Pending Sales in the Beaufort region decreased by 23.4 percent from last October to arrive at 59. Year-to-date, sales were actually up by 23.3 percent. New Listings decreased by 33.7 percent to land at 134 and the overall inventory of 1,744 increased by 17.5 percent.

Prices did lose some ground. Median Sales Price decreased by 8.5 percent, registering in at $177,000. Average Days on Market, at 215, increased by 16.3 percent versus last year. Negotiations moved toward buyers as Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale decreased by 4.0 percent to 83.7 percent.

Several months of private sector job growth weren’t sufficient to lower the stubbornly high 9.6 percent national unemployment rate. Our recovery is moving at a sloth’s pace, but at least it’s moving forward. A stronger labor market will drive new household formations and instill the confidence needed for current homeowners to move up and for renters to consider ownership.

Source:Beaufort County Association of Realtors (12/10/10)

There is no question that in this economic down turn we have experienced over the last five years or so that short sales and foreclosures have become part of out everyday Real Estate landscape.

Every week there are countless new short sale listings that hit the market.  In many of these short sales the seller, not understanding there is a big difference between a traditional Real Estate transaction and a short sale hires any ole Realtor® they happen to come across to represent them.

One the other side of the coin, there are also plenty of Real Estate agents that see the growing number of short sales coming available for sale and realize there is a lot of money to be made.

The problem however, is that many of these agents are flying by the seat of their pants and have done nothing to educate themselves on the ins and outs of closing a short sale.

As a Realtor® who has been successfully closing short sales for almost four years, this is one of my biggest pet peeves! How anyone can look a desperate seller in the face and take on a listing to sell their home with no short sale expertise is just beyond me. It pisses me off when I see a new short sale listing hit the market and know the agent has no track record with this type of transaction.

There are many Realtors® that are putting the noose around their own neck. In desperate times people do desperate things. The end result is that on many occasions consumers get very poor advice that can cost them dearly.

Realtors® that do not have short sale expertise could really do themselves a favor by referring the business out to an agent that is qualified to get the job done.

You may be wondering why this has become such a passion of mine? The answer is simple. Short sales have become stigmatized because there are numerous Real Estate agents and buyers that have been involved in deals where the listing agent did not know what they were doing. The end result for a number of different reasons is a sale that didn’t happen. This leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Going forward it makes it harder for the agents that do know what they are doing to find buyers for the short sales they are marketing.

Below I am going to touch on all the things you should look out for in trying to successfully complete a short sale whether you are in Massachusetts or another state.

Properly pricing a short sale

When you are short selling your home there is a good chance that you are not able to afford the monthly mortgage payments any longer. You may be just scraping by and know that next month you won’t have enough to pay your lender. When you decide to short sell your home and are no longer paying your mortgage pricing the home properly becomes critical.

The last thing you want to do is either over price or under price the home. For obvious reasons if you over price you will more than likely not be able to procure a buyer in a timely fashion.

If you under price the home and receive a contract from a buyer, the lender is going to reject the short sale after reviewing the appraisal or broker price opinion that they order.

Both of these scenarios can leave you with nothing and that much closer to a foreclosure. A short sale should be aggressively priced such that you will find a buyer in a timely fashion but not so low the lender is going to reject the short sale contract.

The short sale contract

There are numerous Realtors® that are clue less when it comes to giving sellers advice on the short sale Real Estate contract. Lets get one thing straight right off the bat….. When a seller signs a Real Estate contract it is almost always legal and binding as to the terms and conditions in the agreement.

Here are 4 short sale contract issues you need to be aware of:

• Realtors® submitting multiple unsigned offers to your lender
• Realtors® submitting low ball offers to the lender
• Realtors® allowing home inspection contingencies after short sale approval.
• Realtors® allowing an investor to negotiate the short sale

1.    When a Realtor® submits an unsigned offer to your lender YOU do not have a legal and binding contract. The buyer can walk at any point in time with no consequences to them! Does this benefit a seller in anyway? The answer is NO NO NO!  The Realtor® you hire should be looking to lock up the most qualified  buyer who stands the greatest chance of getting to the closing table.

2.    If you sign a low ball offer you stand an equally strong chance that the lender is going to reject your offer and send it back. If you accept an offer that is no where near the market value do you really expect the buyer is going to agree to the price the lender wants? Not likely and again you will be back at square one after being off the market for an extended period of time.

