Short Sale / Foreclosure Archives

Buying A Short Sale Property: A Mortgage Lender’s Perspective

February 8, 2011 by Eric Lowry Leave a Comment

Today, we introduce guest blogger Dave Scully with Evolve Bank & Trust. Dave has over 20 years as a mortgage professional in the West Chester, Liberty Township, Mason and Greater Cincinnati marketplace.

Buying A Short Sale Property by Dave Scully, Guest Blogger on RealEstate-Ink.com

Every buyer in the market wants to get the best deal. You may want to begin your search for a new home with properties that are on a “short sale”. First, let’s define what a short sale is. A short sale is when the sales price of the home is less than the amount the previous owners currently owe on their mortgage. In a short sale the borrowers are likely in the foreclosure process. Therefore the Bank must approve and sale and that is who your Realtor will be negotiating with.

Search For Bank Owned And Short Sale Properties For Sale Here

When buying a short sale you must be prepared for a longer negotiating process and closing process. As I said earlier you are dealing with the bank who must approve the sale of the property. The banks have so many short sales and foreclosures on their books that they do not react as quickly to an offer on the property. Also, the bank will allow you to do a whole house inspection, however they will require the sale of the home to be on an as is basis. I encourage every buyer to get a whole house inspection. However, on a short sale most banks will not make ANY repairs to the property.

Once your loan is approved and you are cleared to close we can typically close you within a day. However, on a short sale the bank will want to see the closing statement and review it for up to 72 hours prior to close.

They key to a successful and timely closing on a short sale is knowing what to expect and when to expect it. Personally I refer to short sales as “Long Sales” as they take a little bit longer to close due to the owner being the bank. I recommend you expect to close a short sale in 45 days instead of the 30 days that we can close a loan.

Have a home that you need to sell in short sale? Visit www.LowryTeam.com

West Chester & Liberty Township OH Real Estate: Avoid Foreclosure – You Have Options!

October 12, 2010 by Eric Lowry Leave a Comment

Today, nearly 1 out of every 6 homeowners in America is behind on mortgage payments. The last thing a homeowner wants to face is the possibility of foreclosure, but troubles with finances can happen suddenly and without warning, leaving a homeowner desperate. But foreclosure can be avoided, credit can be saved, and financial futures can be salvaged. First, identify the options.

There are a number of alternatives homeowners can consider. An experienced professional can steer you in the proper direction, so you can find your financial solution quickly and handle any mortgage and loan issues with care. Here are just a few suggestions how one can avoid foreclosure:

Modification – A mortgage modification involves the reduction of one of the following: the interest rate on the loan, the principal balance of the loan the term of the loan or all or any of the above. This typically results in a lower payment to the homeowner and a more affordable mortgage. With the modification plan, delinquent interest, taxes, and /or insurance payments are added to your unpaid balance on your mortgage. Homeowners who qualify for this program may be able to extend repayment of their past due bills over the remaining term of the loan.

Government Loans & Assistance Programs – Homeowners who can make the monthly payments on the mortgage may qualify for special government loans that create a second lien on their property for the unpaid amount. This money is then made payable to the US Government.

Pre-Foreclosure Sale – Foreclosure can wreak havoc on your credit rating. If you are in danger of losing your home and are unable to make payments, you have the option of selling before any marks can be made against your credit.

Short-Sale – While this may be the best solution for some, it is important to understand that there are 3 “must-have” criteria to qualify:

1. Financial Hardship – a verifiable issue that has or will cause you to miss payments or have financial difficulties

2. Monthly Shortfall – When your total Monthly Income minus your Total Monthly Expense = Negative amount

3. Insolvency – You must not have the means to pay down your mortgage.

You do not however have to be completely broke–this is a common misconception, the lender will want to see that over time you will not be able to pay your mortgage obligation. Having money in the bank for living expenses is common and will not disqualify you.

Temporary Forbearance

Another less common way to avoid a home foreclosure is to get a temporary forbearance on your mortgage, which means that you repay the back amount that you owe on your loan over a certain amount of time. This is good if you can afford to make your monthly payments, but had a crisis which forced you to miss a payment. When you choose to do a temporary forbearance to avoid a home foreclosure, you should know that your payments will usually increase slightly, but you will be able to get back on track with your lender and resume making your regular payments when you have repaid the back amount.

Different homeowners will qualify for different options to avoid foreclosure. Seeking the advice of a professional is a good step in preserving your property and your credit rating.

In my over-12-years in the real estate industry, I have witnessed many clients and friends lose their homes through foreclosure. That is why I specifically designed a department of this company to help other people avoid the foreclosure nightmares that I’ve witnessed. We know that good people sometimes have a few bad breaks.

No matter what, the worst option is to…
Do Nothing – Absolutely the worst.

Take action Now!

Call or email us, we can help.

Wondering what your home is worth in today’s real estate market? Request a market analysis here!

Visit My YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/LowryTeam

West Chester & Liberty Township OH Real Estate: Don’t Worry If You Missed Out On The Home Buyer Tax Credit

August 31, 2010 by Eric Lowry

The home buyer tax credit may be gone, but don’t worry. You may have missed out on the first time homebuyer tax credit of $8000, but the opportunities presented by today’s historically low interest rates are even better than they were this spring. For instance… If you buy a home right now at today’s low interest rates, you can save ten’s of thousand’s of dollars!

Interest Rates Are Low! A $200,000 30 year mortgage at the current rate of 4.60%* can save you ten’s of thousand’s of dollars over the life of the loan versus the same loan with the 5.50% rate from earlier this year!

Buy a home now and gain so much more than what was possible with the $8000 tax credit. You really don’t want to miss out on this savings and opportunity. On top of the great savings the low interest rates present, there is another opportunity.

