Destin Short Sales- Emerald Coast Florida Real Estate

www.ShortSaleSuperstars.com for real estate agents

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

22 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • February 28 2010 11:21AM

"Can I Put That Condo On Layaway?"

short sale negotiations

I have been negotiating a short sale offer for a Destin Florida condo for about a week. Today I received the following email from the buyer's agent:

"Here is my buyer’s final offer for the condo.

Purchase Price - $150,000

$50,000 at closing, $50,000 in 12 months and the other $50,000 in 24 months.

Seller to pay all closing costs

Seller to pay 6 months of condo dues

He would like an answer by 2pm on Monday."

Enough said.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

19 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • February 19 2010 05:52PM

Are Short Sale Lenders More Lenient the Second Time Around?

Destin short sales

It was almost a year ago that Bank of America approved a short sale on one of my Destin Florida condo listings. The sale price at the time was $260,000. The sellers owed $410,000 on the unit. Bank of America approved the short sale requiring the sellers do a cash contribution of $16,000 towards the loss at closing. Why? Because the sellers were paying two other mortgages on time and they had jobs and regular income.

Unfortunately, the property did not close. The buyer defaulted after approval because he wanted to buy another condo.

Six months later I found a new buyer. The Destin condo market had declined further, so the sale price was much lower. Five months later still, I got the short sale approved by Bank of America. Although little has changed with the seller's circumstances, the investors on this loan were much more lenient the second time around.

Property: Destin Florida condo

Ownership type: Investment

Sale Price: $211,000 (one year ago- approved price was $260,000)

Mortgage Balance: $410,000

Cash from seller: -0- (one year ago- $16,000 cash contribution was required)

Promissory note from seller: -0-

Needless to say, the sellers are delighted. The question remains, though, why were the investors more lenient with short sale approval terms the second time around? Not only did they accept $50,000 less – they required no cash contribution from the seller. This may mean investors are loosening up their approval guidelines in general, cutting their losses and moving forward. It may be good news for homeowners in trouble who are considering a short sale.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

17 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • January 30 2010 05:59PM

Report: Short Sales and Your Credit Score

Curious what will happen to your credit score after a short sale?

The answer is… it depends. How many mortgage payments did you miss? How much debt do you have? What is your outstanding balance to available credit ratio? What is your overall payment history? Your “point” impact will be calculated by FICO based on these and several other criteria. Here is an actual example of how a short sale affected my Destin short sale seller’s credit score.

Property: Destin short sale condo – investment property (not owner occupied)

Lender: Aurora Loan Services

Number of Missed Mortgage Payments: 23

Short Sale Reporting: “Settled for Less Than Full Amount”

Previous Credit Score: 745

“During Short Sale” Credit Score: 646

Credit Score 30 Days After Short Sale: 732 687 and 679 (from the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Transunion and Experian)

My Destin short sale seller was amazed that his credit score seemed to shoot right up after his short sale was complete. This is not always the case. The bottom line is – you won’t know how your score will change until you complete your short sale. But don’t be dismayed, you CAN start to rebuild your credit immediately. And don't be suprised if your financial future is brighter than you think.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.

www.ShortSaleSuperstars.com for agents

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

17 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • January 26 2010 06:45PM

www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com ***Weekend update

If you have not joined yet - now is the time. www.ShortSaleSuperstars.com

Via Bryant Tutas-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc:

Hello fellow Superstars,

OK..... so what's been going on at www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com this week? How about....71 new members! Welcome to all. Please be sure to take a minute and place your information and location on the "Referral Map" You want to make sure people can find you if they are looking for a Short Sale Agent in their area.

Last week we had 2,768 UNIQUE visitors with 58% of them coming from the search engines. www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com is being found by sellers, buyers and professionals throughout the country.

With this in mind, make sure your profile page is as complete as possible. Check out my page and Wendy's page for good examples.

Are you following the conversations?

The Equator system is the hot topic this week. Frustrations are mounting.

Titanium Solutions is getting into the REO business.

New group...Negotiation Strategies

Bank of America is charging a per diem for closing extenisions. Ironic?

In the next few days we will be breaking the 1,000 members mark. This site is growing fast and Wendy and I need help. We are looking for a web site designer, a marketer and anybody else that may have some good ideas to help us grow. If you want to help....let us know.

And.....we are ready to start getting some National press. Please be sure to mention www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com to everyone you speak with. Let's get a buzz going. After all WE (all of us) are the ones that are making a difference in this market and the public needs to know that. They need to see what we have going on over here. So shout it out loud!

Finally, we do offer Short Sale Agent Training for those that need it. At $97 for almost 9 hours of training it's a steal. Check it out. We'd love to have you.

