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Philadelphia Short Sale Success in Fishtown !

 Philadelphia Short Sale Success in Fishtown

Last week we had another successful short sale in Fishtown.  It was a great feeling to help our seller client get out of a very difficult positon and be able to be instrumental in helping him move foward in his life.  At the same time, the buyers will be a great addition to the Fishtown community.  It is deals like this that make being a professional Realtor worthwhile !

The great thing about a successful short sale is that it becomes ONE LESS FORECLOSURE !  The seller's bank did play a little hardball but we were able to work out a resolution that benefited all the parties.  For Stephanie and I, we are still batting 100 percent with our short sale listings.  Which means for every Philadelphia short sale listing that we have taken, all have settled !  Some deals were very difficult but we have always made it to the settlement table !

For related short sale blog posts see:

Short Sale Success in Graduate Hospital

Short Sale Success in Somerton

Short Sale Success in Old Kensington

Short Sale Specialists in Philadelphia - Plan and Prepare for Success

What is a Short Sale ?

If you are interested in more information about Philadelphia Short Sales or are interested in listing your property as a short sale, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at 215-400-2612 or thesomersteam@yahoo.com

The Somers Team - Chris and Stephanie Somers

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The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate

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10 comments • Christopher and Stephanie Somers - Realtors - Philadelphia Real Estate • February 03 2009 07:33AM

Short Sale Success in Graduate Hospital (Philadelphia Real Estate)

Short Sale Challenges and Success in Graduate Hospital  (Philadelphia Real Estate)

On December 31, we had a short sale miracle !  One of the toughest short sales we have been involved Short Sales in Philadelphiawith in Graduate Hospital settled on new years eve !   Listing a property as a short sale typically brings with it great challenges.  Your chances of success are diminished due to all the hurdles that you can go through to get to settlement.  It becomes a business decision for the agent to decide when they take the listing if it makes sense to move foward or to pass.  If it does succeed, one more short sale does mean one less foreclosure !

In this case, the seller's bank took forever and a day to approve the deal.  One of the reasons for the delay was that this was one of the banks that is pretty much not in business anymore ! At the same time, there were squatters going in and out of the property, even an arrest or two !  The buyers were getting nervous regarding the delay. 

We worked with the buyers agent and really pressed the bank to have a settlement prior to year end and sure enough we received the approval on the 29th and did a little short sale dance !

For those owners and sellers interested in doing a short sale in Philadelphia, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612.  Graduate Hospital is one of those areas with tremendous growth but with that there are homeowners, investors and developers that are in over their head.  With so much development going on in the area, a large amount of inventory and a softening market leads to the potential of more foreclosures and/or short sales to occur in this area.

Short sales are extremely complicated and time-consuming.  Without the right representation, these deals have a high chance of not going through.  Our seller was so grateful that the mission was accomplished and her mortgage is now paid off and will be off her credit report.

For prior blog posts regarding short sales, please see the following posts:

Short Sale Specialists in Philadelphia for those behind on their mortgage

Short Sale Specialists in Philadelphia - Plan and Prepare for Success !

Short Sale Success in Fishtown / Old Kensington

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The Somers - Protecting and Growing Your Wealth

The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate

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8 comments • Christopher and Stephanie Somers - Realtors - Philadelphia Real Estate • January 03 2009 07:29AM

Short Sales: Short Sale specialists in Philadelphia for those behind on their mortgage.

What is a Short Sale ?

 

Short Sales in PhiladelphiaA short sale is when your bank agrees to accept a lower payoff than what they are owed in order to approve a sale of the property.

Short sales are becoming increasingly common as the housing crisis has accelerated and many home values have depreciated since an owner purchased.  In all these cases, the value of what a house can be sold for is less than what it is worth.

In our Philadelphia real estate market, we have noticed that the average realtor will list a property for way over what it is worth in hoping that it sells.  Of course, it rarely does and even if an agreement does come in, chances are it will not appraise.   The better solution is to look at the circumstances to determine if the house should be marketed as a short sale candidate.

 

Without going into too much detailed discussion, the process is extremely complicated and time-consuming.  But it can be very beneficial to a seller who is in desperation and does not want their credit ruined as a result of a foreclosure and very beneficial to a buyer who has an opportunity to procure a property below market value.  As real estate agents, we have successfully completed many short sales for our clients who were so appreciative of the outcome.  In several cases, their properties were even listed with prior realtors (in one case 3 prior realtors) who never even explored the option of doing a short sale.

Typically for a short sale to be approved a seller has to have a level of hardship and is behind on their mortgage.  Although we did have one short sale approved for a seller who never missed a payment on her Northern Liberties condo, but had a case of extreme hardship due to her husband passing away.

Are you in a predicament where a short sale may be your best option ?  If so, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at 215-400-2612 or thesomersteam@yahoo.com to discuss further.

Philadelphia Real Estate                                   The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

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9 comments • Christopher and Stephanie Somers - Realtors - Philadelphia Real Estate • September 21 2008 08:42AM

A Short Sale Dilemna - coming up short ?

I have seen a lot of posts recently about short sales and a lot of training courses being offered on them as well.

My wife and I have successfully done a few short sales on the listing side and our clients were very happy that we were able to find a solution to help them get out of their situation.  It was very rewarding but a lot of work.

We are in the process of doing another short sale where the lender is Citibank.  In this case, I helped a couple purchase a house several years ago at a good price but they refinanced and took a lot of money out afterwards as the house appreciated.  (How that appraisal went through is another story !!) Unfortunately, this couple is now going through a nasty divorce, the husband got injured and is no longer working and the wife recently got laid off as well.  This, in my opinion, is a perfect scenario for hardship and should work out fine.  I have 2 offers in writing which one will be accepted over the weekend by the sellers.

The bad news is that the bank (Citibank) is requiring that the husband and wife TAKE A CREDIT COUNSELING CLASS as part of the short sale process.  WHAT ??  If they have to be in the same room, forget it.  Further, the husband is now in a different state and would be lucky to leave his place due to the medication he is on.  The wife is trying to get a new job and take care of the three kids.  How in the heck will these 2 make it to some sort of credit counseling class and why would Citibank require that ?  They are 6 mos behind on making a payment and might be close to giving up on the process since they are not going to walk away with any money.  Why would Citibank risk losing an entire deal and having the house be foreclosed on over this sort of policy ?  

The other successful short sales I have done did not require this step.  I am not positive I will be able to get them to this class. 

What are your thoughts ?

UPDATE (July 2009):  This property did settle last year - thus another successful short sale by The Somers Team !  Also, the loan mitigator at Citibank ended up being a pleasure to work with.

Chris and Stephanie Somers  RE/MAX Affiliates www.thesomersteam.com  Philadelphia, PA

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7 comments • Christopher and Stephanie Somers - Realtors - Philadelphia Real Estate • July 12 2008 08:37AM