Investing in Pinellas short sales can be a beautiful thing, your worst nightmare or something in between.

1)  The Seller can change his mind about selling on the day of closing – and be well within their legal rights to do so.  Oops – there go your plans. 

2)  The short sale lender, who’s already approved the sale and the payoff amount (i.e. the $$ they will net), just before closing, can add on arbitrary legal fees to the seller’s debt and the whole thing goes out the window.  Ooops – the house just got a lot more expensive – or there go your plans.

3)  Your lender requires repairs to the home (particularly true if you’re getting FHA financing).  You spend your time, sweat and money making repairs PRIOR to close at your own risk in order to obtain loan approval.  If it doesn’t close, sorry Charlie.   This practice of buyer’s making repairs is commonplace now as it’s often the only way to get these homes sold as the sellers can’t or won’t pay for repairs.  There goes your wallet.

4)   You find out a few days prior to close that there’s an HOA, Utility Company or Pinellas County lien on the property that wasn’t recorded when the initial title search was done.  Oh, and there’s no extra money in the approval so you get to pay it off – if your lender will allow it.  There goes your wallet or your plans.

5)   The Seller’s bank accounts were just unexpectedly frozen by the IRS, thus they can’t print their most recent bank statements to give to the short sale lender, which is the last thing required after the bank pre-approves the sale and before the investor (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc.) can give the final thumbs up.  There go your plans.

6)  You find out a few days prior to close that Pinellas County Code Enforcement is holding you hostage.  They supposedly posted a notice on the house a month ago about a building code violation, although the notice was never posted (or perhaps the neighbor next door who’s upset that the pool had been green for a year swiped it because he’s fed up).  You learn that fees of $250 a DAY began accruing yesterday - for a spot the size of a salad plate on the house that’s missing paint and a piece of wood the size of a house cat missing from a fence.   Quick!!!  CALL 9-1-1 !!!!   There are UNEARTHLY DANGEROUS homes out there ready to threaten our existence on planet earth (a subject for another post).  There goes your wallet and possibly your plans.

On the upside, we do close plenty of short sales in Pinellas County that work out just fine.

Have you had a short sale experience (positive or negative) that you’d like to share?   We’d love to hear your comments below!

By the way, if you need a knowledgable, dependable, reasonably priced pool guy, call Marty at Bayside Pools in Dunedin at (727)360-7494. 

WARNING:  This post is just a snippet of the legal options available for troubled homeowners and for Tampa Bay investors looking for a new home.

The Pinellas Peach has compiled these Federal and Fannie Mae Resources for those facing Tampa Bay foreclosures, and our two cents worth on some.    

The Fannie Mae Loan Lookup can help you determine if Fannie Mae is the investor on your mortgage.  This Borrow FAQ is worth a read and explains why you may care.

Federal Financial Stability Plan includes press releases from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Stability Plan, including press releases on the second lien program and foreclosure alternatives for short sales.  If you’re considering a Palm Harbor short sale, please note that much of this reads like an Infomercial and much of the good news bantered about has thus far failed to materialize for homeowners in any significant manner or number. 

The Making Home Affordable Program features Fannie Mae Affordable Refinance options and the Making Home Affordable Modification Program.   This month, a client friend of ours was actually able to make a Fannie Mae backed loan modification work – and he did it all by himself!  This is the ONLY instance we’ve heard of where a homeowner successfully modified his own mortgage without the help of a professional.  Maybe there is hope!  By the way, not all loan modiciation companies are the same – contact us for a referral.

There’s also a program to modify a 2nd mortgage if serviced by certain companies.  We’re skeptical, but if you’ve got a success story, please post a comment below.  We’d love to hear one. 

Short Sales Simplified?  Just announced Friday, Washington’s talking about solutions to streamline the short sale approval process.  BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.  The short sale approval process remains painfully slow and murky at best, and, whether buying or selling, can be a real headache if not represented by professionals like us.  Well .. honestly, they’ll still be a headache but we’ll be with you every step of the way and we handle most of the pain management for you!

Want to buy Palm Harbor foreclosures and Pinellas Short Sales?  Hit the subscribe button below so as to not miss the upcoming details about available incentives if buying Fannie Mae Pinellas foreclosures. 

If you can’t wait, give us a call at (727)366-0324.  Julia and Matt Fishel, Managing Agents at Suncoast Partners at Keller Williams Realty in Palm Harbor.

The FHA was created in 1934 after the Great Depression, and was widely popular until recent years when subprime lenders offered something seemingly better:  artificially low interest rates, no-interest payments and a false dream.  Daily, lender requirements are becoming more and more stringent, and, as a result, FHA loans are once again commonplace and the only vehicle for many to own their Duendin homes.

Advantages of an FHA loan include:

• low 3.5% down payment and closing costs
• gifts from family members, employers or charitable organizations are welcomed
• minimum credit scores are lower than for conventional loans
• lenders will consider payment of rent, utility bills and auto insurance premiums when evaluating the applicant

But Whoa! Hold on, there’s a tiny downside ….

