Whew, thank God 2013 is over! That’s not to say that our company had a horrible year, because we didn’t.
In fact, we had a great year of redefining our purpose so that we can continue to rock it out for you in 2014 and beyond.
Our re-defined purpose is as follows:
To help improve your ability to earn more repeat & referral business while creating exceptional experiences for your real estate consumers.
And so far, I must say, our referral partners appreciate what we bring to the table.
Check this out ↓
But to get back to my initial comment about 2013…the reason why last year was great, is because (much like in 2007 when we first started) the slow times forced us to focus on developing new processes that would distinguish our company.
If so, you might not have been able to take advantage of the historically low mortgage interest rates that exist in our market right now.
Most traditional home loan programs require an appraisal, which your lender uses to determine the value of your home and to determine whether that value makes it a safe bet for them to loan you money. Very basically, if your home is worth less than you owe on it is essentially impossible to refinance your current loan.
This is of course a common problem here in Southwest Florida.
If you are currently in a FHA home loan and in this situation, there is a program that may help you take advantage of today’s great mortgage intersest rates.
It is called the FHA Streamline Refinance.
Just last week, we closed one of these loans for a couple who owed $240,000 on a FHA loan and who were paying about 5.5% interest on that loan.
Their home’s value was recently assessed by the property appraiser at $190,000 ($50,000 less than what they owed!), which in most cases would have made it impossible for them to refinance their home loan. Through the FHA Streamline Refinance program, these “under water” clients were able to refinance at a fixed rate of 3.75% over 30 years, which reduced their monthly payment of principal and interest from $1,363 to $1,109.49 – a savings of over $250 per month!
The FHA Streamline Refinance is a unique special provision. For starters, your existing loan must be a FHA loan.
According to mortgage expert Jay Beckingham, a loan officer at American Eagle Mortgage Company in Ft. Myers, Florida, FHA wants its borrowers to be able to take advantage of today’s low rates. The program therefore requires NO APPRAISAL, instead using the property’s purchase price as a baseline. The program does require that you pay your own closing costs; but the long-term savings are nonetheless clear and significant.
In the example above, those clients will save over $3,000 over the next 12 months.
Because we wanted to learn more about this program, we invited Jay to speak to us about it. Here is what Jay had to say —
If we can help you in anyway, please be sure to contact us online, or give us call at (239) 985-4142.
Fast forward 14 months and YES, “The Hardest Short Sale Ever” had closed!!!
That day was a clear reminder of just how proud I am of our team here at Winged Foot Title. As you may imagine, a process this complicated yielded many useful insights which we employ daily in our operations. But as we surge into 2012, we wanted to share with you three of those insights that may be helpful in your business as well.
You’ve been there, I’ve been there – WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE!
That point in time when you look at all the facts in a transaction and come to question if it will ever close!!!
Do throw in the towel? Call for help?
If you are like most of us, you probable have invested a lot of time and energy into the transaction, so giving up and throwing in the towel is not an option!
That is when we enter the picture and I come to experience the “The Hardest Short Sale Ever” 😉
In the spring of 2010, a Cape Coral REALTOR® who had heard me speak on short sales at the Cape Coral REALTOR ® Association called me to ask if we could help on a potential short sale. This was a seasoned professional; but I could tell from his tone that he seriously doubted that the deal in question would ever be able to close. Because of the size of the deal ($1M+) though, it made sense to at least give it a shot.
Here is a list of items that, at first blush, supported the realtor’s doubts about the possible success of this Cape Coral short sale:
As you can see, we’ll be busy posting a lot of information, so make sure you don’t miss anything by following us online by email, RSS Feed, Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn to assure you’re notified as soon it’s available!
If you have a real estate question – please don’t hesitate to contact us at (239) 985-4142 or visit our WingedFootTitle.com web site. We service all of Southwest Florida including: Fort Myers Estero, Bonita Springs, Naples, Cape Coral, Pine Island, Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte.
Bonita Springs Realtors, this event is just for you!
The Bonita-Estero Women’s Council of REALTORS is holding their business luncheon for November at the Grandezza Community Club House. The luncheon includes 4 speaks considered to be the “Veterans of our Industry”. I was honored to be included as one of them. Here’s a roster of all the speakers:
Listing REALTOR: D Michael Burker, Keller Willaims Elite Realty
Selling REALTOR: Heather Wightman, John R Wood Realtors
My company, Winged Foot Title, (a Fort Myers title company) understands the value of home ownership. More importantly, we understand the value of protecting the American dream. We know that title insurance is the key to eliminating risks in real estate transactions.
The possibilities are endless when you choose the short sale specialists at Winged Foot Title to close your Bank of America short sale (or any other short sale for that matter :)).
The details of this Bank of America Short Sale are remarkable:
The original loan amount was $328,650.
The approval netted the lender $215,196.93 which was approximately 65% of the original loan.
The approval resulted in 91.73% of the approved purchase price of $234,600.
The realtor commissions were approved at 6% of the approved purchase price of $234,600.
Did we mention the approval came in 37 business days?
Not too long ago, I was quoted in a Florida Weekly article regarding lenders pursuing borrowers for the deficiency judgment. Here is the actual article:
There has been a substantial amount of buzz in the real estate industry lately about MARS. No, not the red planet; although the market has been rather other worldly. MARS is the acronym for “Mortgage Assistance Relief Services”, a set of real estate-related services now defined and regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. The Final Rule, which became effective on December 29, 2010 was published in the Federal Register on December 1, 2010 at Vol. 75, No. 230, pages 75092 to 75144. It has REALTOR® associations scrambling to ensure that their members are compliant (see, e.g., the Florida Assn. of Realtors Legal Center Hot Topics page), lest they run afoul of the rule in their short sale negotiations and subject themselves to scrutiny and civil penalty.
All of this buzz convinced me to take a closer look at the rule as it relates to our title insurance-related short sale services. As far as I know, neither our national nor state (FL) title industry associations have issued any advisory opinions on the new rule regarding mortgage relief. This is understandable. The rule is pretty complicated; and either an over- or an under-reaction by the associations could cause issues for their members. But since Winged Foot Title provides short sale title solutions, I thought it worth our while to look at the rule more closely. So without going into too much annoyingly detailed analysis, I would like to explore the rule a bit and explain what Winged Foot Title is doing to prepare and to react.
NOT LEGAL ADVICE: This information is not to be construed as legal advice. Legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case. Every effort has been made to assure that this information is up-to-date as of the date of publication. It is not intended to be a full and exhaustive explanation of the law in any area. This information is not intended as legal advice and may not be used as legal advice. It should not be used to replace the advice of your own legal counsel.
Winged Foot Tite, LLC is not associated with the government, and our [short sale orchestration] service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
