I have 100k to invest short term. One option is to buy stock, results may vary. Another option is to get a 1 year CD at current rates which are around 4.5 - 4.8%. The last option is to pay off a large chunck of my mortgage princple, for which my rate is 4.85%. I have an interest only loan so this would substantially reduce my monthly payments and would give me a smaller principle when i need to refinance in 2 years. Thoughts?

These days, nothing in our economy is certain. In reality, many people and businesses are still in good financial shape, but for many others things have gotten quite a bit more difficult in recent times. Some people have had to close their businesses, and been foreclosed upon. Unfortunately sub-prime mortgage loans have gone the way of the dinosaur, due to the recent nation-wide crisis of which they were the center, and it’s become more and more difficult to know where to turn when your financial wellbeing is on the line.

If you’re one of the many, stuck between a financial rock and a hard place (or a foreclosure and a bankruptcy, as the case may be), it may be advantageous for you to look into taking out a hard money loan. Hard money loans are utilized by many people facing foreclosure or similar financial disaster, as the criteria for lending is more relaxed than a conventional loan. While your credit history is still taken into consideration by the lender, it’s typically not judged as harshly because the loan is given based on the value of real estate property you already own.

Due to the slightly higher risk to the lender when dealing with hard money loans, they are not provided by banks but rather by private lenders, and as such, the interest rates of these loans aren’t based on bank rates. Typically the interest rate on a hard money loan will range from 15% - 25% (a little less for bridge loans, which are similar, but not necessarily used in times of financial hardship), which means that you probably don’t want to look to hard money loans as sources of long-term financing. In fact, the term is often fairly short. Think carefully about whether or not you’ll be able to handle the loan, as the rates may increase to the legal state limits upon default, which can be as high as 25% - 29%.

Typically the value of a hard money loan is about 65% - 70% of the value of the property. This is known as the LTV (Loan-To-Value). The average LTV used to be higher than it is now, however due to rampant lender overestimation of property values in the ‘80s and ‘90s, interest rates were raised, and LTVs lowered. Now, hard money lenders typically want to be in the “first lien” position (meaning their lien takes priority over all others) on a given property, so if the value of the property isn’t enough to cover the existing mortgage, the loan will need to be cross-collateralized with another property. These cases are often referred to as “blanket mortgages.”

It’s important to review your financial situation thoroughly when considering taking out a hard money loan, and it might benefit you to talk to a certified mortgage planner before you make the choice to do so. In the right circumstances however, a hard money loan may be what it takes to tide you over, and keep your business from going under.

Without those protectionss, a leader like Bush can create major problems for millions of citizens across the Country along with sending us into an unnecessary War in Iraq. The Republicans need to retire for a decade or two and let the Democrats get the Country back on track just like FDR did in the 30’s and 40’s.

If you have purchased a home, there are very high chances that might not have liked some of the things in your home. After all, your home was not built keeping in view your specific requirements. In such a situation, it becomes necessary to carry out some modifications. These may relate to exterior or interior of your home.

As far as exterior is concerned, you might like to change the façade of your home – either substantially or in part. Some modifications may also solve your purpose. Try not to change too much, for it may involve huge expenses. As for the interiors, you might like to change the colour combinations on walls and ceilings. The furniture and furnishings may also call for your attention. Besides, baths, kitchens and bedrooms may need customisation. All this involves a huge expenditure.

Home improvement loans allow you to conveniently carry out these modifications and improvements in your home. You can repay the loan in monthly instalments, making it easier for you to distribute the cost of home improvement over the entire period of loan. If you have enough balance in your savings account, you can do away with home improvement loans.

As a homeowner, it is very easy to get home improvement loans. You can pledge your home and ask the lender to give you enough funds for enabling you to carry out the planned modifications in your home. Secured home improvement loans are cheap – the interest rate can be as low as 6 per cent. Your individual circumstances will have a bearing on the interest rate offered to you by the lender.

Home Improvement Loans are available with high street lenders, online lenders, sub-prime lenders, building societies, etc. You can apply with one or more of them and finally choose the one that meets your requirements.

I worked inside the industry untill I could not stand it no longer, I seen how bad it was for people to get out, and how meetings were held to think of better ideas to keep customers, get the old ones back in, and keep them stuck it makes me sick, know your rights, if you need help in colorado, call the state att general, or ask.

