About Oviedo's Live Oak Reserve

Want to know what’s selling in your neighborhood? These statistics should give you a feel for the market value of your house.

Keep in mind that many of these sales are for Short Sales or Foreclosed/Bank-Owned properties. Under these situations, the Sold Price may be considerably below the Original List Price. Sorry to say, ‘distressed’ sales drag down the values of all the other homes in the neighborhood, whether or not they’re Short Sales or Foreclosures.

Street	Date Sold	Original List Price	Sold Price	Beds	Baths	Sq Ft	Pool
KIWANIS	10/13/09	$499,900	$355,000	4	2	2351	Y
SKYVIEW	10/01/09	$442,900	$355,000	5	3	3534	N
LAKE LENELLE	10/12/09	$419,900	$288,000	4	2	2322	Y
HEIRLOOM ROSE	10/30/09	$410,000	$373,500	5	4	3750	N
HOLLOW OAK*	10/05/09	$324,900	$312,500	4	3	2586	N
OPEN MEADOW	10/30/09	$299,900	$270,000	4	3	2276	N
GROUSE	10/15/09	$294,900	$285,000	6	4	3897	N
RAVENCREEK	10/01/09	$266,000	$266,000	4	2	2777	N
HEIRLOOM ROSE	10/09/09	$257,000	$257,000	4	3	2294	N
WATER LILY	10/09/09	$229,000	$230,000	4	3	2291	N
WAX PALM	10/23/09	$209,900	$206,752	4	2	2095	N

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members.

Data drawn from the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

*Listed & Sold by Judy Chapman

If you’re a homeowner who wants to sell your house, the following should give you a better understanding of the Orlando FL marketplace.

Remember the old adage that ‘real estate is always local’. Your neighborhood may be different from the neighborhood just down the road.

Homes in Orlando are selling. In fact, they’re selling so well that thousands of homeowners just like you are moving out and moving on. Last year, 1,000 homes in Orange & Seminole counties sold every month on average. In 2009, monthly sales are averaging 1,600 homes. This represents a 60% increase! If the house down the street can sell in this difficult environment, so can yours.

What’s the long-term outlook for the Orlando FL real estate market? Prices have leveled off in recent months. Even so, due to rising unemployment and foreclosure/short sale saturation, it will probably take several years — perhaps as long as a decade or more — for home prices to completely recover.

What about homeowners who are having difficulty keeping up with mortgage payments but can’t sell because their house is worth less than the amount owed on their loan? There are several solutions, but the way a Realtor^® can help is by selling the house as a Short Sale.

These smart homeowners didn’t have to lose their house to foreclosure. Instead, they hired a real estate agent to help them sell their house as a Short Sale.

Street	Date Sold	Original List Price	Sold Price	Beds	Baths	Sq Ft	Pool
RIVEREDGE	10/22/09	$139,800	$137,000	3	2	1321	N
CANAL CROSS	10/29/09	$209,921	$170,000	4	2	1710	N
WATER LILY	10/09/09	$229,000	$230,000	4	3	2291	N
LAKE LENELLE	10/12/09	$419,900	$288,000	4	2	2322	Y
HEIRLOOM ROSE	10/29/09	$500,000	$470,000	5	4	4319	Y

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members.

Data drawn from the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

Because the payoff of a loan will be ‘shorted’ by a significant amount, the mortgage lender must approve a Short Sale. Handled properly, the likelihood of successfully selling your house as a Short Sale is high. Once the Short Sale is behind you, you can often get on with your life with hardly a backward glance.

A Short Sale is nothing more than putting your house up for sale in the usual manner, waiting for a qualified buyer just like any other home seller would, facing a few extra hurdles, filling out additional paperwork, waiting a bit longer for the closing to take place, and finally moving out and moving on.

Real benefits come with selling your house as a Short Sale. Among them are: 1) substantially reducing or completely eliminating financial liability, 2) minimizing damage to your credit rating, 3) emerging from bad credit quicker than you would with a foreclosure, and 4) having a sense of satisfaction that you’re taking care of the problem proactively and responsibly.

These smart homeowners didn’t have to lose their house to foreclosure. Instead, they hired a real estate agent to help them sell their house as a Short Sale.

By finding a ready, willing, and able buyer, they were able to stop foreclosure proceedings in their tracks and walk away with a clean ‘financial’ bill of health. In some cases, they may have had to sign a promissory note for a percentage of their total obligation. The important thing, however, is that they were able to salvage the ruinous credit rating they would have incurred with a foreclosure. Better yet, in as little as two years — or even less — they’ll be able to purchase a new home with a conventional mortgage.

Street	Date Sold	Original List Price	Sold Price	Beds	Baths	Sq Ft	Pool
COX	09/04/09	$155,800	$97,000	3	2	1208	N
BUCKINGHAM	09/16/09	$325,000	$217,150	3	2	2228	Y
CARILLON PARK	09/30/09	$220,000	$205,000	3	2	1791	Y
EASTBRIDGE	09/29/09	$372,880	$182,000	4	2	2368	Y
MORNING STAR	09/29/09	$349,000	$235,000	4	3	2265	N
BLUEBROOK	09/10/09	$125,000	$125,000	3	2	1087	N
JUNEBERRY	09/25/09	$199,900	$210,700	3	2	2007	N
HEIRLOOM ROSE	09/18/09	$310,000	$292,000	4	3	2946	N
GREY HERON	09/10/09	$299,000	$299,000	4	3	3118	Y
SNOW VALLEY	09/09/09	$299,900	$274,000	3	2	2140	N

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members.

