Frank Wible /REMAX ALL PROS/ - The term “Loss Mitigation” has become a common term with home owners and real estate professionals throughout New Jersey. This term commonly associated with a short sale (also known as a short payoff) when a lender or lenders accept a discounted payoff on your mortgage. This almost necessary method of selling a home in today’s market has created a new opportunity for entrepreneurs; homeowner loss mitigation or counseling services. Loss mitigation, meaning to mitigate, or minimize loss, is traditionally a department maintained by most mortgage companies to do just that; minimize their loss.

With sellers in despair, they look in every direction to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. Calling investors, real estate agents, family members or whoever they can to assist them out of their financial mess. Now they can add one more to the list, a loss mitigation specialist.

With no formal training required, one can become a loss mitigation specialist with limited, or no knowledge of the real estate mortgage or foreclosure business. This in itself is downright scary. Someone you don’t know, without any training, is going to charge you a fee for a service they have never successfully performed. Loss mitigation for a home owner is a very detailed and complicated process that if not done correctly, could place the home owner in a much worse position.

Homeowner loss mitigation or counseling, when successful, should produce a mutual, beneficial agreement between the homeowner and the lenders where the homeowner may keep, or sell their home with terms that are acceptable by both parties. A small or nominal fee is normally associated with the transaction if the homeowner intends to keep their home. Homeowners desperately looking for solutions have once again fallen victim to large upfront fees, unsuccessful results, and land in a worse position from when they first started.

Though it’s hard to know exactly where to turn to for guidance and direction, a neutral third party trained to help homeowners is always a good place to start. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (www.hud.gov) maintains a nationwide directory of more than 2,300 HUD-approved agencies where counselors can evaluate your situation and create a multistep action plan. This plan may include negotiating a loan modification with your lender, helping you slash monthly expenses or referring your to an attorney if they think you have been a victim of mortgage fraud. Most of these counseling services are free. I personally maintain a working relationship with most of the New Jersey agencies on this list. Each time we’ve used them, it has produced fantastic results.

In my experience, it’s always best to make sure you contact an attorney or real estate professional for objective advice before signing anything related to third party loss mitigation services or the sale of your home. If you or someone you know needs assistance with their mortgage, please contact me or someone at my office and we can point you in the right direction.

Frank Wible's Foreclosure/Short Sale Team is a highly specialized group of industry leaders that include lawyers, accountants, lender negotiators, mortgage partners and a national network of specially trained real estate agents. For more information, please call REMAX All Pros and Frank Wible at 856-228-7990 Ext 150. www.ShortSaleNJ.com

Each and every short sale holds hostage a buyer waiting to know if they own the home. If an investor is the buyer, they can wait for the answer, but what about the young couple waiting to see if this is going to be their new home? The wait could be devastating.

I have agents working for me on my team, and even they’re beginning to say, “Frank, we would rather show our buyer a home that’s not a short sale.” In many ways, I am starting to agree with them. Sure, short sales may be a great deal sometimes, but with lenders now looking for almost full market value, is it really? Plus, is it worth the long delayed wait?

Lenders seem to be so focused on protecting their investors and creating their profit and loss on the deal that they forget there is a buyer allowing this deal to exist at all. Sure, it’s not really the lenders problem, but if they think about it, it soon might be. Obtaining buyers in my business is not hard; selling short sales and foreclosures is very sexy business.

Everyone wants to work with the foreclosure agent because they have the best deals and buyers think we hold the key to the treasures. When foreclosure agents begin to say they don’t want to show a short sale to their own buyers, this speaks volumes, and should make the lenders take notice to the problem!

I’m sure my agents aren’t the only ones that feel this way. With this rumbling starting to take place now; soon the masses will be made aware of the issues, if not already, and begin to walk away. Lenders will no longer be bogged down with short sale applications, because there won’t be any buyers for these foreclosed properties. Short sales and foreclosures will become known as the “the good non-obtainable deal not worth pursuing.”

Short sale listing agents complain about the time it takes for a short sale to be approved, yet we push forward to assist the sellers in a bad situation. The buyers however seem to get lost in the shuffle and are expected to be patient with the good deal they are getting. Buyers that leave the deal while waiting for an answer are tagged as “uncooperative.” This could not be farther from the truth. How can we expect them to put their lives on hold as we protect the sellers from the bad situation they face with the lenders? In fact, additional wait time is sometimes a good thing for sellers.

Lenders seeking market value only continue to hurt themselves as broader marketing and additional buyers that assist in driving the price to this value disappear. Buyers that do dare to venture continue to cancel contracts after long waiting periods, and short sale agents continue to work harder for nothing. The only remaining buyers will be investors that will drive the prices opposite of what the lenders expect. It seems to me that the short sale craze for traditional buyers could come to a fast halt.

Lenders and hardships have placed homeowners in very bad situations. I will always continue to help these people! It’s what I do, and what I’m passionate about. However, my next sales meeting with my staff will be the green light to avoid short sales if they so choose, and bring their clients/buyers to non-foreclosure homes.

Thanks for reading my blog posts;

Frank Wible
REMAX ALL PROS
ShortSaleNJ.com

Aggressive South Jersey buyers looking to purchase homes that they have found on their own utilize me as the front man to get the job done...

Buyers always seem to find they house they want to purchase on the foreclosure list, but it's not listed with on the market for sale. If you are one of these buyers, please use the form letter I have created below to inform that homeowner that you are looking to purchase.

It's amazing how many of these sellers contact me, and end up selling you the house. Maybe it's a house on a block where you want to live. Maybe a friend or family member told you about a home in foreclosure. Or maybe you found it online at a foreclosure site. Either way, this is a great way for me to represent you in the transaction, and be the front man to the seller.

Use the link below to download my letter and place the letter on the homeowner's door, mail it to them, or place it at their mailbox. (right click link to download)

If you do this, call me first so I know, and I will give you a code to put at the bottom of the letter. So if the seller calls, I will know that it was you looking to purchase the home. Once they call, I will handle the rest! It's a great system, and everyone wins!

http://www.ShortSaleNJ.com/buyer_letter.rtf

The letter is in Text format, so you should have no problems opening it. If you need me to mail you a PDF file or a format that works for you, please email me at fwible@remax.net

Thank you,

Frank Wible