The inventory of homes for sale right now is really great and the prices on many of these homes are really good. To start your home search contact us today at (513) 874-1830 or visit our website, www.LowryTeam.com. Buying a foreclosed / bank owned home or a short sale can be a great investment opportunity under the right circumstances. If you would like to receive a FREE list of foreclosures & short sale homes for sale you can request a list using our Foreclosure Finder Service

You can also start your Search Homes For Sale right here!

Thinking of buying a home in West Chester, Beckett Ridge or Liberty Township, Fairfield Township, Monroe or Mason Ohio?

Search the entire MLS here! Wondering what your home is worth in today’s real estate market? Request a market analysis here!

Visit My YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/LowryTeam

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

Ohio Real Estate: Tax Credit Deadline Extension

June 17, 2010 by Eric Lowry Leave a Comment

The Congress is close to passing a law to give home buyers who were under contract on a home purchased by April 30 an additional three months to close on the home and still be able to claim the federal home buyer tax credit. The new deadline is going to be September 30th, 2010.

This will not extend the deadline for home buyers to qualify for the tax credit. To qualify for the credit you had to have purchased and had a fully executed contract by April 30th, 2010.

The reasoning given for the extension was that many home buyers were not going to be able to close on their new homes in time for the June 30th deadline due to a backlog of loan applications that lenders were trying to handle.

The real issue here though, are the short sales. Many of these sales were not going to able to be closed in time due to the long delays that occur in trying to complete a short, thus there was going to be a large number of “fall-thru’s” (sales which do not close) and all of these properties were going to be coming back onto the market with a large number of them headed for foreclosure.

Looking for deals on short sales and foreclosures in West Chester & Liberty Township?

Click Here To Search The Entire Cincinnati MLS Database Of Homes For Sale!

Wondering what your home is worth in today’s real estate market? Request a market analysis here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

West Chester & Liberty Township OH Real Estate: Tuesday Open House – June 15, 2010

June 15, 2010 by Eric Lowry Leave a Comment

It’s Tuesday, so this must be the Tuesday Open House.

What is Tuesday Open House?? Well, it’s clearly not an “open house”. Open Houses don’t sell homes… good internet marketing does… but it seemed like a good title for this weekly blog post.

It is my way of throwing the doors open on the RealEstate-Ink.com blog and offering up a few quick articles and facts on real estate for the West Chester, Liberty Township, Beckett Ridge, Mason and Fairfield Township, Ohio areas. It is not intended to be all about homes for sale, but it will be about that some of the time…

The Union Centre Bash: There have been a number of questions recently regarding the Union Centre Bash and when it was, etc. So after a little research I found that it is no longer called the Union Centre Bash, but is now known as the Union Centre Boulevard Blast. It is scheduled to be August 13 -15, 2010. According to an article in the Journal News that I found online the “Blast” will be more of a regional draw, employing some best practices from similar showcases across the country. The direction of The Blast will be directed at families, adults, teens and children with multiple activities happening at the same time, “sort of like what you’d see at a state fair. You can reach the entire article online here >>Union Centre Boulevard Blast

New Listing: 5466 Sugar Maple Run, Liberty Township, Ohio. Check out this new listing in Falling Water subdivision in Liberty Township, Ohio. This is a terrific two story home located on a private, wooded lot and features a finished, walkout lower level, island kitchen w/ adjoining morning room & hardwood floors and much, much more!

Searching for foreclosures or short sales? Get a list of all of the foreclosed (bank owned) homes and short sale homes listed for sale in our area for free. Don’t pay for a list of foreclosures, short sales or distressed properties and don’t pay a subscription fee to any website for one either. These are homes that are listed for sale and you can have the information on these homes for sale, for free and without any obligation by just clicking here

2010 Home Sales in West Chester & Liberty Township, Ohio: The tax credit is over and now is when we find out if the homebuyer tax credits for both the First Time HomeBuyer and the move up homebuyer have had an impact on home sales overall. The key thing to watch moving forward is the unit sales numbers each month for West Chester & Liberty Township compared to last year. As can be seen on the graph, the last couple of months have seen home sales above last years totals. The real indicator of the housing market’s recovery will be what happens moving forward with home sales. Clearly the homes sales in West Chester & Liberty Township Ohio picked up when the tax credits were in effect, but what remains to be seen is; Will the home sales in the next few coming months remain at or above last year’s numbers so that the total sales numbers for the year remain above last year? If the sales remain stable and we can stay at or above last years sales numbers, then we would have to judge the tax credits to be a success in stablizing the housing market. If the sales numbers in the few months are not able to be sustained and in fact fall to levels below last year, then all we will have accomplished will be to move sales up into the early months of the year from the later months (July, August, September) and we will not have really improved the West Chester & Liberty Township housing market in the long term. What you can see on the graph is a steady increase in the home sales from January through May of this year in a much more dramatic peak than in the last two years indicating that there clearly was an impact from the homebuyer tax credit incentives. We will continue to monitor the home sales numbers and we will see where we go from here. >>You can read my 2010 1st Quarter Real Estate Market Report here

Our Facebook fan page of the week is: West Chester Farmer’s Market You can find information on the Farmers Market, the products that are available there through the summer and more. As of this writing their page has 129 fans, so I ask that you check out their fan page, become a fan and invite your Facebook friends to do the same.

While you are on Facebook checking out the West Chester Farmer’s Market fan page, please visit and become a fan of our facebook page:

Click Here To Search The Entire Cincinnati MLS Database Of Homes For Sale!

Wondering what your home is worth in today’s real estate market? Request a market analysis here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio