Bellevue WA – If your loan has Private Mortgage Insurance, also known as PMI, then there is a high likelihood that they will request that you sign a promissory note. Today’s blog post talks about how to convince the lender to waive it. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. PMI companies are notorious for asking for promissory notes. The reason they ask for them so much is because there is no risk in doing so. If the home is foreclosed upon, then they will have to pay a claim for the loss. If the home is sold as a short sale, then they will have to pay a claim for the loss. Either way, they have the same result. But, if they get a promissory note, then they get some money to help cover the claim. Either way, there is no risk to th... 03/15/2013

Bellevue WA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Steve. Here is his question. “We are doing a short sale with one of the largest nationwide banks. I told them I wouldn’t do the short sale unless they specifically changed their short sale approval letter to completely release me from the deficiency. The short sale negotiator told me that Fannie Mae would not allow them to release the deficiency. I read somewhere that Fannie Mae doesn’t pursue a homeowner after a short sale. I don’t know who to believe. What do you think? Steve.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is the answer to Steve’s Question. Steve, in my opinion, you are being lied to by the people at the bank. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... 03/15/2013

Bellevue WA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received this question from Tamra. Here is Tamra’s Question. “I would like to hire you to help me short sale my house. However, I am concerned that if the short sale doesn’t go thru, then I will still owe you money. My friend told me to check on that before I started. It is true that I would owe you money if the short sale didn’t go through? Tamra.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is the answer to Tamra’s question. Tamra, No, you will not have to pay anything if the short sale doesn’t go thru. We only get paid when the short sale is approved and the home sells. Until then, there is no cost to you. In addition, all the short sales we have sold don’t require the selle... 03/15/2013

Here's a luxury 4 bedroom 3 bathroom home for sale in Bellevue, WA that should be at the top of your must-see list! It is likely to attract a great deal of attention and an early viewing is advised to avoid disappointment. With its extensive grounds, this luxury 4 bedroom 3 bathroom home for sale is situated in a sought-after location close to the lake. Built in 1965, this luxury 4 bedroom 3 bathroom home for sale in Bellevue, WA is sized at 3,170 square feet with a plot measured at approximately 35,000 square feet. This luxury 4 bedroom 3 bathroom home for sale was on the market in 1995, when it was last sold for $391,000. Considered as a single-family property, this luxury 4 bedroom 3 bathroom home for sale in Bellevue, WA offers an accommodation that is spacious and welcoming. This ... 03/15/2013

This double story 4 bedroom home for sale in Horizon Heights, Bellevue is a luxury property in a secluded street, and a high level of interest is expected. This double story 4 bedroom home for sale was built in 1989 and was last sold in December 1999 for $400,000. It covers an area of 3,293 square feet on a massive lot of 13,024 square feet. This double story 4 bedroom home for sale in Horizon Heights, Bellevue is beautifully presented throughout and has been carefully maintained by the present owners. Featuring slab granite counters and cherry cabinets throughout the property, this luxury double story 4 bedroom home for sale includes a laundry room, too. Great features of this double story 4 bedroom home for sale consist of a spacious, deluxe master bedroom suite with five piece bathr... 03/13/2013

Bellevue Real Estate - Lochmoor Home for SalePeaceful urban upbringing stirs your imagination as you approach the residence rising from the site…seriously traditional brick front down a private dead-end cul-de-sac. A terrific 10,000+ square foot lot is an urban wonder (and fenced): sunlit grassy areas and wooded backdrop where giant fir trees stand guard. This is Bellevue Lochmoor real estate that you don't want to miss. An impressive vaulted entry expands the openness and light, drawing your eye up the rising staircase. But wait—first explore the downstairs of this beautiful property. Well-dressed grand living room: broad sweeps of hardwoods meet exquisite marble tile surround of the fireplace…dramatic flair—even unlit. Flickering flames add a coziness to this impressive gathering room... 03/13/2013

Bellevue WA – I see a lot of agents making mistakes on short sale property valuation. Lenders hire a supposedly impartial third party to value the property. Many of these people are evaluating 10 properties a day. There is very little quality control and usually no one checks their work. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Because of that, I always try to meet them at the home when they are doing their inspection. I explain the history of the property and why it is selling for that price. The lender will take as gospel whatever value that person tells the bank the property is worth. If that value is more than the property is selling for, then the lender won’t accept the short sale. Here are some common mistakes that you need to... 03/13/2013

Cosmetic Fixer minutes to downtown Bellevue Overview Maps Photos Open House Market Stats $549,000 Single Family Home Main Features 3 Bedrooms2 BathroomsInterior: 2,260 sqftLot: 10,650 sqft Location 804 130th Ave NEBellevue, WA 98005USA To get updates on open home dates and other property events, please click the "Like" button below: Paul E Nelson Residential Specialist(206) 261-7355paulandc@gmail.comhttp://www.EastSideLuxuryLIving.com         Listed by: Paul E Nelson Our recent listings Cosmetic Fixer minutes to downtown Bellevue5 br 3140 sq ft Remodeled Multi Level View HomeGorgeous Issaquah Townhome with 2 Car GarageGuemas Island GetawayLike New Lowest Price Home In Snoqualmie Ridge Subscribe to our listing feed Nearby properties for sale 03/08/2013

Bellevue WA – We see a lot of agent’s going about escalating a file the wrong way. It reminds me of the appeals process game in death row. Everyone has to go through the appeals process. It drags on for years and years. After a while it simply becomes a game. I don’t want to see short sale escalation turn into a “game.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Treat the Short Sale Escalation Process like a sales process. Don’t treat it like just another technical process that you do for no reason. Don’t just escalate the file “because you felt like it.” The reason you escalate a file is because the lender is making a bad decision turning down the offer. You feel, based on your superior knowledge of the property and the local housing... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – If you are doing short sales, then you must learn how to escalate a file. Here’s why. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. What do you do when the house isn’t selling for any more money, but the bank keeps on rejecting the offers? You can give up, but then the seller loses the house to foreclosure. Ouch! Why not escalate the file and get it approved? Here’s an example of how it worked for the Stop Foreclosure Institute. We had a house on the market for 4 months. We started the price at 200k and slowly brought it down to $169,900. We finally got an offer for $159,000. The lender thought the house was worth $195,000. We knew that they wouldn’t accept the offer because it was less than their value. We knew this invest... 03/06/2013

