Need to short sale your New Tampa Home?

• Do you owe more than your home is worth?
• Are  you having trouble making your mortgage payments?
• Do you want to AVOID FORECLOSURE?
• Do you want to sell your home, but there isn’t enough equity to pay for closing costs and Realtor fees and you’re not able to bring money to the closing table?

I’ve  helped many homeowners walk away from their homes without having to pay anything at all.  In fact, I’ve actually been able to get the banks to pay the homeowner for moving expenses in some cases!  If you have a home in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel and it is in danger of foreclosure please give me a call.  I have both experience and specialized education to handle short sales.   Communities such as those in New Tampa (Grand Hampton, Hunter’s Green, Live Oak Preserve, Heritage Isles, Tampa Palms, Arbor Greene, Cory Lake Isles, Seven Oaks, Lexington Oaks, etc.) have pretty substantial HOA fees which can complicate a short sale.  You really need to use a Realtor who has experience to get these negotiated or included in the short sale. 

There are a lot of short sales in Grand Hampton, Heritage Isles, Live Oak Preserve and Cory Lake Isles just due to when the majority of the homes were purchased (2005-2006).  A short sale is nothing to be embarrassed of.  The market declined significantly and by working with your Lender, you are doing the responsible thing and making the best of an unfortunate situation.  Many of my neighbors in Grand Hampton are doing short sales and it’s a much better alternative than foreclosure.  With so many short sales in these New Tampa communities, it’s just about impossible to compete and sell your home in a traditional sale.  Many of the homes have dropped to half of the value they were purchased for!  This might be manageable on a $100k home, but on a $500k home  or even a $300k home it could take a decade or more of huge mortgage payments just to be right side up in the mortgage again.

Please call me if you are in a situation where you owe more than your home is worth.  I can help and depending on your goals (staying in the home as long as possible, selling the home as quickly as possible, etc.) we can devise a plan together to make this a win-win situation.  There is NO FEE to do a short sale with me and NO CANCELLATION FEE should you change your mind.

New Tampa Short Sale Myths

This is a list of the most common misunderstandings I’ve run into with short sales:

1.  Short Sales are difficult and rarely get approved.  This is simply not true.  They are more involved than a regular sale, but they aren’t that difficult, especially for the Seller.  It is the Realtor and Title company that have the additional follow up duties.  The homeowner has to complete an initial package including a hardship letter, tax returns, bank statements, paystubs, and a simple financial worksheet and authorization letter but that’s a small amount of work for getting a huge amount of debt off your plate!

2.  You have to be behind on your payments before your lender will consider a short sale.  When short sales first began to gain momentum, this was true.  However, I work with several lenders who actually encourage short sales and solicit their at risk customers trying to get them to do a short sale even if they aren’t late on payments!  The truth is, most lenders would much rather sell short than foreclose.

3.  Buyers are not interested in short sales.  This may have been the case a couple of years ago, but in my area (New Tampa) it seems like at least half of the properties for sale are short sales.  Homes that aren’t short sales are many times overpriced and can’t compete with the fire-sale prices of short sales.  Homes that have been foreclosed on and are bank-owned often have bidding wars and end up selling for more than they’re listed for.

4.  Listing your home as a short sale is embarrassing.  Are you kidding me?  Every other home for sale is a short sale.  The market dropped and our economy is in terrible shape right now.  There’s nothing embarrassing about working with your lender to sell a home that is worth less than you paid for it.  Now foreclosure on the other hand……there are public notices posted, you are served with court papers by the Sheriff, and eventually you are evicted if you don’t leave first.  THAT might be embarrassing, but a short sale is not.  There’s nothing embarrassing about taking action!

5.  I’ve already been served with a Lis Pendins, it’s too late to do a short sale.  The foreclosure process is anything but quick and most banks will put the foreclosure sale on hold once a complete short sale package is submitted.  A complete package must include a legitimate offer that is backed up by a preapproval letter or proof of the buyers funds.  I’ve been able to stop sales that were only a few days from being sold at the courthouse!  Banks DO NOT want your house back.  They don’t want the holding costs, additional fees and court costs, maintenance fees, etc. 

6.  I can only do a short sale on my main residence, not investment properties.  Investment properties can be sold short just like a primary residence.  The difference is that with a primary residence you will not have to pay taxes on the amount written off and with an investment property you might have to.  This depends on if you are considered “insolvent” or not.  Insolvency is when your total debt is higher than the total amount of your assets.  The IRS website has a worksheet you can fill out to see if you can be considered insolvent.

7.  It’s very difficult to do a short sale if there are 2 mortgages on the property.  It seems like banks have really gotten better with this in the last year or so.  Second mortgage holders usually get between $1-3k and leave it at that.  If the home is foreclosed on they will get NOTHING and sometimes we have to remind them of that during negotiations, but for the most part the lenders I’ve worked with have accepted an amount of $3,000 or less and approved the short sale.  One client I worked with had a second mortgage of $50,000 with Suntrust and the negotiator demanded that they sign a promissory note for $30,000 initially but ended up taking $2,000

8.  Any Realtor can help me with a short sale.  With a short sale it is extremely important to find an experienced Realtor.  More than with any other sale, a Realtor in a short sale can make or break the deal.  The Realtor has to be organized and submit the package to the lender.  He/she has to consistently follow up on the file and make sure nothing is overlooked.  Sometimes the foreclosure department doesn’t communicate with the short sale department at the bank so the Realtor must keep checking the public records to make sure the bank hasn’t accidentally set a sale date while reviewing the short sale package.  The Realtor can also have influence over the BPO (brokers price opinion) which is sort of like a mini-appraisal.  Of course it’s unethical to try to persuade the person doing the BPO to  make the home appraise at a certain price, but there is nothing wrong with letting them know what your offer is for and how you came to that number and show any comps that support it.