3.    Allowing home inspections after the short sale approval is another big mistake. Do you really want to have your home off the market for months, get a short sale approval from your lender and then find out the buyer wants to back out due to inspection items? Don’t let the blind lead the blind. There is no reason for letting a buyer have home inspections after short sale approval. I find most buyer’s agents think they are protecting their client by trying to save them from spending a few hundred dollars. WRONG – what the buyer’s agent is preventing is the buyer from negotiating a pricing discount if there were issues discovered. Lenders DO NOT negotiate home inspections issues after short sale approval.

4.    Letting a buyer negotiate for a seller is clearly foolish. The investor only cares about the seller if they get the terms THEY want.  An agent who lets an investor take over a short sale transaction is asking for a lawsuit. Realtors should not let investors negotiate a short sale!

Short sale negotiations

This is clearly an area where you will see most of the lawsuit’s against Realtors®. There are agents who are engaging lenders in the negotiations of short sale approval but don’t have the knowledge and understanding of either short sale debt release and/or short sale tax ramifications.

Who do you think will get sued if a seller receives a 1099-C or 1099-A at the end of the year or gets stuck with a deficiency judgment by their lender(s) at some later date in the future and they were not informed up front about it?

There are many Realtors® who have negotiated short sales that misrepresented to their client that the short sale approval letter removed the short sale deficiency when in fact it did not.

Realtors® are supposed to abide by the Real Estate Code of Ethics but clearly there are many who’s judgment is clouded by the almighty dollar.

The Code of Ethics clearly states:

Article 11  Realtors® are knowledgeable and competent in the fields of practice in which they engage or they get assistance from a knowledgeable professional, or disclose any lack of expertise to their client.

Article 13  Realtors® do not engage in the unauthorized practice of law.

Speaking of giving legal advice, there are Realtors® who are guilty of telling their client to stop paying the mortgage to complete a short sale. While this may be the proper advice in 9o-95% of most circumstances with short sales what if the sale falls into the 5-10% where stopping payment was not necessary?

Most major lenders may require payment stoppage but some of the smaller lenders do not have that guideline. Telling a seller to stop paying the mortgage could have serious consequences on their credit that could have been avoided. Again Realtors® should not be giving this kind of advice. It should come from a lawyer.

The take home message here is to make sure you do your home work when hiring a Realtor to represent you in your short sale!

Details: 843-838-3004, frippturns50@islandrealty.info

Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/09/29/1388198/fripp-turns-50-celebrates-founders.html#ixzz111k0JYpK

Top 10 reasons to buy a home today:

1. You can get a good deal.
2. Mortgages are cheap ( All time low).
3. You can save on taxes.
4. It will be yours.
5. You’ll get a better home.
6. It offers some inflation protection.
7. It’s risk capital.
8. It’s forced savings.
9. There is a lot to choose from.
10. Sooner or later, the market will clear.

A closer look at our local communities.

Coosaw Point

Stats for all Available Coosaw Point Homes.

Dataw Island

Stats for all Available Dataw Island Homes.

Fripp Island

Stats for all Available Fripp Island Homes.

Habersham

Stats for all Available Fripp Island Homes.

Harbor  Island

Stats for all Available Harbor Island Homes.

Todd McDaniel and Christian Sherbert
Specializing in: Fripp Island, SC,  Coosaw Point, Harbor Island, SC Dataw, SC and all of the many Beaufort Communities of the South Carolina Sea Islands
Prime South Carolina Properties
“The Sea Island’s best source for Real Estate sales and service”
Todd’s cell  843-263-1906    Christian’s  843-575-5667

What is Foreclosure?

Foreclosure is a process that allows a lender to recover the amount owed on a defaulted loan by selling or taking ownership (repossession) of the property securing the loan. The foreclosure process begins when a borrower/owner defaults on loan payments (usually mortgage payments) and the lender files a public default notice, called a Notice of Default or Lis Pendens. The foreclosure process can end one of four ways:

1. The borrower/owner reinstates the loan by paying off the default amount during a grace period determined by state law. This grace period is also known as pre-foreclosure.
2. The borrower/owner sells the property to a third party during the pre-foreclosure period. The sale allows the borrower/owner to pay off the loan and avoid having a foreclosure on his or her credit history.
3. A third party buys the property at a public auction at the end of the pre-foreclosure period.
4. The lender takes ownership of the property, usually with the intent to re-sell it on the open market. The lender can take ownership either through an agreement with the borrower/owner during pre-foreclosure, via a short sale foreclosure or by buying back the property at the public auction. Properties repossessed by the lender are also known as bank-owned or REO properties (Real Estate Owned by the lender).

This foreclosure process allows for three opportunities for finding bargains on foreclosure homes.

Pre-Foreclosure (NOD, LIS):

Buying a property in pre-foreclosure involves approaching the borrower/owner and offering to buy the property outright. The borrower/owner can walk away with something to show for any equity in the property and avoid a bad mark on his or her credit history. The buyer has time to research the title and condition of the property and can realize discounts of 20-40 percent below market value.

