Just listed this wonderful Santa Monica home for sale! The first open house will be Sunday, July 25th from 2-5pm. Come one, come all!

When one of the largest banks in the country, Wells Fargo, announces this type of cut in jobs, it's time to stop and think about what this means. To me, it can only mean that we are not out of the fog of an economic downturn. The 'double-dip' that all economists have been predicting over the last month or so is most likely a reality.

I, for one, intend to make lemonade from this lemon! As a real estate, I am dedicated to helping people who are affected by a bad economy when it comes to making solid decisions about what to do with a real estate asset that is upside down in value and the owner is struggling through I life/financial situation that precludes them from keeping up with mortgag...

Being that the real estate climate is what it is these days, it would seem that lenders would be begging for short sales. If you ask: “why would a lender consider a short sale where they receive less than they are owed?”, I’m here to tell you there is a huge and obvious reason…they will lose more if they foreclose. A foreclosure can cost a lender an extra $40,000-$60,000 in attorney fees, trustee fees, holding costs and maintenance expense on every foreclosed property.

I won’t lie to you and tell you that short sales are easy. In fact, my experience is that they are anything but easy. It’s a very dynamic process with lost of moving parts and the lenders keep changing the rules as we go a...

If you are one of the hundreds of thousands of homeowners that are trying to decide whether it’s better to do a short sale on your property versus throwing in the towel and letting the bank foreclose on you, I hope you make the decision to at least pursue a short sale before you let the bank do the dirty deed of foreclosure.

From a credit standpoint, a foreclosure will ding your credit somewhere between 150 and 300 points. The foreclosure will stay on your credit history for 5-7 years. Whereas a short sale will affect your credit based on the number of months you are behind. The typical reporting to the credit bureaus is to the effect that your ‘debt was settled for less than the amount ...

On April 14^th, there was a big announcement by Fannie Mae in an effort to support overall market stability and to certainly reinforce the importance of borrowers to work with their lenders when they have difficulty repaying their mortgage. Fannie Mae has updated several policies that pertain specifically to the future eligibility of borrowers to obtain a new mortgage loan after a short sale. Fannie Mae has also updated the requirements for determining that borrowers have re-established their credit after a significant derogatory credit event. You can read about how these changes affect you if you are pursuing a short sale by clicking here.

"Home Seizures By Bank Set Records" was the title of the article published on MSN just the other day. It's really worth the read if you want to fully understand what's happening in the real estate world. This morning, I had my head in the market stats for the 10 primary areas of Los Angeles that I serve: Santa Monica, Venice, Marina de Rey, West Los Angeles, Brentwood, Westwood/Century City, Cheviot Hills, Culver City, Mar Vista and discovered that the number of foreclosures and short sales on the market has risen almost 15% in March over February.

Foreclousre is bad business for the banks. It was also evident from looking at the recent Notice of Default filings for the Westside of Los A...

Welcome to a World of suffering and punishment. That’s the current state of the real estate industry as it relates to short sales – it’s hell out there! In most US cities, “traditional” real estate is all but extinct. The number of short sales and bank-owned/REO listings rose over 10 percent on the Westside of Los Angeles last month alone. More an more homeowners are experiencing some form of financial hardship – job loss, loss of income, divorce, medical problems, adjustable mortgages.

Never ever before in the entire history of real estate have we encountered such uncertainty and such challenges. Homeowners are losing their homes at record pace and we’ve recently witnessed the fall of s...

Just on November 30th, 2009, the Treasury Dept. released the forms and guidelines for the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Althernatives Program (HAFA). This program is expected to be a huge leap forward to help homeowners who are unable to retain their home under the Home Affordable Program (HAMP).

HAFA was created to streamline and simplify the use of short sales and deeds-in-liu of foreclosure by tweaking the process that the banks currently employ.

Just to highlight HAFA...

- It is designed to complement HAMP by providing althernatives for homeowners who qualify for HAMP, but are still unable to keep their home. Why is this important? Well, almost 65% of the loan modifications compl...