Until next time......LEARN, KNOW AND GROW.

Together we CAN make a difference.

Wendy and Bryant
www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com

P.S. We'd love to hear from you if you have any suggestions to make this site better. It's your site. What can we do to improve?

Available Short Sale Agent Training:

LEARN, KNOW AND GROW

The Negotiator Interview $27.00

www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com FREE 878+ Members Strong!!

Short Sale Agent Training Webinars 8 Hours of training for $97.00

Short Sale Listing/Submission Package $27.00 Click for details

Wendy Rulnick and Bryant Tutas
www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com

Copyright © 2010 REGrow, LLC | All Rights Reserved

3 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • January 25 2010 05:45PM

Bank of America & Equator: Are We Guinea Pigs on a Treadmill?

Bank of America short sales

If you haven’t heard recently, Bank of America short sales are getting even… well, weirder. Their new plan is to implement an online system where real estate agents and borrowers can upload their own short sale information. It sounds great-- and it would be--if it worked. OK, you might have heard one or two success stories, but I can tell you from practical experience, until this system is refined your Bank of America short sales might take… longer!

The new system is called Equator, formally REOTrans. It is really a jerry-rigged uploading site that is also used for foreclosure (REO) offers to Bank of America. Here is my experience with it so far.

Day 1: I fax in my package to Bank of America for a new Destin short sale

Day 7: I call in to confirm the fax was received, as it takes Bank of America several days to recognize new faxes. No, and they cannot find my loan number. There is no such loan number! Huh? I call my seller. She says the loan number was changed in the past week.

Day 10: After faxing in a new authorization, I call Bank of America (BOFA) back with the new loan number. They said they changed the loan number because this file is going to their new online system, Equator. They instruct me to upload my short sale package online. My seller must also call in to get her own special password to use the system and upload her own financial documents.

Day 11: My seller calls BOFA during the day from work. She is on hold over one hour and transferred twice. During her hold time, she emails me “Still on hold, but they ‘look forward to talking’ with me soon’”. After she completes her call she tells me “I cannot believe this is what you deal with all day”. She forwards me her password so I may upload all her documents for her. This means, all the tax returns, bank statements, financial worksheet, paystubs, etc. Each document must be scanned into our computer system as a separate file so we can upload them when asked.

Day 12: We try to access Equator with my seller’s password. Login fails. No luck.

Day 13: We log in under my agent id. Here we upload our authorization and answer questions about the offer. Non-invasive questions like, “What is the buyer’s birth date? What are the first five digits of the buyer’s social security?”

FINALLY, we get to the offer amount. Let’s use $160,000 as an example. OFFER REJECTED – insufficient. HUH? The last sale in this Destin condo complex was $150,000. So, why is our $160,000 offer insufficient? Who can I talk to? The machine? I call Bank of America and they repeat, the system says “insufficient”, didn’t I get a rejection email? “From generic.negotiator@bankofamerica.com”, I told them. Well, that is who you should email, I am told by the BOFA rep. "You are kidding, I am to email the “generic” negotiator?" The rep says, "Yes, that email is checked by different negotiators all day". OK, who am I to question the authority of Bank of America? I email generic.negotiator@bankofamerica.com (like an idiot) and of course the email address is invalid.

Day 14: Today. Plan B. I’ll let you know how it goes. And I wish you better luck with Equator.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.

www.ShortSaleSuperstars.com for agents

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

23 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • January 13 2010 09:02AM

I Need a Broker Price Opinion- This is a Comparative Market Analysis!

HSBC short sales

I recently got a Mary Esther Florida short sale approved by HSBC, who always provide interesting twists to their short sales. Here is the story:

Property: Owner occupied home in Mary Esther Florida

Market Value: $130,000

Senior Lien: Wells Fargo - VA loan - $190,000

Junior Lien: HSBC - $40,000

Getting the VA compromise sale approved by Wells Fargo was the easy part of this short sale. Getting approval from HSBC, the junior lien, was a different story. HSBC had farmed out its collection efforts to a company called Professional Recovery Services. After months of waiting for a response on short sale approval, PRS finally claimed that HSBC would not allow a short sale because the borrower had filed for bankruptcy a few years ago. I was asked to provide documentation that the HSBC lien was not included in the bankruptcy. I did, but PRS said HSBC still refused to look at the short sale, claiming “a bankruptcy is a bankruptcy”.

Undeterred, I contacted HSBC directly, emailing several representatives until I was directed to a negotiator in the bankruptcy department. Apparently, I had contacted the right person, as he said he would help with the short sale approval. First, though, he needed me to provide a Broker Price Opinion of the property’s value. I used my Multiple Listing Service to do a detailed market analysis and faxed in the form. The HSBC negotiator, although polite enough in scripted English, had a problem with my document.