  Bellevue WA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute sometimes receives e-mails from people that short sales are impossible. Well, short sales are not impossible. They just take time. Here is an example. The Stop Foreclosure Institute was attempting a short sale on a property. The bank turned down an offer for $220,000 on the house. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Today it looks like an offer for 185k will be approved. Why is that? The first offer was submitted 4 months ago. The bank did an appraisal. The appraiser thought the house was worth $265,000. The lender rejected the offer because it didn’t meet their guidelines. We put the home back on the market and waited for another offer. The property values continued to decline.  C... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Many people are shocked that it is often cheaper to short sale and rent that staying in your home with a loan modification. They find it hard to believe that they can rent a comparable or even nicer home for less than their mortgage. Here are the two factors that make it possible. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Many homeowners bought homes for more than they are selling for today. A perfect example is a homeowner that paid $450,000 for a home. His mortgage payment was around $3,200 a month. He stopped paying his payments and moved to a rental. He found a nicer, larger home to rent for $2450 a month. He had tried for months to convince his lender to modify his loan. They wouldn’t drop the payments below $3,000... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – People often wonder why their lender will release their debt in a short sale. Most lenders don’t like to release the debt. But, they agree to do it because they know that policy nets them more money. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. They net more because a home usually sells for more money as a short sale versus after it has been foreclosed upon. Let’s go thru a few examples. See the home in the picture above? You can see that it is good shape. Most short sales are being sold while the homeowner lives in the home. The homeowners are able to keep the house up. They keep the inside clean and neat. In addition, they mow the lawn and keep up with the yard. This makes a big difference in the sales price. Would you r... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Sometimes it seems like short sales are tough. “Don’t try to short sale your house. Short Sales never go thru”, people tell you. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. You see, we’ve spent the last few years figuring out all the guidelines for short sales. If the loan being shorted is an FHA Loan, VA Loan, Fannie Mae Loan, or Freddie Mac Loan, then the guidelines for the short sale are different. In this case, the loan being shorted was an FHA loan. Here’s what happened. FHA puts out a letter called “Mortgagee Letter 2008-43.” It details exactly how the lender handling a short sale on FHA’s behalf is supposed to negotiate on a short sale. This letter is 16 pages long and gives them specific directions on how much to ... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Sometimes it seems like short sales are tough. “Don’t try to short sale your house. Short Sales never go thru”, people tell you. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. That isn’t true. Here is how one agent beat the odds. A member of the Stop Foreclosure Institute told me about a short sale he recently worked on. Here is the story from the member. “I had a short sale with a large national lender. The loan was owned by Fannie Mae, not the lender. We had an over zealous short sale negotiator. We had the home on the market for several months and finally received an offer for $180,000. We submitted that to the lender with all the short sale paperwork. The lender came back and said the price needed to be raised to $257,0... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Durry. Here was Durry’s Question. “We have American Home Mortgage Servicing, a loan processor for a Mortgage held by Deutche Bank, adding a 1% “processing fee” that ONLY the buyer can pay at closing. This was never revealed until we received the short sale approval letter. The buyer is upset.” Durry. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here was our answer to Durry’s Question. Yes, the buyer is upset. Buyers think they are in control in today’s market. They can’t see why they should pay a fee if they are buying a house in a “Buyer’s Market.” I think this fee is unethical. We had the fee waived on a short sale we did. Your e-mail indicates that the buy... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Here is a shocking fact that most of the American Public doesn’t know. Most mortgages are not owned by banks. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. In addition, most of the huge losses on bad mortgages was not lost by the banks themselves. Instead, the biggest loser was Uncle Sam, thru the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Most mortgages are sold after they are made. We estimate that around 75-80% of all mortgages were sold before the housing crisis. This means that the large lenders didn’t take the hit on the bad mortgages they originated. Click HERE to continue reading. 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Here is a question that the Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received. “I am in the middle of a very long negotiation with Chase. The seller had me to put a clause into the contract stating “upon approval of short sale by seller’s lender, lenders, & or affiliates, client, or heirs will be released from any monetary shortages or deficiencies from said sale of stated property upon successful closing and transfer of title from that date and forevermore.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. The short sale negotiator at the lender, Nathan W, has advised me that he will reject the file and close it out if we don’t remove this from the contract. What do you think? After reading your comments below, I am not sure of wh... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Earlier I gave you two specific examples of big bank’s negligence causing a loan owner to lose money. Here are two more. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Example #3: Not following up on foreclosures properly. I have seen countless examples of servicers hiring an attorney to foreclose on a house. The attorney files the paperwork. Then, the foreclosure case goes into purgatory. Nothing happens for 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and even up to 2 years. I have seen this happen on more than one property. And no, there are not other factors involved. In fact, on two short sales I’ve handled, the sellers had moved out of the house before the foreclosure was even filed. Example #4: Not listing REO properties quickly e... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Here are two specific examples of big bank’s negligence causing a loan owner to lose money. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Example #1: Not giving buyers an answer on a short sale within one week. Home buyers don’t like to wait 3-6 months for an answer on a short sale. This fact causes many buyers to shy away from short sales, thereby causing short sales to sell for less. Lenders should help the loan owners recoup as much money as possible from short sales. To do this, they make the short sale approval process as quick as possible. They could start the property valuation process when the property is put on the market and determine a certain price they would accept. More buyers would be willing to purchase the ... 03/06/2013