Posts from — February 2010

Arizona Short Sale Investment Portfolio — 7 Single Family homes for sale – All are Phoenix Short Sale homes located in or around the suburbs of Phoenix/Scottsdale

We have just listed a client’s investment portfolio consisting of 7 single family homes located Valleywide. All are at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, 2 car garages, built in the last 10 years and are in good to excellent condition.

Most are tenant occupied with POSITIVE cash flow! A few are vacant but move-in ready and should be easily rented, again with POSITIVE cash flow.

Purchase for long term investment, flip, 2nd home, or owner occupied as a primary residence.

We would prefer to sell all 7 at once but we may be able to sell individual homes as well. Please call 480-241-4406 for more information on the property portfolio. We are only accepting one offer on each property, any additional offers will go in order as backup so first come, first option to purchase!

Sean Bonini
Associate Broker/Realtor
Arizona Short Sale Expert
480-241-4406 Direct
Sean@AzHomeHelp.com

The Arizona State House & Senate have been proactive in helping the local real estate economy. To date 14 bills have been introduced relating to foreclosures, short sales, anti-deficiency laws, and other real estate issues. Here’s a list:

HB 2442, Reverse mortgages; regulations — Approved by House Banking & Insurance (B&I) Committee
HB 2270, Homeowner protection — Referred to House Commerce and B&I Committees
HB 2309, Foreclosure consultants — Awaiting Committee of the Whole (COW) floor action
HB 2479, Foreclosure deeds — Approved by House Government Committee
HB 2511, Municipal taxes — Approved by House Ways & Means Committee
HB 2554, Foreclosure consultants — Referred to House Commerce Committee
HN 2626, Deeds of trust — Approved by House Commerce Committee
HB 2728, Home equity purchasers — Referred to House Commerce and B&I Committees
HB 2739, Foreclosures, mandatory mediation — Referred to House Commerce & Government Committees
HB 2740, Foreclosure, right to sell — Referred to House B&I Committee
HB 2766, Tenant notice, foreclosure — Approved by House Commerce Committee
SB 1130, Foreclosure consultants — Awaiting Senate COW floor action
SB 1302, Real estate transfers — Awaiting Senate COW floor action
SB 1333, Exchange facilitators regulation — Referred to Senate Commerce

I did NOT include SB 1271 in there (The Arizona Anti-Deficiency Law) as it was repealed back in September, 2009. Thanks again, Governor Brewer!!

Gilbert AZ Short sale home in golf community of El Dorado Lakes for sale!

I pose a question to those of you who have short sold your home, are currently short selling your home, or who plan to short sale your home:

“If your lender cooperates with you, makes the process smooth and seamless, and doesn’t try to sneak any nasty language into your approval letter, would you continue to do business with that bank?”

If it was me, my personal answer would be a resounding “YES!!”

Last year I opened up a checking account at Wells Fargo. I’ve used the same bank for many years yet I walked into a local Wells Fargo branch and proudly opened up an account with a whopping $50. Why?? Because I was SOOOO pleased with their short sale system and they made the process so easy for me and for my clients that I felt compelled to bring them some business! This is a true story!!

Sure, my $50 is not a huge amount and I’m not expecting a birthday card or anything from them because of it but I just wanted them to know that I appreciate the way they do business and they are a company that I may someday invest my life into.

On the other hand, let’s take another bank — Bank of America. I have been so appalled by how they do business that I closed all of my Bank of America checking & savings accounts, cancelled my credit card with them, had members of my immediate family do the same, and will probably never go into a Bank of America branch again.

Why?? For the exact same reason I went into Wells Fargo — I believe in supporting the companies that support their clients and in abandoning the ones that don’t — and Bank of America has a lot to learn about how to treat people, at least from a short sale standpoint.

Now is it fair that I throw a company under the bus because of how their short sale department works?

Absolutely!!

If this is how unorganized, unorthodox, untrained, and unimpressive even one other branch of their organization is then they aren’t looking after their customers in any respect. Why would I invest my hard earned money into a company like that?

If you have ever done a short sale with Bank of America then you know exactly what I mean. Sure, it can be done and we do them all the time. But the pain, the headache, the problems, the issues that arise can make for a horrible experience and one that my clients are usually so glad to be over that I can’t imagine them ever patronizing Bank of America again.

My point of this posting is simple — if you have done a short sale and you were pleased with the way the bank handled it then I highly encourage and even flat-out ask you to please please PLEASE continue to patronize that bank. Let them know what a great job they did and how you are thankful to them for helping you out. Companies like this that stand behind their clients and provide excellent customer service will be around for a long, long time.

If you were less than pleased with the bank’s service, let them know!! If you don’t tell them maybe noone else will either! If people start closing accounts, pulling out money, and cancelling credit cards then maybe these banks will wake up and smell the coffee!! They’ll hopefully realize that their poor customer service in one aspect has cost them thousands upon thousands of dollars in additional future revenue from just one customer!

Then maybe we’ll all start to see an improvement not only in the short sale department but in customer service overall and we’ll start to see that economic shift back to blue skies and sunny days — and the end of this terrible recession.

Short sales can certainly make for better investment properties than foreclosures. There are a few reasons:

1. Short sale sellers are considered responsible for doing the right thing. By not walking away from the property and just handing the keys back to the bank they show a sense of responsibility. This almost always translates to a better taken care of and much more well-kept home.

2. Short sales are better regulated by the real estate industry — Although short sales are usually sold As-Is, chances are someone was living in it just recently. The walls, trim, doors, windows, flooring, etc are almost always in good condition and most of the appliances are probably working and still in place. Compare that to a fully stripped foreclosure that could cost tens of thousands of dollars to bring back up to livable condition.

3. Value — Foreclosures drive down neighborhood values drastically. Short sales help keep neighborhoods valued correctly and don’t drive down pricing as quickly.

4. Short sales can be bought without overpriced bidding wars — Usually in a short sale the seller only accepts one solid contract from a buyer. That means that any buyer with a good offer and solid credentials has the chance to put the property under contract. In a foreclosure you could end up bidding against 20 or 30 other people, thereby driving the price up and then the end buyer ends up buying an overpriced property in a sale frenzy.

5. Short sales offer inspection periods and better due diligence — In a short sale you can usually obtain sellers property disclosure statements, insurance claims history, you have time to do a full property inspection before purchase, and you can sometimes ask for repairs. Try doing any of that with a foreclosure!!

Short sales and foreclosures can both make for good investments but you really need to do your homework and make sure you have a good real estate expert helping you. Just because a property is a short sale or a foreclosure does NOT necessarily make it a great deal!

Short sales generally sell for higher prices than foreclosures but from an investment standpoint you are paying for probably a better kept property that needs less repairs, has a good seller history, and is one that you may only need minimal maintenance on to rent it or sell it at a later date for a profit.

We specialize in short sales and pre-foreclosure properties and whether you are an upside-down seller looking to get out from your underwater home or if you are an investor or home buyer looking for a good deal on a nice property we’d love to help!

Please call us at 480-241-4406 or email us today at Sean@AzHomeHelp.com.