This article will attempt to address the following:

1. Define a short sale

2. Talk about the different ways it can come about and be structured

3. Talk about how it’s different that foreclosure or bankruptcy

4. Talk about the implications for the seller

5. Talk about the implications for the buyer

6. Address investor related questions on capitalizing on short sales (which you will soon find based on the definition is not really what you investors are looking for)

7. If your question is not answered in the article, see the Short Sale FAQ.

Definition:

A short sale is an “arrangement” between the current owner of a home and the bank that lent them the money to buy their home to accept an offer for less than the total amount owed to pay off the home. The “deficiency” is the difference between the amount owed and what the bank collects at the short sale.

Although, the “arrangement” can take many different forms, there is no other definition of a short sale. I say this because many realtors and some investors simply throw the term around as if it meant “a sale under market value.” No. A bank owned (foreclosed) house is not a short sale. A seller deciding to lower their price and take less profit is not a short sale. An old lady that owns her home free and clear, selling a $150k home for $75k, IS NOT A SHORT SALE. For it to be a Short Sale, someone must be getting “shorted.” Either the seller, or the bank. I will explain how both of those happen in more detail presently.

Free Foreclosure List

Another important definition of a short sale is how it differs from foreclosure. In foreclosure, the homeowner falls way behind on their payments and the bank repossesses the house and sells it. In almost all cases, THE BANK PURSUES THE HOMEOWNER FOR THE DEFICIENCY!!! No one seems to know or believe this, but just ask someone who has gone through foreclosure, they will tell you the only way out of this was to file bankruptcy.

How It Can Happen - The Arrangement

Most short sales arise when a seller owes more on their house than they can sell it for (upside down). The owner of the home then attempts to make an arrangement with their lender to sell the house for less than is owed.

The term “arrangement” was used in the definition and is intentionally broad because the arrangement depends on the bank that holds the loan. Though there are general practices, every bank does it differently. This article will give you the most common arrangements, but if you take part in a short sale, it’s crucial you assume nothing until you have the bank’s policies in writing.

There are some overriding principles:

1. There is no such thing as a free lunch. This is not some dream come true alternative to foreclosure where the money you owe magically disappears. The deficiency will be accounted for. The deficiency can be 100% loaned to the seller in the form of a promissory note, which they then must repay. If any portion of the deficiency is “written off” meaning that the bank eats it, you can be sure that they will report it as 1099 income to the seller or even as a judgment which will show on your credit for 10 years (not 7 years, 10 years).

2. It is a cumbersome process. If you are entering into a short sale as a buyer or seller, don’t expect it to go as quickly as any other sale. There’s a lot of “back and forth”.

3. The employees of the lender that are negotiating the sale ARE NOT there for the benefit of the seller. Their only goal is to collect as much money possible for the lender and they will use whatever means necessary. You can be sure they will misrepresent their own policies and flat out LIE to the seller in order to intimidate and scare them into paying more money. If you think I’m exaggerating, the joke will be on you.

For instance, I was once told by a lender negotiating a short sale that, as a policy, they don’t “write off” any of the deficiency and that the seller would have to have a promissory note for $40,000. This lender also told the seller that their hands were tied and this decision came directly from the investor who provides the money for the lender. The lender also said there is absolutely no negotiation on the amount owed, either pay the deficiency, or they will foreclose. The lender made the promissory note very manageable (20 years 0%) so that the seller would be more enticed to just roll over.

But the seller called the lenders bluff. The seller then provided a letter from an attorney stating they would qualify for a bankruptcy, thus rendering the lender incapable of collecting anything. That same day, the lender called the seller saying they would reduce the promissory note and write off $30,000 of the debt! It would have to be reported as 1099 income, but it would not have to be paid. Amazing change of policy! Then the seller saw what was happening and just said, “no thanks, we don’t want to owe you anything, we’ll just go ahead with the bankruptcy.” Two days later the seller received a written offer that the lender would completely forgive the debt and simply report it as 1099 income! Wow!

The moral of the story is that the lenders will LIE to obtain their money. Many of the managers of the collections departments are paid on COMMISSION on how much they collect. Just imagine if that seller had rolled over on the first offer! That employee would have been responsible for keeping $40,000 of his company’s money with one five minute phone call!

