Happy New Year!!! Welcome to 2012 – What are your goals?

Happy New Year Everyone!!! 

Hope everyone has set their New Year’s Resolutions and ready to stick to them.  Here at 2ShortSaleGuys.com we have set our goals and ready to help homeowners prevent foreclosure.

The biggest part of achieving our goals is maintaining a clear schedule of events.  This year we intend on lead generating like we have never before.  We will be calling our Sphere of Influences asking for help as we know that everyone knows someone who is behind on their mortgage.  National Association of Realtors stated that over 70% of homes that were foreclosed on never went on the market prior to the foreclosure because the homeowners were embarrassed to talk to an agent.  We are asking all of our friends and family to trust us and know that we have the knowledge and experience to get the transaction closed and prevent the foreclosure.

Another way of boosting business this year is our search for a full time buyer’s agent that has begun.  Now that our listing inventory has increased our calls and website leads coming into 2ShortSaleGuys has also increased.   We need a highly organized and motivated person to be able to assist with those buyer leads.  To work on the team, we need an existing licensed agent or someone who is currently in real estate school.  We don’t mind helping them learn the business so as long as they are willing to put in the time to learn about short sales and work in a highly motivated and energetic team environment.

We look forward to service our clients in 2012 so please don’t hesitate to call us and let us know how we can help you or a loved one.  Until then, maintain focus and stick to those New Year Resolutions!!!

2ShortSaleGuys.com are licensed Real Estate Agents with Keller Williams Realty – Lanier Partners.  Both Bill Bythewood and Nakia Brooks are licensed to sale real estate in the State of Georgia.  We can be reached at 678-279-5977 or 678-425-1988.  Our email is info@2shortsaleguys.com.

2011 has come to an end!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and enjoyed spending time with friends and family.  At 2ShortSaleGuys there is a lot that we are thankful for.  We have really put together a successful business and team of professionals that have the knowledge and experience to get the job done.  We are thankful for our families that understand that sometimes we work long hours.  MOST importantly we are thankful for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

At 2ShortSaleGuys, we have really turned up the volume on Short Sale Listings this year.  One of our keys to success was hiring a facilitation assistant.  She is in charge of our Short Sale listings from the time we take the listing to the time we close the transaction.  At the time of offer, she verifies the offer will be acceptable to the mortgage lender based on their minimum amount that they need.  She submits all the paperwork and she gets multiple updates weekly from the bank and disseminates the updates to Bill and I as well as the Buyer’s and Seller’s.  On average a Short Sale file take approximately 40 to 60 man hours to process and Melanie does it all!!!  We are grateful and blessed to have such experience on our side!

 So how did we do?  Well, 2011 was a great year but 2012 will be even better.  According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the average agent closes five transactions a year.  This year 2ShortSaleGuys closed a total of 45 transactions with 6 of those transactions being rental properties.  We have already begun 2012, and as we enter the new year, we have 11 active listings and 9 listings that have offers just waiting for the mortgage lender to approve the closing of the transaction.  That’s already half of what we did in 2011.

We are growing and we are in need of a motivated and customer service oriented individual that wants to work on an energetic, highly productive, organized team.  That person doesn’t have to have a real estate license today, but must be willing to obtain it quickly!  If you know someone or you are interested, please let us know.

As we enter 2012, we have set a goal to help as many homeowners as possible avoid foreclosure.  We can’t do that without our friends and family.  When people are behind on their mortgage a lot of time they only tell close friends and family.  Another National Association of REALTORS® statistic is that over 70% of the foreclosures that are executed were never listed by a REALTOR®.  That’s because a lot of times people are too ashamed and embarrassed to ask for help.  Please don’t let your friends and family be in that statistic, tell them to contact us and let us try to help them. 

2ShortSaleGuys.com are licensed Real Estate Agents with Keller Williams Realty – Lanier Partners.  Both Bill Bythewood and Nakia Brooks are licensed to sale real estate in the State of Georgia.  We can be reached at 678-279-5977 or 678-425-1988.  Our email is info@2shortsaleguys.com.

