Everything about a short sale can seem difficult and it is!

How does a short sale affect my credit vs. a foreclosure?

Nothing about a short sale is easy! It can be the most frustrating real estate experience you will ever encounter. It might make you want to get out of the real estate business or avoid buying or selling another home.

For buyers thinking about purchasing real estate in this market, a short sale is a great way to do it. On the other side, for homeowners, a short sale may help you avoid foreclosure with minimal damage to their credit.

For Sellers - What factors will make a short sale possible???

The first one is “COMMUNICATION”. This will only be possible if you find an agent that will answer your phone calls, return your calls and keep you in the loop with daily updates.

The second one is “AGENTS PERSEVERANCE”. Your agent should be in contact with the bank on a daily basis to ensure your short sale package is moving forward with the right negotiator.

The third one “BE INVOLVED” Don’t let your agent forget about you, don’t drive him crazy! :) Insist that you are updated and informed regarding the process of the short sale. You don’t want to loose your home to foreclosure because of a break down in communication with your lender. .

For Buyers – What factors will allow you to purchase a Short Sale???

First, find an agent that has a proven track record of selling short sales. If he knows how to sell them it will be easier for you to purchase a short sale. Also, consider all of the other factors explained for sellers above.

In conclusion: You hear so much negativity about short sales. The reality is that loss mitigation departments are increasing their staff and making efforts to accommodate short sales. Short sales will be a large part of this real estate market for the next few years. They are an excellent option depending on your situation. Make sure you are dealing with an agent that will make every effort to look out for your best interest. Real Estate Short Sales are not for everyone and may not be the best option for you!

Even as much as I love going to Starbucks (occasionally) I found that the number of Starbucks you would find in some areas was a little bit of an over kill. I live in Downtown San Diego and 4 of the Starbucks closing on this list are in the downtown San Diego area. I can think of 11 locations in about a 16 block radius in the downtown San Diego area.

Below you will find the list of Starbucks closing in San Diego. Starbucks will manage to survive and do just fine as we get past this bad economic time but it is interesting to see how so many people are cutting out expenses like this.

6556 3RD & H ST 3037 H ST CHULA VISTA CA
11223 OTAY RANCH TOWN CENTER 2015 BIRCH RD CHULA VISTA CA
551 MIRA MESA 9450 MIRA MESA BLVD SAN DIEGO CA
5637 MISSION GORGE RD 6171 MISSION GORGE SAN DIEGO CA
6514 1ST & MARKET 101 MARKET ST SAN DIEGO CA
6592 COLLEGE & LINDO PESSO 5131 COLLEGE AVE SAN DIEGO CA
6726 EUCLID AVE & FEDERAL BLVD 1722 EUCLID AVE SAN DIEGO CA
6818 UNIVERSITY & ARAGON 6511 UNIVERSITY AVE SAN DIEGO CA
9471 30TH ST & EL CAJON 2990 EL CAJON BLVD SAN DIEGO CA
9583 NATIONAL & 36TH 3582 NATIONAL AVE SAN DIEGO CA
10631 PARK & UNIVERSITY 3830 PARK BLVD SAN DIEGO CA
11837 11TH & C 1122 BROADWAY AVE SAN DIEGO CA 

For a complete list of Starbucks closing and to find out if your favorite Starbucks will be closing in your area please view the complete list here.

If you would like to join the list please email me at info at teamaguilar.com or go to our forum post for the “List of Short Sale Real Estate Agents” and post your information for us to add.

If you focus on short sales in San Diego please feel free to join the list. This is meant to give people as many options as possible when they are looking for a short sale real estate agent.

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According to www.cyberhomes.com this property located at 3414 Trophy La Mesa CA 91941 is valued at $378,043. You can read a full report of the value of this property by going to the website and typing in the property address. One thing that Cyber Homes mentions is that the real estate market has declined over the last many months and you have to take into consideration that now may or may not be the best time to purchase. Let me give you my 2 cents on why this may be a good time to purchase.

What we are presently experiencing in the San Diego Real Estate Market is what many other counties in the country are experiencing. Huge declines in home prices! What will be the factor to stabilizing these home values? The value of real estate can only come down so much before several things start to happen. 1 being that people who are presently renting a home decide that they can make a sacrifice and actually afford to purchase instead of continuing to pay rent. 2 Investors feel that it’s within their investment guidelines and they start to purchase and suck up extra real estate inventory.

