becoming permanent pseudo-renters, responsible for the high cost of the home’s upkeep but reaping no equity benefit.  ‘The best research that’s been done right now seems to suggest that negative equity impact on strategic defaults really kicks in at very high rates of value to loan ratio, so that means when people are more like 30-40% underwater does it start to create proactive behavior where they want to walk away from the mortgage. And even at those rates of loan to values, you’re still seeing strategic defaults be a relative…not a majority behavior,’ says Humphries.

Well there are certainly plenty of large metro markets, as I cited previously, where negative equity is that high. And here’s a little more food for thought: What about mobility? As the economy improves, and we see those jobs numbers rise, as we did last Friday, we have to consider the fact that many people taking these jobs may be required to move for said jobs. Those same borrowers may not be able to take the loss on the home that’s required to sell it. What then?  What is the fate of the nation’s credit quality. It’s already tough enough to get a good mortgage when you have good credit. Home buyer confidence and demand are the only remedies right now for the housing/foreclosure crisis.

Sadly, we have neither.”

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake  or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.

Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

Despite signs of recovery in the U.S. economy, the recent failure of another large, locally based bank in Central Florida is an indication the state’s community banks are still reeling from the real estate slump and recession, experts said Monday.

Winter Park-based First National Bank of Central Florida, closed late Friday by regulators, had struggled for nearly three years with sour real estate loans and shrinking capital. Chief Executive Officer Susma Patel, family members and other investors lost millions of dollars in the bank’s collapse.

First National’s six branches reopened Monday as part of Florida Community Bank, a unit of Miami-based Premier American Bank, an acquisition-minded institution owned by financier Dan Healy and other private-equity investors based in New York. The South Florida bank, in addition to acquiring First National’s branches and customers’ deposits, signed a loss-sharing agreement with federal regulators covering $270 million of First National’s troubled loan portfolio.

The local bank’s failure, which cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fund nearly $43 million, was the fourth in Florida this year – and the third in Central Florida. Orlando-based First Commercial Bank failed in January, and Sunshine State Community Bank of Port Orange in February. The fourth bank, Cortez Community in Brooksville, was closed down Friday and, like First National, acquired by Premier American.

With the demise of First National, once the region’s second-largest locally based bank, Central Florida has already had more banks fail in 2011 than during all of 2010, when Orlando-based Old Southern and Clermont-based AmericanFirst went under.

Dozens of other troubled banks statewide could fail by year’s end, said Kenneth H. Thomas, a Miami-based economist and banking consultant.

“I’m afraid Florida still has more banks in shaky condition than anywhere in the country,” he said. “We’ll certainly have more failures this year, though I don’t believe we’ll have as many as 2010,” when 59 failed. “Still,” he added, “the number will be significant.”

In Central Florida, at least five community banks are in serious financial shape, according to Bauer Financial, an independent financial-ratings firm in Boca Raton that has accurately identified the deterioration of many of the banks that have subsequently failed in recent years.

In Bauer’s latest survey, based on fourth-quarter data, the banks with the lowest safety-and-soundness ratings included Coastal Bank (Cocoa Beach), Fidelity Bank of Florida (Merritt Island), Friends Bank (New Smyrna Beach), Independent Bankers Bank (Lake Mary) and Sunrise Bank (Cocoa Beach). Each received a zero, Bauer’s lowest rating.

Such ratings have become the bane of bankers’ existence in recent years. The industry disputes their validity and appropriateness, insisting they can cause a bank’s insured customers to become unnecessarily concerned.

Ratings systems such as Bauer’s “can create confusion for people whose money is safe and secure,” Florida Bankers Association Chief Executive Officer Alex Sanchez said in a March statement. Ratings firms don’t have access to important, non-public data available only to the FDIC, he said.

“The only ratings list that matters is from the FDIC,” Sanchez said. And under FDIC coverage, deposits are generally insured up to $250,000 per customer.

Jack Greeley, an Orlando banking lawyer who represents many of Florida’s community banks, said privately generated ratings can mislead because they don’t account for a bank’s reserves and capital-raising resources. He cited what the banking industry considers a better measure of soundness – what’s known as the “Texas ratio” – which divides a bank’s most troubled loans by its total capital and loan-loss allowance.