• There’s a 1.75% of the loan amount premium that can be wrapped into the full loan term or paid at closing, regardless of their credit score
• You’ll pay an Annual Mortgage Insurance Premium or MIP.  It’s based on your loan-to value (LTV) ratio, which, if you’re putting 3.5% down, would be .55%.  Example:  $200,000 loan x .0055 = $1,100 divided by 12 months = $92 per month.  Usually this will drop off after five years or when the remaining loan balance is 78% of the value of the property – whichever is longer.
• FHA loans require that a property meet certain minimum appraisal standards.   In other words, if the home needs repairs, it may not qualify for a regular FHA loan.  There are FHA 203K loans that allow for repairs, but that will be the subject of another post!

If you need a referral to a trusted Pinellas Mortgage broker or banker, contact us.   While it’s important to shop for rates and fees, it’s actually equally important to use a representative that can actually get you to the closing table in today’s complex Pinellas real estate market.

Main Street in Dunedin Florida is the hub of this town and is the location of this popular annual craft festival and the destination of lovers of pottery, photography, glass-work and woodworking.

The merchants of the famous Dunedin Green Market will also be making a most welcome appearance with platters bearing a wide array of cheeses and fruits and crepes and salsas and teas.

This celebration still boasts free admission and is slated this year for Saturday and Sunday June 27th and 28th from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

So set your GPS for:
271 Main St
Dunedin, FL 34698

After sampling the local fare, a great side trip is a hop over to award-winning Caladesi Island State Park  or sparkling Clearwater Beach. With a refreshing 88 degrees predicted for the weekend, take a break from the Florida air conditioning and take it to the Dunedin streets!

I’ll confess, being a Palm Harbor real estate agent in this market is sometimes hard.  We’re blessed to be helping some folks facing Dunedin and Palm Harbor foreclosures, via Short Sales, and some of them amidst this turmoil in their lives can be a bit heavy to deal with.  And they may get sick of my “positive speak” about believing, visualizing and going after their dreams, but hey guys and gals - I can’t stop.  I’ve been a train wreck more than once, and thanks to a culmination of things, including vision and faith, that’s ancient history now.  Now it’s all about helping you – with your real estate needs – and in any other little way we can hopefully make a difference.

This morning I showed this Dunedin Short Sale to a fellow who was, and let me try to be polite here, I guess having a very bad day and was pretty hostile.  I’ll call him Charlie to protect the innocent (sorry, Charlie).  I tried to put the incident past me but Charlie kept creeping into my mind throughout the day.  I kept wondering why Charlie was so upset and why I had that experience.  

Then it was off to write an offer on a great Palm Harbor home in East Lake for Sasha and Kim.  We’ve got some hurdles to overcome to get to the closing table, but I believe we’ll get there.  Next I was off to meet with one of our wonderful Palm Harbor short sale client friends, just to meet with him briefly to put his mind at ease and remind him of the end goal, as it seems that the bank’s collection people were starting to get the best of him.  Then it was a usual afternoon of scheduling showings, returning calls and the like.

One call I didn’t expect was from Charlie!  Charlie was mellow.  A different fellow.  We got to talking and he shared why he’s stressed out.  And low and behold, I can completely understand why he would be, and better yet, it’s something I can easily help him with.  We can be a team, Charlie and I.  Charlie’s thinking about it tonight and he’s going to get back to me.  He saw our business card today and logged on to the Pinellas Peach.  He likes the fact that Matt and I seem to have this “real estate groove thing going on” and he thinks The Peach is “tasty”!  This morning I told myself I’d be fine if I never saw Charlie ever again.  Tonight, I am really looking forward to hearing from Charlie again, and, to quote him, even if he doesn’t want to buy the damned house.  I’ll readily admit, I’ve now got this soft spot for Charlie.

Tonight, we watched history unfold with our 5-year old son as Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly by .01 of a second for his 7th Gold Medal this Olympics, tying Mark Spitz’s record for the number of wins at a single Olympics.  When interviewed by NBC after the race, Phelps was asked something to the tune of  “you probably didn’t really think that something like this could have been possible?” and then again “you didn’t really believe you’d win this many Golds, did you?”.  His answer (paraphrased here because I can’t Google it) says it all:  “Yeah, in my dreams I actually did believe it was possible.  I saw all of this happening”.  

Well, there you go.  That’s why our motto at Suncoast Partners is that “In Life and Real Estate, Everything’s Possible“.  We see it happening.  Every day.  

If you’ve read this far, I bet you do, too?

• Get in on the investor secrets that are on target to make the smart Pinellas Homes investors a huge profit fast
• Beat the system
• Snag a fantastic deal on that Dunedin luxury home you’ve always dreamed about

Do you want to make such a huge profit that you won’t care what the property taxes are being dealt by Jim Smith and crew at the Pinellas County Property Appraiser’s office?

You can do all of this for FREE!

The best part is that almost anybody can do it! You just need a few bucks and average credit.
Learn these secrets and be that guy or gal lounging by the pool at Innisbrook Golf Resort and gleefully picking up the tab at all of the finest Palm Harbor restaurants for your friends and family?

• You don’t need to have a stockpile of cash or tons of experience to get in the game!
• It’s simple and easy if you find the right team to help you.

You’ve probablly heard the buzz about buying foreclosures and auction properties, where you sometimes need all cash to get in the game. What’s the real secret to the really good deals?

Buying Pinellas Short Sales … Buying Pasco short sales … buying any short sale! The best part is, you can buy them with regular lender financing!

What’s a short sale and how do I buy one? Stay tuned for my next post.