Bellevue WA – In my opinion, loan mods are very tough to negotiate with large lenders like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, or SunTrust. The reason is because you are treated like a number. In addition, in most cases the lender doesn’t own your loan. Someone else does. So when they negotiate with you, it is simply to go thru the motions. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. No, common sense does not apply in these situations! The good news is that common sense does apply when you are dealing with a small, local lender. I remember hearing a credit union in my town run ads about how they didn’t treat you like a number. The ads said something like, “When you bank with X Credit Union you aren’t a number. We talk to you... 03/06/2013

Bellevue WA – Bankruptcy is one of the scariest words a lender can hear. A bankruptcy filing can stall their ability to foreclose by 6 months, and sometimes as long as a year. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. The lenders know that most bankruptcies will cause them to lose the ability to pursue you for any losses. This means they can’t go after you for any upside down debt. The only thing a lender gets in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is any collateral they have on a loan. So they can foreclose on your house, but that is about the only thing they can do. They can’t garnish your wages or bank accounts. So use the bankruptcy threat in your negotiations...Click HERE to continue reading. 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – It always amazes me how some people will do anything to have perfect credit. They would rather go hungry than risk harming their prefect credit rating. A good example is a guy I will call Seth. Seth has perfect credit. He has worked to keep perfect credit for the last 12 years. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Seth has a several credit cards with high balances. He ran the balances up when the economy was strong. Today, he can barely afford to make the minimum monthly payments. However, Seth was recently turned for a car loan, despite his perfect credit. Why did that happen? I thought that perfect credit guaranteed that you could get a loan! Well, it turns out that Seth has too much debt. Most banks won’t lend t... 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Paul. Here is Paul’s Question. “I am selling my house as a short sale. I am behind on the mortgage payments. Do you think I should still pay my credit cards?” Paul. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is our answer. It all depends on what is important to you. Can you afford your mortgage payment if you stopped paying the credit cards? If the answer is yes and you don’t want to move, then I would recommend that you stop paying the credit cards. Obviously that will hurt your credit. But, if you want to keep your home, then you will probably think it is worth it. Then again, I have seen people who would rather have the good credit. However, if you ... 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – How do foreclosures, loan modifications or short sales affect a credit score? Your credit score will be affected by late mortgage payments and a short sale. However, there are 2 things that are considered horrible on your credit report. Those 2 are items are foreclosure and bankruptcy. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. A foreclosure or bankruptcy will almost immediately lower a credit score by around 100 to 120 points. (The number is not hard and fast – it all depends upon what the score was before the foreclosure, and other factors that the credit bureaus don’t like to share.) The way that they write the algorithm, a foreclosure will keep on pushing your score down for the next 2 years! A foreclosure can also s... 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – The Stop Foreclosure recently received a question from Georgia. Here was her question. ” When the bank says the file should be going to an investor soon what does that mean? Georgia.” Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is the answer. It means that whoever ultimately owns the loan will make the decision. For example, you might be negotiating the short sale with Wells Fargo. However Wells Fargo may not own the loan. (Around 80% of all the loans they service are owned by someone else.) Wells Fargo will take all of the short sale documentation and send it to the actual loan owner. (The actual loan owner could be anyone from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, a Pension Fund, or another Wall Street Entity.) T... 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – We received the following email a little while ago from another agent that does short sales. It illustrates how the current short sale guidelines hurt the housing market and homeowners short selling their house. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. The following e-mail shows you why it is important that you have an experienced short sale agent help you.Here is the email: “I have a short sale listing with a large national lender. I have been waiting for an answer since September. I finally received an answer last week in the form of a counter offer to the price. The contract price was $315,000. The lender countered $345,000. I told the buyer to and see if he is willing to pay more. After doing so, he said he will st... 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – We received a lot of feedback from yesterday’s post. One agent said, “You obviously don’t know what you are talking about. Bank X won’t give us a response on the file and we have been waiting 5 months for an answer. How dare you suggest that I am incompetent because they haven’t replied?” (The bank was a large national bank whose name I changed for this post.) Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. First off, we are not saying that all agents are incompetent. However, we do see some agents with no experience with short sales experiencing issues. Here is the problem. Banks do have responsibilities. In fact, 80% of the time the bank we negotiate with does not own the loan. That means they don’t take any of the losses f... 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – The short sale process may vary, but it will generally work as follows: 1) The lender is contacted to discuss the possibility of a short sale and to determine the lender’s process for completing the sale. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. 2) The seller issues a letter authorizing the release of personal information about the loan and the property to the buyer or escrow agency. 3) The lender will review a settlement statement, which will indicate the proposed selling price, remaining loan balances and itemize all expenses, including real estate commissions and other fees and expenses associated with the closing. 4) The seller will complete a “hardship letter,” which will detail and explain all financial difficult... 03/05/2013

Bellevue WA – If the right decision for you and your family is to sell the house as a short sale, then the sale will have an immediate effect on your credit score. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. You might feel like it’s just overwhelming and demoralizing to see your credit score take any more hits! But, here’s the silver lining: according to most experts, 78% of Americans have ERRORS on their credit score. Why is that a silver lining? If you have negative errors on your report that get fixed, that will be a benefit to your score. Average people can, on their own, take steps to repair and restore their credit report/ credit score after a short sale. Here is how to avoid any double whammies during and after your short sale.F... 03/05/2013

January 2013 Homes Sales Report for King County & Eastside Cities of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah and Sammamish. January of 2013 King County closed sales were strong up 24.6% from January 2012 (1781 v 1429). The Eastside showed similar sales up 24.8% (619 v 496) The median home price in King County in January was up 12.50% to $315,000 The Eastside showed modest gains with a median sales price up 10.03% to $439,000. Driving the price increases are the continued lack of inventory. Pending sales across King County have picked up some up 14.85%, and pending sales on the Eastside were up 17.27%. Inventory year over year from last year are still in decline. In January total active listings were down again a 47.65% in King County and down 49.76%(November 2012 47.30%) on the Eastside f... 03/04/2013