One other important thing to remember is that if the lender gets the property back (i.e. short sale doesn’t go through), they have to put it up for auction. This creates the risk that additional money will be lost if the house doesn’t sell for what it’s worth. In the case of the example, the short sale offer was for $550,000, and the amount owed was $590,000. The seller faxed in evidence to the lender that most similar houses in the area were now selling for $480,000. So this enabled the seller to make the argument that it was a much more prudent risk to write off $40,000 instead of running the risk of losing $110,000. This enabled the seller’s representative to intimidate the employee of the lender asking him “did he really want to be responsible for losing his company $110k, when he had the option, right now, to settle for 40k?”

If it seems like I know a lot about “this example” it would be because I was the mortgage broker for the people making the offer and seller of the property happened to be my wife.

The Details of the Arrangement

Different banks have different policies. The best case scenario is to get a bank that actually “writes off” the deficiency. All that happens here is that the seller has some minor derogatory credit reporting, but doesn’t actually owe the bank any more money. This credit reporting can consist of anything from “creditor settled for less than the amount due” all the way to “foreclosed.”

As the example noted, many banks will do a promissory note for the deficiency.

Some banks are stupid enough to require that the deficiency be paid at closing. Think about it. This does no good because it’s the same thing as the seller selling their house without doing a short sale and simply bringing cash to the table. If a bank tells as seller they need to bring cash to the table in a short sale, they are either idiotic, or more likely LYING.

In cases where the money is “written off” it’s important to understand that the lenders will never actually “write something off.” In most states (I don’t know the law in every state), the lender has the ability to show any deficiency as 1099 income for the seller. All this really means is that the seller has to pay taxes on that income. Depending on one’s situation, it could mean that people that are dependent on some form of aid because of “low income” will have some explaining to do come tax time.

Another way that the deficiency can be written off is in the form of a judgment. This will often occur in conjunction with the 1099 reporting. It might say something on the seller’s credit report such as “judgment filed against John Doe in the amount of $xx,xxx by ABC lender.” This will appear in the “public record” section of the seller’s credit report for 10 years (7 years is only for late payments, 10 years for public record info, don’t argue, trust me). It can either show up as satisfied or unsatisfied. Satisfied is obviously better because it means that the worst thing that can happen is that the lender will report 1099 income.

Unsatisfied could be a problem, because it means that a court has found in favor of the lender to collect the deficiency from you. Now they still might simply do the 1099 thing, or they might try to collect it from you. They can keep trying to collect it from you until they get it. They can garnish your wages. Your only hope then is that you qualify for a chapter 7 bankruptcy.

This brings up an important note. NEVER EVER ASSUME THAT A DEBT THAT YOU OWE A LENDER IS GONE UNLESS YOU HAVE THE DETAILS OF THE RELEASE OF THAT DEBT IN WRITING. For instance, someone who had done a short sale had a first and a second loan. The bank agreed to the short sale, which ended up being enough to pay off the first loan, but not the second. The seller had assumed that because the bank agreed to the short sale that they wouldn’t have to worry about the deficiency from the second mortgage. Now they are surprised that they are being pursued for the deficiency. REMEMBER, the lender(s) will always want ALL their money accounted for somehow. NEVER assume something is written off unless you have a formal, signed, written, unconditional release of lien and/or judgment from the lender specifically stating that no further action to collect this debt will be taken.

How did we get to this place in the first point?

A short sale can come about for many different reasons. In my wife’s case, she was the owner of the house and had been making payments. We bought an investment property and put it solely in her name to protect our family in the event that the market took a turn for the worse. It did. We owed 590k, but the best offer we had after 6 months was 550k. The short sale prevented her from having to file bankruptcy, and there was no derogatory credit reporting because there were no late payments made.

Despite popular belief, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE BEHIND ON YOUR MORTGAGE TO REQUEST A SHORT SALE. You just have to demonstrate that your house can’t be sold for what you owe.

In other cases, short sales happen when a seller can’t afford to make their payments and is nearing foreclosure or bankruptcy. It makes life much more complicated if you are living in the house in question. The bank’s ability to scare you is much greater in that case. In this case, a short sale is only slightly better than the alternatives. You will still lose your house, and your credit is still destroyed just because you’ve made 4-5 late payments on your mortgage.