“We think there is more precise information that goes beyond Bauer which gives you a handle on the real viability of bank,” he said. “Bauer does not assess the total strength of capital as it relates to a bank’s problem assets, and that is a better gauge of a bank’s long-term health.”

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.
Please visit:
Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com
Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com, or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,
If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals – http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com
Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.
P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud, Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.
Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.

“It’s official.  Home prices have double dipped nationwide, now lower than their March 2009 trough, according to a new report from Clear Capital.  It was inevitable, and it was predicted (by me for sure) that a surge in sales of foreclosed properties and a big push by banks to facilitate short sales would force home prices down dramatically.  Sales of bank-owned (REO) properties hit 34.5% of the market, according to the survey, resulting in a national price drop of 4.9% quarterly and 5% year-over-year.

National home prices have fallen 11.5% in the past nine months, a rate not seen since 2008.

Add short sales, where the bank allows the borrower to sell for less than the value of the mortgage, and prices have nowhere to go but down.  ‘With more than one-third of national home sales being REO (bank owned), market prices are being weighed down as many markets have not regained enough footing to withstand the strain of the high proportion of REO sales,’ says Clear Capital’s Alex Villacorta.

While the usual subprime mortgage suspects, like California, Arizona, Florida and Nevada used to rule the foreclosure roost and still have high volumes of distressed properties, the mid-west is seeing a surge in REOs now, thanks to the plain old recession. 40% of the Chicago market is foreclosures, 43% in Cleveland and 51% in Minneapolis. Home prices fell 8.7% in the Mid-West during the past three months compared to the previous quarter.  While the foreclosure crisis is abating on the front end, with fewer loans going newly delinquent, the pipeline of seriously delinquent loans is enormous. Banks are now ramping up the foreclosure process after the ‘robo-signing’ paperwork scandal, but at their current pace it would take about four years to process all the bad loans through foreclosure and even longer to sell those homes out on the open market.

While buyer demand is rising, thanks to a slowly improving jobs picture, mortgage availability is still very difficult for the low to middle-income borrower, and falling prices don’t help already weak consumer confidence in the housing market. If prices continue to fall further, which they likely will in the short term, the number of so-called “underwater” borrowers, those with negative equity, will rise even higher, which could in turn result in more loan delinquencies.

Nationwide more than a quarter of all homeowners with a mortgage are in a negative equity position, but in some markets, that number is far higher.  The last time home prices fell at this rate, three years ago, they were then boosted by government stimulus in the form of a home buyer tax credit.

“A note of caution to those looking for a strong end to 2011:

The last time no incentives were in place and distressed inventories were this high, home prices fell sharply,” warns Villacorta.”

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Jerry LaRose is an Orlando Area Residential Real Estate Expert, who can assist you with the purchase and/or sale of Real Estate in Orlando, Windermere, Winter Garden, Kissimmee, St. Cloud, East Orlando, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, Winter Park, Oviedo, Apopka, Lake Mary, Clermont, Ocoee  Florida or any place in the country. Jerry has created a team of professionals throughout Orlando and the country to ensure that you enjoy a smooth transition to your new area.

Please visit:

Avoid Foreclosure / Short Sale Help  http://OrlandoShortSaleExpert.com, or http://ShortSellMyOrlandoHome.com

Our Website http://JerryLaRose.com or www.JerrySellsOrlando.com,  or http://OrlandoRealEstateVoice.com ,

If you’re a Buyer looking for Great Deals –  http://InvestmentPropertyDealsOrlando.com

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Orlando and Central Florida real estate market.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Orange, Seminole, Polk, Lake  or Osceola County Florida and Orlando, East Orlando, St. Cloud,  Davenport, Clermont, Longwood, Windermere, Winter Garden,  Kissimmee, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Maitland,  Apopka,  Lake Mary, Oviedo or Ocoee Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. The short sale process is complicated and we can help simplify it.

Call us at 407-580-7011 or email at jerry@JerryLaRose.com to find out more about Orange County Short Sales and Orlando Area Short Sales.