 

New Tampa is filled with short sales in Tampa Palms, Hunter’s Green, Arbor Greene, Cory Lake Isles, Heritage Isles, Cross Creek, Live Oak Preserve, Grand Hampton, Northwood, Meadow Pointe, Seven Oaks, the Hammocks, and more.  With lenders including Suntrust, Bank of America, Option One, Wells Fargo, Wachovia, BBT, EMC, and others.  Short sales are here to stay for at least a few more years.  Hopefully they will become shorter and shorter and fewer and further between, but for now they’re part of life.

Grand Hampton Short Sales

Many of the homes for sale in Grand Hampton are short sales because many of them were built in 2005 and 2006 and prices were higher then across the board.  There are some beautiful homes in this community and resort-like amenities.  The entrance is beautifully landscaped and it is gated and guarded.  There have been a few foreclosures in the community, but for the most part people have listed their homes as a short sale if they couldn’t make their payements.  A short sale is a much better alternative to a foreclosure for both the homeowner, lender, and community.  A short sale is better for the homeowner because it is less damaging to their credit and they won’t spend the rest of their life with a foreclosure on their record.  A short sale is better for the Lender even if the home sells for the same as a foreclosure because the Lender won’t have the added expense of going through the legal system to foreclosure, plus the home will many times be occupied and cared for while by the homeowner while the home is being marketed and shown.  Homes that are vacant tend to deteriorate quickly especially in Florida if there is no air conditioning to control the inside climate.  Vacant homes are also a target for vandalism so it’s much better to have the home occupied.

The HOA fees are on the high side in Grand Hampton, but unlike some of the other New Tampa Communities, residents actually get something for that.  There are 2 beautiful pools (one with an awsome water slide), a fitness center, playground, basketball court, tennis courts, mini-putting range, and basic cable and internet are INCLUDED in the HOA fee.  If you are a homeowner thinking about doing a short sale on your home in Grand Hampton, one thing to consider is that the HOA fees have to be paid before the property can be sold to the Buyer.  Sometimes this can be negotiated and the Lender will pay this, but sometimes the Lender will insist that the homeowner pay any back HOA fees that are past due, so even if you cannot make your mortgage payment it’s a good idea to try to keep up with the HOA dues if possible. 

Most of the investors who bought in Grand Hampton have either already done a short sale on their property or let it get foreclosed on.  This means most of the people who are selling their Grand Hampton homes now (as of March 2010) are owner occupied properties.  This is important  as a Buyer because short sales are generally approved more readily on owner occupied homes.

If you are behind on payments or under water on your mortgage for you Grand Hampton home please call or email!  I can help.  Loree@welovetampa.com  813.454.7532

What it’s like to live in Grand Hampton

Grand Hampton is one of the newest communities in New Tampa. The community is gated and has a guard at the entrance. There are approximately 1,000 homes within the community ranging from about 1400 square feet to over 5,000 square feet and prices range from about $150,000 to over $700,000. New construction is still taking place, though the community is well established. The builders in Grand Hampton include Taylor Woodrow, Arthur Rutenberg, Mercedes, Mobley, Southern Crafted, Bayfair, Standard Pacific, and David Weekly – all good builders!

Amenities include a fabulous clubhouse, park, olympic size swimming pool, resort style lagoon pool complete with integrated slide for the kids. There are cabanas and lounge chairs surrounding the pool and speakers integrated into the landscaping that play soft music and create a very relaxing ambiance. A soccer field, basketball court, tennis courts, fitness center, and small putting range are all here for resident’s use as well.

There is both a CDD and an HOA fee. Certain sections are also maintenance-free, meaning lawn service and exterior maintenance of the home is included for a monthly fee. Brighthouse cable and internet service are included in the HOA fee for the entire community and residents can tune in to a specific channel on their tv and see the entrance to the community and the guard . There is an intranet in place and guest lists for the guards can be set up via the internet.

The managers do a great job planning activities for residents of Grand Hampton. They have great holiday parties and events for both children and adults including wine tasting, Easter egg hunts, visits from Santa, poker night, and more.

The bus stop for the entire community is at the clubhouse. After school programs are also available and very reasonable. Some of the children ride their bikes to the clubhouse and there are bike racks to lock them up while they’re at school. The schools that Grand Hampton is zoned for are Turner Elementary, Bartels Middle School, and Wharton High School. Turner and Bartels are only a few years old and they share a campus. I’ve had 5 children at these schools and have been pleased with both schools. I haven’t experienced Wharton yet, but have heard both good and bad things about it.

Grand Hampton is located right at the border of Hillsborough and Pasco counties. It’s a little further out than Tampa Palms and Hunter’s Green, but I’ve found this to be a great benefit. It’s just a couple of miles north that you can get onto I-75 to go either North or South and if you’re headed downtown, I-275 forks to the right just a couple of miles south of this entry onto I-75 making it much more convenient than living right in the heart of New Tampa.

Since Grand Hampton was primarily developed during the 2005-2006 real estate craze, many people overpaid for their homes and as a result there are quite a few short sales in the community and great deals can be found. To see the available homes in Grand Hampton see below:

For more information on homes and real estate in New Tampa, please contact Loree Nichols Loree@welovetampa.com 813.454.7532