As my short sale inventory increases, I'm finding it absolutely essential to be able to explain the short sale process in a way that help distressed homeowners feel comfortable and confident in the process. As I always, say: "there's nothing short about a short sale". Although every short sale is a unique transaction, the average short sale is taking about 4-6 months before we receive approval from the banks. Then, the buyer is offered 30-45 days to close escrow. There are many steps in the short sale process, so let me offer an overview here:

Homeowner Defaults on Payments
By and large, it's only once a homeowner has actually missed at least one payment, do they begin to seek good advice...

I’m gratified to report that late this afternoon, our Gpvermpr Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 183, the Homebuyer Tax Credit legislation, into law. This is the result of the California Association of Realtors' efforts in Sacramento over the past several weeks .

AB 183 will provide $200 million for home buyer tax credits, allocating $100 million for qualified first-time home buyers of existing homes and $100 million for purchasers of new, or previously unoccupied, homes. The eligible taxpayer who purchases a qualified personal residence on and after May 1, 2010, and on or before Dec. 31, 2010, or who purchases a qualified principal residence on and after Dec. 31, 2010, and before Aug....

You Are Invited to Attend

“The Home Buyer Experience”

Attend this Special Event to Learn the 7 Critical Concepts You Need to Know Before Buying Your Home…Especially in Today’s New Economy.

Expect to Learn:

• How to Prepare to Purchase a Foreclosure, REO, or Short Sale
• The True Power of The Mortgage and Property Tax Deductions
• Exciting Options for Home Buyer Financing o Credit Improvement Strategies…Whether Your Score is 620 or 720
• Key Indicators to Identify a ‘Great Deal’
• How to Time the Market and Know Exactly When YOU Should Buy
• Identify Your Non-Negotiables In Buying Your Home

When: Thursday, October 8th @ 6:30pm Reserve Your Seat NOW!

www.HomeBuyerExperience.com

Wachovia Bank has officially rolled out their Fast Track Short Sale Program in Southern California! The manager of the Short Sale Department spent a good deal of time in my office recently to talk about the merits of this program. The program applies to homeowners who are upside-down on their mortgage and have some type of personal hardship. A hardship can be due to job loss, loss of income, divorce, death, health matters, or a loan that's about to adjust whereby the homeowner can no longer afford the payments.

Wachovia is processing short sales for the loans they service as well as World Savings loans, and Wells Fargo Jumbo loans.

It seems that other banks are following suit; Bank of A...

With full understanding that real estate is actually made up of 'micro-markets', it's valuable to understand the national trends.

They speak volumes for the overall direction the market is headed.

Take a watch of the following video on the real estate market and pay special attention to the discussion about foreclosures and what they mean to you, specifically.

I was recently referred to American Foreclosure Specialists as a resource for homeowners that I meet with that are not ready to complete a Short Sale of their property.

AFS offers a range of options to distressed homeowners in the way of workout programs - from reinstatement, repayment plans, loan modification restructuring, forebearance plans,and short sales.

Stop Foreclosure On Your Home

This segment on last night's NBC 11 o'clock news really stirred me up.

The whole conversation about Loan Modifications is so controversial and confusing these days.

It's very difficult to know who to trust.

Please promise me that if you need a referral to a reputable resource that can help you determine if a loan mod is feasible, you'll call me before you venture out on your own. Click here to watch the segment

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I am boggled by the high production value of Suze's video. She is certainly as passionate about helping homeowners avoid foreclosure as I am.

Ok, here's your quick Home Buyers Tip of the week! Enjoy... :)

As my efforts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure has ramped up during the past 6 months, I seem to hear this question more and more often.

As a real estate agent, it's not my role to advise a homeowner whether or not to stop making a mortgage payment.

There are simply too many implications, and by and large, a homeowner in distress needs to understand the legal, tax and credit impact of such a decision.

That's why me and my trusted professional allies have created the Town Hall Meeting for Homeowners, where we bring together a panel of experts in bankruptcy, real estate tax, loan modifications, credit, and short sales (that would be me).

I discovered Richard Geller's video and found...

Hey guys, Take a look at the walk through of this great investment property that's available on a short sale... Better hurry and grab it while you can!