Success Story

Happy Thanksgiving week to all of readers! We all have things that we are thankful for but at 2ShortSaleGuys.com we are extremely thankful that we get to help numerous wonderful people that would otherwise have to resort to foreclosure.

In this weeks Success Story, we are in Winder, Georgia. This was another referral case in that Bill knew the homeowners because they were members of his Church. The homeowners had recently went through a divorce and neither party could afford the home on their own.

The home was kept in immaculate condition and was easy to sale, we had it on the market only about 2 weeks. In this case we ended up having multiple offers on the home. In a short sale the contract for purchase is like any other transaction, it’s between the buyer and seller (homeowner seeking to short sale). There is a lot of misconception that the transaction is between the buyer and the bank, but the only thing the bank does is approve the short sale. In this case, 2ShortSaleGuys asked all parties wishing to purchase to make their highest and best offer so that we are getting the most for the home that we can possible get. Once that is done, that’s when our extremely talented Facilitation Assistant gets to work and makes the magic happen.

The home was on the market less than 2 weeks and we had short sale approval on a first an second mortgage in just under 3 weeks. The buyers were very well qualified and their lender was able to close the transaction in 2 weeks.

The gratification for us is that the homeowner said at closing “everyone told me that short selling our home was going to be a nightmare, 2shortsaleguys knew all the documentation that we were going to need and took that before we even listed the property and made the transaction just as easy as a regular selling of a home”.

Please check out our website and call us with any questions you may have. One stat that absolutely gets to us is that according to the National Association of Realtors, over 70% of foreclosure that occur we’re never listed for sale by the home owners. If you know someone that is behind on their mortgage, please let us know or get them to call us so that we can give them options.

Nakia Brooks and Bill Bythewood are licensed Real Estate Salespersons with the State of Georgia and their license is currently held with Keller Williams Realty – Lanier Partners (678) 425-1988

Success Story

We are starting a new series of blogs this week as we have had many great successes when it comes to short sales in the Northeast Atlanta area. It’s our mission at 2ShortSaleGuys to help as many homeowners as possible avoid foreclosure. We have had the pleasure to assist many and we thought it may help homeowners straddling the fence with a Short Sale and help ease some of the stress.

In this weeks case, it comes to us from Snellville, Georgia. This family was referred to us by a past client as she knew of someone that needed to sale. This person was working as a contractor for the federal government and once the contract was up it quickly turned into a nightmare finding a job.

This particular homeowner was behind a couple of payments and had attempted to work with the mortgage lender on a loan modification. Very quickly, according to the National Association of REALTORS, less than 10% of all loan modifications applied for ever get approved and this is why. If you owe $200,000 on your home to the mortgage company, whether or not you have multiple mortgages, and your home is worth $125,000 in today’s market than it will be impossible to do the loan modification. A loan modification is an internal re-finance within the mortgage lender and if your home is not worth what the loan amount is then they can’t “modify” your loan.

This family after being very frustrated that his mortgage company would not or could not work with him reached out for our help. We listed his home appropriately, to ensure that he was priced so that buyers would be interested in his home. We marketed very heavy with our Social Media avenues and within two weeks we had an offer for the property. One of the things that sets us apart from other Short Sale Agents is that we have a full-time assistant that facilitates our Short Sales. She works closely with the Sellers and Mortgage Lenders to get all appropriate paperwork and ensure a quick and smooth Short Sale transaction.

We had approval from the mortgage lender in approximately two weeks and closed three weeks later. Below is what the seller had to say about our services and his experiences with our team:

“It is a distinct pleasure to recommend and in fact encourage you to get to know Nakia, Bill and Melanie. As we dealt the personal embarrassment and disgrace of admitting and responding to our personal financial collapse, Nakia and his team showed incredible grace and instilled confidence that all our woes were not as bad as we had imagined. Our home was on the market roughly 2 months resulting in a very peaceful and pleasant Short Sale experience. As one goes through life, you develop trusted professional relationships with your Doctor, Lawyer, Dentist, Financial Advisor and others. Nakia and his team have not only been there for us and become close trusted professionals; they have indeed been embraced as family friends. We are forever in their debit for their professionalism, grace and support.”

