Short Sale, Title Insurance, & Real Estate Blog

“I know Winged Foot Title! They pick up the phone on the first ring” said Matt from Lennar.

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That’s right; we are here for you, right from the first phone call all the way through closing. Let’ start at the very beginning. What does “closing”, “settlement” or “closing escrow” mean?

Closing or settlement is a term used for the point in time at which the title to the property is transferred to the buyer and is the final step in executing a real estate transaction

We all know buying a house is one of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime. It is a very exciting yet possibly overwhelming experience. We find that the more you know about the process the more confident and relaxed you will be.

Once the seller accepts your sales contract, the countdown to closing begins. Timing is crucial to make sure all of the requirements for a successful closing are in order.

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I am always interested in knowing what is going on with the real estate market, most likely because I am in the business. Lately we have been hearing more and more about the rise of mortgage rates each week.

So that poses the question, are the most attractive interest rates in history coming to an end?

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One of the biggest battles we face in the title industry is dealing with attorneys, management companies, and community associations in getting estoppels.

Whether we are dealing with a short sale property or a traditional sale, if the property has an association, we have to request an estoppel. You may be asking, what is an estoppel?

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You are in the process of purchasing a new home and someone asks if you are getting title insurance? You think to yourself, what is title insurance?

I’ll answer that question in just a moment. But first, buying a new home is typically one of the biggest purchases you’ll ever make in your life and it can be extremely overwhelming!

Although most people don’t think about it, you want to be sure when purchasing a new home that there are no problems with the home’s title.

You also want to be sure the seller really owns said property. But how can you be sure?

Get title insurance!

Boom. ↑ There’s your answer.

Title Insurance insures an owner of real estate against the loss occasioned by defects in, liens against, or other conditions rending the owner’s title to the property unmarketable.

Problems with the title can limit your use and enjoyment of the property as well as create financial loss. Owners Title insurance creates peace of mind!

What is the process? The process is very easy! Once your sales contract has been accepted…

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BusinessDictionary.com defines a distressed sale as an urgent sale of normal or distressed goods, at deeply discounted prices.

For the purpose of this article, “distressed goods” refers to homes that sell at deeply discounted prices via either a short sale or foreclosure.

We have been and still are in a housing market unlike any we’ve seen in years. The economy of the past few years has produced more properties that are either in foreclosure or short sales status.

From our point of view, many buyers (we’ll call Group A) routinely steered clear of distressed sales because they had the idea that these properties were damaged money pits and very likely to be trashed. Therefore they avoided taking such a risk on a big investment.

But then there are others (we’ll call Group B) who enter the market either for the first time or as a seasoned buyers, who view distressed sales as an opportunity.

They’re searching for (and finding) great properties that have been overlooked by those people describe above who categorically excluded foreclosures and short sales.

If you’re part of Group A, you may want to reconsider purchasing a distressed sale because they make great sense, especially when the market is tight.

What is the difference between a Foreclosure and a Short Sale?

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A short sale is a sale of real estate in which the proceeds from selling the property will fall short of the balance of debts secured by liens against the property and the property owner cannot afford to repay the liens fill amounts, and whereby the lien holders agree to release their lien on the real estate and accept less than the amount owed on the debt.

If you deal with short sales on a regular basis sometimes you just need a good laugh.

I decided to have a little fun and create a spinoff of David Letterman’s famous Top Ten segment of Late Night and relate it to the Short Sale world and lenders.

So without further ado, here are the Top Ten Things we would like to be able to say to the Short Sale Lenders:

10. Your File is declined!

9. I can’t find you on the Letter of Authorization; please fill out a new one and allow 72 hours before you can speak on this file.

8. I need your 2 most recent bank statements, all pages for every account possible.

7. We are going to need a higher offer, but we can’t tell you how much.

6. I will give you until the end of the day to respond or I will have to close your file.

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Thank you all so much for the taking our recent survey. You have no idea how valuable your feedback is to us!

You may recall that the second question in our survey asks:

Think of the last time you went through a short sale. What was the most frustrating aspect of the process that you faced?

So far, we have received over 75 responses (woo hoo! ) to our survey, the vast majority coming from real estate agents and our referral partners.

The common frustration expressed from you is the lack of communication between all parties involved, most notably the lender.

This is such a common frustration and most times it cripples the process and leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those involved.

As a Realtor®, you know how incredibly annoying it is when you have an eager buyer who’s ready, willing, and able to purchase a short sale, and yet she can’t because of loads of red tape that must be cleared up between the seller and his lender. UGH!

What’s even more frustrating is when you have bills to pay (just like everyone else) and you could really use the commission from this sale, and yet no matter how much effort you put in, IT JUST WON’T CLOSE! Talk about stress!

Well, at Winged Foot Title, we’ve heard your frustrations loud and clear and hopefully the advice in this article will help you with the next short sale transaction…that is, if you ever decide to be a part of one again.

Yes, short sales can be incredibly frustrating and challenging, but I enjoy orchestrating short sales for all of those same reasons.

It’s the thrill of the Chase”. (No pun intended- A little short sale humor).

So to make your next short sale as relatively painless as possible, here is what I suggest:

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Short sales have been known for taking a long time to close!

It was not uncommon in the past to see a short sale take sometimes a year to close, causing overwhelming stress to all parties, especially to the seller.

So why do short sales take so long? Most often we can blame the banks for the delay. However, that complaint does not always apply to Short Sales in 2013.

Many of the lenders and investors have updated their systems, buyers are still interested in buying, and incentives to short sell for both banks and sellers are still viable.

So the question many will ask is…

How long does a short sale take?

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We are still continuing to see low mortgage rates, increased housing prices and higher levels of consumer confidence, which are all contributing to an increase in home sales as we are moving into the spring home buying season.

According to Freddie Mac and shared in a recent article by Housing Wire, this should be the healthiest spring home buying season as home sales are expected to increase from 8% in 2012 to 10% in 2013. Housing starts are anticipated to increase to 950,000 units for 2013 up from 780,000 last year.

I also read a recent article from Zillow who also appears to support this information. The article covered 30 of the largest Metro areas stating that they all showed a gain in February. These areas all experienced both monthly and annual home value appreciation.  It was also stated that February represented the 16th straight month of home value gains since the market hit the bottom in October 2011.

The Experts Weigh in on the Current Housing Market

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