“This is not a Broker Price Opinion” he said, “It says Comparative Market Analysis”.

“It’s the same thing. A comparative market analysis is the same thing as a BPO”, I told him incredulously, “What do you want me to do, re-label it?”

PAUSE

“It looks like a CMA. I need a Broker Price Opinion done by a Broker” He choked out.

“I am a Broker. Fine, I will re-label the form with ‘BPO’ and fax it back to you.”

“Thank you, it has been my pleasure speaking with you”, he read from his script.

I re-entered my data onto another form, labeled it ‘Broker Price Opinion’, and faxed it back to HSBC. The next day I called in.

“You are approved. It has been my pleasure working with you”.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.

www.ShortSaleSuperstars.com for agents

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

12 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • January 08 2010 08:18AM

www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com update. CONTEST REMINDER

One day left for contest entries!

Via Bryant Tutas-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc:

Good morning fellow Superstars,

First, we want to welcome all of the new members. We have had 50 new members join since the New Year!! We now have 775 Short Sale Superstars.

Also, thank you to all of you who have been sending out invitations. If you haven't invited anybody to join please do so. The invite button is right on your main page under your picture.

If you are a new member don't forget to place your location on the referral map. This is important if you want to receive referrals from other Superstars.

We challenge everybody to write one blog post a week. The more content we have the better we'll do with the search engines.In the last 6 days we have had 1,239 UNIQUE visitors to our network. 48% of this traffic is coming from the search engines. A lot of these visitors are buyers and sellers. So be sure to participate as much as possible.

OK here's the real reason for this mid week update. The contest. Wendy and I are giving away some goodies including 8 hours of Agent Short Sale Training. The deadline for entering the contest is midnight Eastern time on Thursday. That's tomorrow. Thus far we only have a handful of entries so your odds of getting the FR*EE Agent Short sale Training are very very good.

So go check it out.

That's it for now.

Remember.....together we CAN make a difference!

Learn, Know and Grow.

Wendy and Bryant

And if you can't wait to get your Short Sale Agent Training.....we won't get mad if you just go ahead and make a purchase!

Available Short Sale Agent Training:

The Negotiator Interview $27.00

www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com FREE

Short Sale Agent Training Webinars 8 Hours of training and materials for $97.00

Short Sale Listing/Submission Package $27.00 Click for details

Wendy Rulnick and Bryant Tutas
www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com

Copyright © 2010 REGrow, LLC | All Rights Reserved

4 comments • Wendy Rulnick "Its Wendy!" Destin Florida Short Sales • January 06 2010 08:10AM

Worst Short Sale Lenders of the Year Awards

Each year I give out awards for the worst short sale lenders I have dealt with in the last twelve months. Congratulations to our 2009 winners!

1. PHH - Now Waiting 9 Months for Approval and Counting PHH Mortgage has had a VA Compromise Offer since February 2009 for a Niceville Florida short sale. They were so lame as to do a VA appraisal back in July, then let that expire after six months because they were so slow, and had to order a new one. The sale is still is not approved.

2. USAA will Wait for Short Sale Seller to Die to Go After Probate This Niceville short sale story had a happy ending, but not until after USAA commented they would get their money even if they had to wait for the elderly owner to pass away to get the estate.

3. Saxon Mortgage - Reduces Realtor fee if short sale does not close by approval deadline- for whatever reason- by a full percentage.

4. Green Tree Servicing - Current on Your Mortgage? Short Sale Denied! This short sale servicer denied a Fort Walton Beach short sale because he was current with his payments. They said they would take the "hit" if the seller would take the "hit on his credit". The homeowner drained his entire savings to make payments after spouse was in a serious auto collision.

5. Finally, who else but BANK OF AMERICA, would makes the list - four times over!

Bank of America Approves Short Sale, But Won’t Finance Approved Amount Here we find a lender who underappraises a Destin short sale condo for the buyer's mortgage, but on the short sale end- refuses to accept its own appraisal and closes the file! Head spinning yet?

Bank of America - Two Strikes and Buyer Walks As aforementioned transaction goes into round two- Bank of America flubs short sale demands by illiterate negotiator, and refuses to correct error. Short sale denied.

Bank of America Now Wants Your Retirement Account Bank of America is ever so bold now, not even your retirement savings is sacred.

Bank of America - Deficiency Threat Sends Shockwaves The now-infamous Bank of America approval letter has probably caused many a frightened homeowner to pass on a short sale.

Now, that was my list of the TOP worst short sale lenders for 2009, who were yours?

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.