Hi all: I'm excited about this week. I have admit I wasn't initially. But after Paying it Forward today I'm excited to Pay it Forward again on Friday! Today I got to Pay it Forward by being a judge for the best teachers in the Renton, WA. School District. It wasn't easy. I received 41 applications the end of February. I had to whittle the list down to my top 10. In retrospect, everyone is qualified and should be a winner. The top 10 get awarded in April at the Ahead of the Class Awards which is held at the Seattle Seahawks offices in April. Again, there were a ton of great applications and I procrastinated due to the amount of work needed to be done. But the ten I picked had a common theme. They were either teaching autistic children, for example, or were leaders and promoters within th... 03/04/2013

The Eastside saw a strong month of waterfront home sales in January, as the luxury real estate market showed signs that it will continue climbing upward in 2013.  16 waterfront homes were sold across the Eastside in a wide range of locations. Mercer Island and Sammamish took the top 6 slots for the month.  The four Sammamish waterfront homes were located across the city, on Lake Sammamish, Pine Lake, and Beaver Lake, ranging from $3.7 million to $1.0 million.  Mercer Island's two sales came in near $2 million and were both located on the East side of the island on Lake Washington. Waterfront Home Sales on the Eastside, January 2013 Address City Price Beds Baths Sq Ft 333 E Lake Sammamish Pkwy SE Sammamish $3,685,000 4 4.25 7,110 4342 E Mercer Wy Mercer Island $2,170,000 4 2.5 2,820 7422... 02/10/2013

Here's an interesting look at Bellevue waterfront property for sale - there are many different types of waterfront property in Bellevue and I would love to talk to you about some of my favorite homes!  Take a peek at these and then let me know if you see something you would like to take a peek at.   02/10/2013

Hi all: I wanted to add to the excellent piece just posted by my good friend Gene Mundt. Gene indicated that we're in the middle of a cycle and those who wait to buy or refinance may pay a higher price down the road. This morning in our sales meeting one of our managers shared with us some slides from an economist's presentation at the last NAR convention. What was gleaned from the slides was the following: 1) There is no inventory and little is being built to replace it. We all know this. Average housing starts used to be about 1 million/year. Although housing starts are on the rebound from the low of 2009, they are still well under where we need to be. The bottom line is prices are rising due to lack of inventory. 2) There has been quite a bit of talk about shadow inventory. No one ho... 02/07/2013

If your looking for the most popular home in Bellevue, well you have found it, sort of.  Over the past 12 months in the city of Bellevue 1,319 homes have sold and the sweet spot is the $400,000 to $500,000 in that range last year 254 homes were sold representing that sales price range. In second place the price range of $300K to $400K saw 198 closings. What does that mean for sellers? If you own a home in Bellevue in that price range with an equity position, you will find the market actively seeking your home.  Order a FREE Market Snapshot complete with Bellevue housing market statistics to see how your neighborhood is holding up. What does that mean for buyers? If your looking for a home to purchase in Bellevue, you will find the greatest opportunity in the $300-500K range.  For a comp... 02/02/2013

  Paul McFadden of The Legacy Group in Bellevue, WA Mortgage Originator         The definition found for the words "mortgage originator" on Investopedia.com read ...       "An institution or individual that works with a borrower to complete a mortgage transaction".      A rather brief description for a profession that demands and requires much from an individual, if performed well and correctly.      Being a mortgage originator myself, and having been in the mortgage business for over 35 years ... I believe I have come to have my own definition of what a good "mortgage originator" truly is.  The words ... educated, licensed,  intelligent, patient, personable, good communicator, integrity, caring and many many more come to mind.      During my years in this business, I've been lucky enou... 01/31/2013

Bellevue WA – You might have heard of Dave Ramsey. He has a popular radio program where he talks explains the benefits of getting out of debt. Dave is a zealot for the debt free life. "You don't need to see the inside of a restaurant unless you are working there", he will tell people in financial trouble that call his show. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. What does Dave recommend that someone should do in order to get out of debt? Reduce spending, eat at home, pay off high interest debt first, etc. Here is why I think Dave might love a short sale. A short sale is a great way to reduce debt. Where else can you wipe out $100,000, $200,000, and even more in debt? That will make up for eating a lot of rice and beans. Do you hav... 01/20/2013

Bellevue WA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Paul. Here is Paul's Question. "I am thinking about a short sale, but I am behind on my property taxes. Will I still have to pay them if I short sale my home? Max." Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. Here is the answer to Paul's Question: In most cases your lender will pay those property taxes. Property taxes are a first priority lien on a property. That means that if a property is foreclosed upon, then they still have to be paid. They don’t go away for any reason. This is also why most lenders want to charge you monthly and then pay the property taxes themselves. They know that the taxes are a big bill that only comes once a year. Not everyone can ... 01/20/2013

Bellevue WA – Here are a few things you should not be surprised to see crop up during the short sale process. Unscrupulous Debt Collection Tactics. If you are facing financial hardship, then paying credit cards and other unsecured debts is your lowest priority. An unsecured debt is a debt where they can’t take away your car or house. A secured debt has something as collateral, such as your car, house, or anything else of value. Click here to discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and avoided foreclosure. The most common unsecured debt is a credit card. When you stop paying them, they will call you non stop. The reason is because they don’t have any other way to collect from you. They can’t come get your car or take your house. So, they make up for that by blowing up yo... 01/20/2013