If you know of anyone that is in a situation of embarrassment and you think we can help them save a foreclosure, please don’t hesitate to call us. We will keep all information confidential and make sure they are taken care of with class. You can find out more about us at www.2shortsaleguys.com or contact us at 678-279-5977 ~ CLICK HERE to send us a confidential email and we will respond to you shortly!!!

Nakia Brooks and Bill Bythewood are licensed Real Estate Salespersons with the State of Georgia and their license is currently held with Keller Williams Realty – Lanier Partners (678) 425-1988

Short sales can present bargains to the patient buyer

There are many articles about the advantages of buying Short Sales, John Adams with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution did a fantastic job and I wanted to share it with you on our site.  The link to the original article can be followed below.

 

We all know you can get a great deal by buying a bank-owned home at a discounted price. But is there a way to beat the crowd by buying the house before it goes back to the lender? The answer is yes.

It’s called a short sale and it can be a win-win transaction for all parties to the deal.

Here’s how it works: A short sale occurs when a lender agrees to accept less than the outstanding loan balance as payment in full, allowing the house to sell to a new buyer for less than the existing loan amount.

While banks are understandably less than enthusiastic about such sales, they usually end up saving the bank the costs of foreclosure, repairs and resale fees.

• Find short sales through real estate agents.

Short sale offers are usually presented to lenders by real estate agents who are experienced in the process.

If the agent can convince the lender that a foreclosure is imminent and that the lender is going to lose a lot of money on the eventual sale of the house, the bank may agree to accept less than the full balance of the loan as a payoff.

Lenders will only consent if they believe this course of action will result in less of a loss for the bank. And in today’s slow sales environment, that’s a fairly easy case to make.

• The lender must agree to the payoff.

One of the biggest hurdles to a successful short sale is getting the lender to make a decision on any short sale offer you might make.

And because the process of getting to a closing can be an extremely difficult one, it pays to work with an agent who is a short sale specialist.

While there is little anyone can do to move a bank forward in the process, a persistent agent can try to get all the required paperwork submitted in a timely manner. And yes, there is a remarkable amount of paperwork required. Remember, you are dealing with a bank.

• The seller just walks away.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to this transaction is this: The bank will require that the seller (i.e., defaulting borrower) prove that he has no assets and no income and that he has suffered some grievous misfortune that prevents him from paying.

I have never understood what difference this makes to the bank, but they consider it critically important. Proving financial hardship is an art form all its own. Experienced agents are adept at creating an image of heart-wrenching insolvency.

In addition, the homeowner cannot benefit financially from the sale of his home. In other words, he will get nothing at the closing table. As a result, the homeowner has little incentive to participate in the short sale.

And if the bank discovers that you have compensated the seller in any way, they will revoke their agreement to participate in the sale. This is where the patience and professionalism of the facilitating agent can make all the difference.

To make matters worse, the bank may or may not release the original borrower from liability for the loss experienced by the bank. This should be negotiated in the short sale offer.

• Junior liens must give consent.

If there are junior liens, such as HELOCs or a second mortgage, or if there are unpaid taxes or mechanic’s liens, then the short sale must be approved by all of them before the sale can go forward.

Understandably, they also want a piece of the pie.

• There is a high failure rate.

The majority of attempted short sales end up in failure due to the fact that it can take up to 12 months for the transaction to be approved. Most buyers are simply unwilling to wait that long to buy the house and the seller can change his mind up until the last second.

In addition, the lender’s attorney is usually threatening to foreclose on a monthly basis and is often unwilling to cooperate with the short sale process.

• Have your own attorney.

Finally, make sure you obtain solid legal advice during these transactions. Short sales are not your typical home-buying experience.

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John Adams is an author, broadcaster and investor. He answers real estate questions submitted through his website and in this column. For more real estate information or to make a comment, visit www.money99.com.

 

The original article can be found by following the link below.

http://www.ajchomefinder.com/AJCHomefinder-sharing_/short-sales-can-present-1015060.html