What we have seen in San Diego are huge drops in home prices which I feel have just about reached the bottom. We are starting to see home values level off and many investors and 1st time home buyers are jumping into the real estate market. This may or may not be the right home for you but it’s definitely a home worth looking at. It priced @ $299,000 and may be something that you can purchase, own for a few years and use the gained equity to buy a larger home. If you are an investor, this may be a perfect long term rental for you to consider.

MLS #: 080038969 Axia Real Estate Group, Inc. Team Aguilar Carlos Aguilar 619-743-4118

click here to view the list.

http://www.teamaguilar.com/blogs
http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com
http://www.ericbramlett.com/blog
http://www.homesalessandiego.com/blog
http://www.blog.mariah.com
 

Enjoy and send me your Bad MLS Pictures!

Can you believe this agent took a digital photo of a Polaroid and uploaded it into the MLS? Come on, are agents really this lazy they couldn’t drive our to the property and take a photo? Why are they collecting a commission? The other best thing is that this is the only picture in the MLS!!!

Couldn’t this agent take a better picture?

This home is pretty close to a free way over pass, it’s a very nice home. This home is actually listed for sale again and is one of our current listings. You should see the rehab they did to this home. It’s amazing and you probably wouldn’t recognize it.

Couldn’t this agent rotate the picture to show up correctly despite it being such an ugly photo???

This is a funny picture of a water heater that was uploaded as the main picture of a property for sale. It’s hard to believe that this would be the first photo you would see of this home if you were doing a search for home and came across this one!

Send your bad MLS picture to be posted!!!

This information on taxation of a real estate short sale is not to be taken as tax advice. It’s is for general reference only and you should consult your tax preparer.

We receive this question almost daily. I will try to simplify this response to make it as easy to understand as possible. On December 20^th, 2007 President Bush signed into law the “Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007“. President Bush was quoted saying the following about this new law, “When your home is losing value and your family is under financial stress, the last thing you need is to be hit with higher taxes.  So I’m working with members of both parties to pass a bill that will protect homeowners from having to pay taxes on cancelled mortgage debt.” ─ President George W. Bush, 9/1/2007

Previously, if your home value declined and you sold your home for less then what you owed to the bank the previous tax code would allow the IRS to tax the amount of forgiven debt and treat this amount as income.

Now, based on the new “Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007″ the amount of debt that is forgiven is not tax considered additional income and you will not be subject to paying taxes on the forgiven debt. This would apply to any debt discharged on or after January 1^st 2007 which is secured by a primary residence which the debt is incurred in the purchase, construction, or substantial improvement of the primary residence.

This is the bill as it reads on the house.gov website, source is http://www.house.gov/

Permanent exclusion from gross income of discharged home mortgage indebtedness. The bill would amend current law, which requires taxpayers to include discharges of mortgage indebtedness as income and to pay tax on this income. The bill would provide a permanent exclusion for any discharge of indebtedness (on or after January 1, 2007) which is secured by a principal residence and which is incurred in the acquisition, construction, or substantial improvement of the principal residence. Instead of including this amount as income, the basis of the individuals principal residence would be reduced by the amount excluded from income under this bill. This proposal is estimated to cost $1.379 billion over 10 years.

Long-term extension of the deduction for private mortgage insurance. The bill extends the deduction for private mortgage insurance for seven years (through the end of 2014). Current law limits the deduction for private mortgage insurance to payments made prior to the end of 2007. The bill would provide that payments will qualify for this deduction whenever they are paid so long as the contract is entered into after 2006 and before 2015. This proposal is estimated to cost $570 million over the next 10 years.

Modification of the qualification tests for cooperative housing corporations. The bill would modify the requirements for qualifying for the special rules available to cooperative housing corporations. Under current law, a cooperative housing corporation must meet several requirements, including a requirement that 80 percent or more of the cooperative housing corporation is earned from the corporation’s tenant-stockholders. The bill would provide two alternatives to this 80 percent rule (i.e., one based on square footage and another based on cooperative expenditures). These two alternatives will make it easier to qualify as a cooperative housing corporation. This proposal is estimated to cost $22 million over 10 years.

Modification of exclusion of gain on sale of a principal residence. The bill amends the current law exclusion of up to $250,000 ($500,000 if married filing a joint return) of gain realized on the sale or exchange of a principal residence. Under current law, the sale of a home will qualify for this exclusion if the home is a taxpayer’s principal residence for at least two of the five years ending on the sale or exchange. This exclusion applies even if the home was initially purchased as a second home. Under the bill, if a taxpayer moves their principal residence to a second home, the taxpayer will only be able to utilize this exclusion to the extent that it relates to the period of time when the home was first used as a principal residence. The bill grandfathers use before 2008. This proposal is estimated to raise $2.005 billion over 10 years.