Despite popular belief, A BANKTUPCY, FORECLOSURE, OR REPOSSESSION DO NOT HURT YOUR CREDIT AS MUCH AS THE MULTITUDE OF LATE PAYMENTS THAT OFTEN LEAD UP TO THEM!!!!! I just cannot stress this enough. People think that a bankruptcy damages their credit beyond repair in and of its own accord. I’ve had many clients file bankruptcy with 750 scores and no late payments only to have their score drop to 680. It’s the clients with 20+ late payments that are having their credit hurt.

A final note on how the short sale can come about… Most banks will not agree to a short sale in writing until you have a formal offer. You can simply call your bank and ask them if you could do a short sale at a certain price and they might say “sure, no problem, we’d be happy to facilitate that offer.” BEWARE. That doesn’t mean a thing. Before your short sale is APPROVED, you’ll have to submit an application, hardship letter, financial statements, tax returns, pay stubs, the purchase agreement from the buyer, a HUD statement from the pending transaction, payoff letters from all lenders involved, and several other things depending on the lender.

Once this huge packet of information is submitted to the lender, you will most likely hear back in 1-4 weeks on the TERMS of their “approval.” Be warned their approval will most likely be thinly disguised attempt to collect their debt and will almost never be the “write off” you were hoping for.

Investors

If you’re an investor, by now, I hope I’ve scared you off. Short sales are not some magic way for you to find properties under market value. They are a tool for sellers that owe too much on their homes to sell them at market value.

What you are looking for (or should be if you’re not) are sellers that owe far far less on their homes than what they’re worth. Sellers who don’t care how much they earn because they’re either desperate or have so many houses they don’t care.

Still if you see a house you want, there is one way that a short sale could come into play. Say there’s a distressed property that you’d pay 100k for that you know would be worth 180k if it was fixed up a bit. The seller doesn’t have the money to do it and the house is either vacant or they want out of their situation. In this case, if the seller happens to owe 130k (around there), and you will only pay 100k, AND the seller hasn’t had any viable offers because of the level of distress on the property, then a short might be just what the doctor ordered.

Don’t be unethical and take advantage of people. You’re only going for short sales if the person WANTS to sell their house and no one else but you will buy it because you’re not afraid to rehab a house that’s smells bad and is falling apart.

Conclusion

Again, a short sale is not a magic cure. It’s also not some mystical solution that only an elite few know about. If you’re curious about selling your house as a short sale, you should contact your lender and get information in writing. It’s usually not easy, and hardly ever will truly “win.” But in some cases, it can leave you much better off than the alternative of foreclosure and bankruptcy. If you’re an investor, there are much better ways to obtain undervalued homes.

I am looking to buy a house but I have very little credit history. A friend of mine was telling me that I may qualify for a FHA loan but before I start looking for a house I should find out the FHA credit/tradeline requirements….

From the frying pan into the … Business owners that “elected” to secure a Commercial Hard Money loan for their business are often surprise how quickly the time passes when they are expected to pay off that debt. There are of course only 2 real solutions to this. 1. Sell the property and pay off the loan or 2. Refinance the debt with another lender. The third option is to call your rich uncle and have him pay it off.

The game plan of course with most business owners is to give themselves some time to restructure their books, business, improve their credit score and essentially put themselves in a stronger position to get a conventional mortgage in a year or two. However, this may not be enough time or the problems were more difficult than expected.

We see a lot of people that their primary issue is their personal credit score with the belief that they will increase it dramatically but at the end of the term there score has only moved up slightly. Regardless of the reason, the borrower may not be eligible for a typical conventional commercial mortgage.

One traditional option for business owners to get of the hard money loan is to go the SBA 7a loan route. This is because the 7a program allows credit scores as low as 520, loan to values as high as 90% on refinances and the borrower is allowed to use projections rather than just historical financials which may not show enough income to service the debt.

But this option has had several negatives that make it, almost as low of an option as the hard money loan to begin with. For example the rate normally floats over prime at around 1-2.75%, adjusting once per quarter – with no caps on the rate. In addition, the SBA normally requires a Guarantee Fee of 2.75% of 75% of the total loan amount. So in short, the benefit is that the borrower gets an option besides hard money and the rate is normally lower, depending on what Prime is than what they could get from another hard money lender.