More about pre-foreclosures
Wondering what happens after foreclosure? Then please read on. Remember that understanding foreclosures is the first step for homeowners to stop foreclosure. It is also the first step for investors to buy foreclosure properties.

Auction (NTS, NFS):

If the loan is not reinstated by the end of the pre-foreclosure period, potential buyers can bid on the property at a public auction. Buyers often are required to pay in cash at the auction and may not have much time to research the title and condition of the property beforehand; however, a public auction often offers some of the best bargains and avoids the unpredictability of dealing directly with the borrower/owner.

More about Foreclosure auctions

Bank-owned (REO):

If the lender takes ownership of the property, either through an agreement with the owner during pre-foreclosure or at the public auction, the lender will usually want to re-sell the property to recover the unpaid loan amount. The lender will then typically clear the title and perform needed maintenance and repair; however, the potential bargain for these REO homes is typically less than a pre-foreclosure or auction property. Bank foreclosures can become government foreclosures if the loan is backed by a government agency such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) or the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In that case the government agency would be responsible for selling the property.

More about HUD foreclosures and VA foreclosures

Before you buy

You’ll need to make sure you’re armed with the foreclosure data you’ll need to find and buy foreclosed homes. You can start by searching free on RealtyTrac’s foreclosure listings database, which includes pre-foreclosure and auction properties across the country and a nationwide bank foreclosures list.

Find out more about buying resources

Timeline for Foreclosure

Additional Information:

• Foreclosure Laws by State
• Foreclosure Buying Library
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Foreclosure loans and financing FAQ
• Preventing and Stopping Foreclosure
• Real Estate & Foreclosure Glossaries

Taken from RealtyTrac.com

WOW! If that quote was attributed to the National Association of Realtors or the National Association of Home Builders, it would have been quickly dismissed. However, it was the Wall Street Journal that was calling for the end of the ‘doom and gloom’ talk surrounding real estate.

We are finally seeing a powerful backlash to all the recent claims that homeownership should never have been part of the American Dream. It is about time!

We have been posting on the financial advantages and the other non-financial benefits of homeownership for over a year. We must admit that, at times, we felt very lonely. It now seems that we are part of an ever growing army of believers preaching the advantages and opportunities available in today’s real estate market. Who have joined this cause? Let’s name a few.

The Wall Street Journal

In an article last week, 10 Reasons To Buy a Home, Brett Arends reported:

Sure, maybe there’s more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare “Owning a home may no longer make economic sense,” it’s time to say: Enough is enough.

He then posted 10 reasons to buy a home today:

1. You can get a good deal.
2. Mortgages are cheap.
3. You can save on taxes.
4. It will be yours.
5. You’ll get a better home.
6. It offers some inflation protection.
7. It’s risk capital.
8. It’s forced savings.
9. There is a lot to choose from.
10. Sooner or later, the market will clear.

The Nation’s Real Estate Pricing Expert

Karl E. Case is a professor emeritus of economics at Wellesley. Professor Case is also co-creator of Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller House Price Index and is recognized as the one of the foremost authorities on real estate today. In a New York Times op-ed piece earlier this month titled, A Dream House After All, he said:

I have never quite understood what the American dream really means when it comes to housing. For some people, it means having a solid and fairly safe long-term investment that is coupled with the satisfaction of owning the house they live in. That dream is still alive.

Others, however, think the American dream is owning property that appreciates by 30 percent a year, making a house into a vehicle for paying bills. But those kinds of dreams have become nightmares for the millions of foreclosed property owners who have found themselves sliding toward bankruptcy.

But for people with a more realistic version of the American dream, buying a house now can make a lot of sense.

The Wealthy

The only segments of the housing market that are showing sales growth are the price points over $1 million. That market is up 6.1 % in the second quarter of this year vs. the second quarter last year. A recent survey showed that over 30% affluent buyers are planning to either build/buy a new primary residence or a second/vacation home in the next twelve months. It appears the wealthy believe now is the time to buy!

Everybody Else

Fannie Mae just released their National Housing Survey. The survey reported:

• 82% of respondents consider homeownership important to the economy, up two points from January.
• 70% of respondents think it is a good time to buy a house (of which 36% think it is a very good time to buy), up six points from January. This is also four points higher than the 2003 survey – well before home prices peaked – when 66 % said it was a good time.

Bottom Line

Our iconic financial newspaper, our nation’s real estate pricing expert, the wealthiest people in the country and 70% of everyone else think now is the time to buy a home. It probably makes sense to listen to them.