Another benefit of a short sale may be that it will allow you to avoid a bankruptcy. One option that many people consider to give them additional time in the foreclosure process is to file a bankruptcy but this option depends on the state you like in. One misconception of a real estate short sale is that you will have to pay the real estate commissions out of your pocket if you are approved for a short sale. If your property is accepted as a short sale and the deal is able to close, you won’t have to provide closing costs to close the deal. The bank will pay all of the closing costs and Realtor commissions when they approve a short sale. Often they work the agents down on their real estate commissions but this item is not something you will have to pay or worry about. All of the items paid in escrow at closing are factored into the banks expense when they decide to approve a short sale.

If the short sale is approved your Realtor may be able to save you from having a Deficiency Judgment issued against you for the short fall in the amount collected from the short sale and the final balance of the Summary Final Judgment. Many of the states have different laws and guidelines for their foreclosure process so be sure to check what applies in your state. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that congress has recently passed new laws that will eliminate the short sale amount from being taxed as ordinary income. In the past borrowers that completed a short sale would receive a 1099 at the end of the year for the amount of money that the bank took as a loss. Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 (H.R. 3648) homeowners that do a short sale on a primary residence will not have to pay taxes on the short sale amount. This does NOT apply to investment property. This new Mortgage Forgiveness act is only for Primary Residences.

If you have any questions about real estate short sales please feel free to ask. We handle real estate short sales in San Diego County but also know agents in other parts of the country that we may be able to refer to you.

Buying directly from the homeowner - You can purchase foreclosures directly from the homeowner prior to it going to sale and back to the bank to be sold as a “Bank Owned” property. I am not a fan of this option for one simple reason. Homeowners are being taken advantage of and deeding their homes over to crooks who promise to bring their mortgage payments current and never do anything. This is the option that all of the late night infomercials are always talking about. It’s unfortunate that when someone is in a difficult situation that these crooks come out of the woods to steal equity away and convince homeowners to deed the property to them. If they really did what they say they will do then great, but it’s too often I hear horror stories about homeowners that were taken advantage of. What typically happens is a number of different things, including renting out the home to collect rent payments for 6-12 months while never make any single mortgage payment. The end result in many of these scams is that homeowners are sold on the idea that they will avoid a foreclosure showing up on their credit. If you have equity in your home then you should try to sell it with a local real estate agent. Your lender will give you some time to sell the property if you show them you are making an effort to sell it.

Buying at a real estate auction - not a big fan! These homes that are being sold at auction are homes that didn’t sell via OPTION 3 of this article. They were listed with local real estate agents as “Bank Owned” homes and as a result of them not selling in a timely manner the bank turns them over to an auction company for sale. Would you go purchase a foreclosure amongst hundreds, if not thousands of other buyers when you could have purchased it a month earlier with no other competition?  Auctions are not my favorite, you are in a room with people that do not take the time to research the property and they are sold on this slogan. “Buy this previous valued home of $450,000 with a starting bid of $275,000!!!” I have news for you, take the time and go to one of these auctions and you will see that by the time it actually sells you really aren’t getting a good deal compared to the foreclosures available for sale in the local MLS.

Buying from a local Realtor - my favorite option maybe because I am a Realtor! :) No, it’s because it makes the most sense. You find a local real estate agent who specializes in selling bank owned real estate. I would recommend that you do a Google search for “bank owned real estate for sale CITY NAME” and you should come up with some options. Buying from a local real estate company will allow you time to do your inspections on the home you are buying; you will get a clear title with title insurance. If you purchase your home listed with a real estate company that is “Bank Owned” you do not have to worry about the title history because you will be provided with a title insurance policy when you close escrow. You will have typically a 30 day escrow which will allow you to purchase with financing.

Other things to understand about buying foreclosures - One big misconception is that you deal directly with the bank. Let me tell you that it doesn’t happen. Banks don’t sell real estate. They find local real estate agents who know the local market and pay them a commission to get the property sold. Don’t waste your time trying to work out a great deal directly with the bank or insist that your low offer at 50% of the listing price should be considered. Banks want to sell these foreclosures but they are not stupid.

Things to do after you purchase a foreclosure property - Get the locks changed as quickly as possible, many banks use the same key cut for all of their listings because they have so many vendors to deal with they have the locksmith re-key all of their foreclosures with the same cut key. You should really invest $100 to have your new home re-keyed.

If you would like any San Diego Foreclosure Information please feel free to contact us.