However, not all SBA lenders are the same and it pays to be informed. For example there is a bank that offers the SBA 7a with a 5 year fixed rate at Prime + 1 and the bank absorbs the guarantee fee… As of this writing Prime is at 5.25% so most borrowers rate would be 6.25% fixed for 5 years and amortized over 25 years. This is one of the best commercial mortgages in the industry – regardless if the borrower is perfect or not.

So, if you’re facing a ballooning hard money loan and you operate your business out of a building you own you may consider going the SBA 7a route. Regardless get out there and shop because there are more options out there than your local bank is aware of.

Many homes that are still on the market can be bought for discount prices if you work with a real estate agent that is astute in short sales and foreclosures. There are two fundamental problems with this type of purchase, the first being that it seems easy - but it’s not - the second that it may feel as if you are being unfair to buy a home from a suffering home -owner.

Well, in response to the ‘easy’ part, while the press would have us believe that you can ‘pick them up anywhere’ and they are ‘yours for the asking’, in fact there is much more negotiating to be done on either of these types of sales than with a normal house purchase.

With regard to the second problem, that of buying from a suffering home - owner, in fact your offer will put them out of their suffering and allow them to proceed with their life.

Even so, buying a home that is up for foreclosure or short sale may not be a quick deal. In fact, the term ’short sale’ is a misnomer as sometimes these deals drag on into ‘long sales’! Much tolerance and politeness may be required.

There is much haggling over short sales as the Lender wants to lose as little cash as possible and you want to find a bargain! Into this pot goes the seller who must ensure that he is not liable at a later date to pay any remaining balance on the final deal, so he is concerned with the ‘pay-back’ clause.

A short sale is similar to a foreclosure, because it is like a foreclosure that has not gone to court yet. Some short sales have even been known to be finalized on the courtroom steps!

For a short sale, the Lender is legally required to accept less than the amount owed on the property. However, this type of sale does let them off having to deal with the final part of the foreclosure in court, and paying the ensuing court costs.

If a property ends up as part of a court case going into a final foreclosure, after which it will become available for sale; the subsequent sale of it can move very fast. In fact, you may find that it could move even faster than you would normally be comfortable with.

For this reason and to help steer the way through the unfamiliar terrain working with a real estate agent may help you to feel more confident. Feeling rushed will not be so nerve-wracking if you have your own real estate agent explaining and anticipating each step in turn.

Of course you need money and financing in place to commit to either sale, but for a short sale but you also need car loads of patience!

Your best tool to negotiate with your mortgage company is the discovery of a Truth in Lending Act (TILA) violation, which in some cases may give you the right to rescind the loan. State and Federal laws require mortgage companies to follow specific guidelines when originating home loans and as a result many mortgage loans have TILA and/or RESPA violations which can be used as bargaining tools when negotiating a loan modification with the mortgage company.

Many of the home loans originated by brokers and lenders over the last few years have unexplainable fees and charges or were manipulated by overstating the borrowers’ income or inflating the property value to allow the lender to illegally profit from the sale of mortgages to investors in the secondary market. Subprime mortgages with hidden interest rate adjustments and pre-payment penalties or Option ARM loans with minimum payment options allowed borrowers to differ interest to a point in future when the loan recasts and forces the borrower into hardship by paying a much higher mortgage payment. In most cases refinancing is not an option due to declining property values or high debt to income ratios. Only a Forensic Loan Audit can discover and document these violations, which may be used against the lender when negotiating a loan modification.

Another common violation occurs when the creditor fails to properly provide a notice of the borrower’s right to cancel. The right of rescission may be extended for up to three years in certain circumstances. When the right is extended for three years you can rescind the loan at any time before the three years are up meaning that the loan is treated as if it never existed. This means that the creditor must refund all interest paid, all closing fees, all broker fees, and even pay for your attorney fees.

The extended right of rescission is a powerful tool to help borrowers who have been victims of predatory lending. During a Forensic Mortgage Loan Audit we often discover TILA violations, which can be used as leverage when negotiating a loan modification.

This is not intended to be construed as legal advice.