Data drawn from the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

What is a Short Sale?

A Short Sale occurs when market conditions make it impossible to sell a house at a price that allows the borrower to pay off the mortgage loan and associated closing costs in full. In these cases, the mortgage lender must agree to Short Sale terms before a house can be sold. Why? Because the payback of the loan will be ‘shorted’ a significant amount and the lender will be forced to take a loss.

Understanding How a Short Sale Can Often Help

Mortgage lenders must cooperate with borrowers in order to facilitate a Short Sale. Doing so helps them avoid the even higher costs associated with foreclosure proceedings.

Selling a house as a Short Sale can be complicated and time-consuming. The same proof of financial condition submitted when the homeowners first took out their home loan must be submitted anew in order to successfully settle the loan under Short Sale conditions. Lenders must evaluate each Short Sale on a case-by-case basis, and the approval process can often be long and frustrating ... or sometimes short and sweet.

Once a purchase contract is being considered for a Short Sale, foreclosure proceedings, if there are any, can usually be put on hold.

In order to approve a Short Sale, lenders take into account several factors, among them the borrowers’ personal and financial situation, local real estate conditions, the market value of the house, and the strength of the purchase contract. Borrowers must also make a convincing argument that they —

• Cannot keep up with loan payments due to unemployment, job relocation, divorce, medical expenses, or other long-term financial crisis
• Have no choice but to sell their house
• Can’t repay the loan in full given current market values

The Process of a Short Sale

Homeowners must jump through a few extra hoops, but these extra tasks are no more difficult than the process they originally went through to purchase their house.

• Put House on the Market - Because the borrower’s lender must validate that the house was marketed and contracted at arm’s length, a homeowner cannot sell the house on his own but must list it with a real estate broker.
• Short Sale Package - Once a Sale & Purchase Contract is finalized, homeowners must assemble personal financial information that will be submitted to their lender in support of making their Short Sale claim.
• Selling & Marketing Package - Your real estate agent should put together a Market Report reflecting the selling circumstances of the house as well as the real estate conditions of the neighborhood and town.
• Lender Approval - After the lender has received everything, they will order an Appraisal or Broker’s Price Opinion, which is an independent determination of the house’s market value. Then, after evaluating everything, the bank will make a decision.

As difficult as a Short Sale may be, it’s important for homeowners to be prepared for anything and to proactively deal with any problems that come along. It’s also important for them to also contact an attorney and/or tax accountant.

Two-storey beauty with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, formal everything, screened lanai, downstairs guest bedroom/office, updated kitchen, and hardwood floors.

The homeowners had originally listed their house with another agent and called me based on an expired mailing I had sent them months before.

We listed the house in February 2009. Since the subdivision is new, it was ripe for an epidemic of short sales and bank-owned offerings. Fortunately, the owners purchased in the early phase of development.

The homeowners took pride in everything, always had a model-ready home to show, and always were accommodating for showings.

Realtors® had to go through me to arrange for appointments. We did this so the owners would only have to talk to one agent — me — and also so that agents couldn’t take advantage of the homeowners with last-minute showings or broad timeframes.

We priced the house right from the outset, only once lowering the price once by a meager $5,000.

We showed the house a whopping 66 times! The owners were despairing, wondering what was wrong with their house. I kept telling them, “Nothing.” It was only because there were so many short sale and bank-owned bargains out there, not just in Live Oak Reserve but in nearby subdivisions, as well.

We received one low-ball offer that didn’t go anywhere.

Over the months, the inventory of homes available in this sought-after subdivision depleted from over 30 to less than 15. By then, most of the houses for sale were priced well above our price, and of those available with similar square footage, their home offered the best value.

Still, the owners let the initial 6-month listing agreement expire so they could think about whether they really wanted to sell.

THEY REALLY WANTED TO SELL.

After about 10 days, we put the house back on the market.

Two days after re-listing, the right buyers toured the house. They had just gotten a contract on their house and evidently had their hopes pinned on finding a house in Live Oak Reserve.

Thanks to the buyer’s agent — who was with my brokerage — the contract was clean and straightforward. No negotiations were necessary. Sale, however, was contingent on the buyer’s house closing, plus they wanted a quick close.

A month later, without any glitches, both houses closed.

The homeowners have taken up temporary residence while we search for the house they intend to be the very last house they will ever buy.

After showing what can only be described as a meteoric rise in houses sold in the Greater Orlando area — more than doubling from the first of the year — sales took a slight dip in August 2009.

While this isn’t necessarily a worrisome result, especially when compared to anemic levels a year ago, it begs 2 questions.

Could this be a sign that sales are merely seeing the summer doldrums?

~ OR ~

Could this be the beginning of a declining trend?