Winter Haven, FL

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Winter Haven Florida Short Sale closing with Wells Fargo.

The property:

Investment property. 3 bedroom 2 bath home located in Winter Haven Florida. This home has 2,222 sq ft of living area and is direct lake front with baot house and private beach. It was purchased in March of 2006 for $390,000. It Sold 1/20/2012 for $140,200. That's a decline in value of 64% in just under 5 years!

Liens:

• 1st Mortgage with Wells Fargo for $295,000

Hardship:

• Loss of rental income. Reduction in value.

Summary:

I placed the property on the market 10/10/2010 for $225,000. After several price reductions we finally found a buyer at $150,000. Unfortunately we then spent almost 4 months trying to get an approval and were finally denied the short sale due to lack of hardship. The buyer didn't want to wait while we resubmitted so.....

.....I placed it back on the market and found another buyer at the same price. 2 months later we had an approval only to find out we lost the buyer due to a major illness being diagnosed. So....

....once again we started over. Luckily we found another cash buyer at $140,000. My son Nathan was working with this buyer so we knew the buyer would give us time to get the short sale approved again.

We received another aproval in about 60 days and closed on the transaction. The 3rd time was a charm!!

Wells Fargo accepted $149,000 or .51 cents on the dollar for the 1st mortgage.

***The Seller received FULL WAIVER OF DEFICIENCY on an investment property. He did have to participate in the loss by making a $20,000 cash contribution. He was happy to do so to be rid of almost $300,000 or debt.

This transaction was a referral from an Active Rain member. Thanks Judy!! That makes 3 successful referrals.

Do you need help with your Florida Short Sale?

Tutas Towne Realty has already successfully negotiated Short Sales with the following Lenders and Investors.

• Chase Short Sale
• Sun Trust Short Sale
• GMAC Short Sale
• Wells Fargo Short Sale
• Bank of America Short Sale
• USA Bank Short Sale
• PNC Bank Short Sale
• Citi Short Sale
• HomeEq Short Sale
• Fifth Third Bank Short Sale
• ING Direct Short Sale
• GreenTree Short Sale
• Capital One Short Sale
• ASC Short Sale
• First Horizon Short Sale
• E-Trade Short Sale
• Transland Financial Short Sale
• US Bank Short Sale
• IBM LBPS Short Sale
• Nationstar Short Sale
• BAC Florida Short Sale
• Real Time Solutions Short Sale
• Fannie Mae Short Sale
• FHA Short Sale
• Selene Finance Short Sale
• Indy Mac
• One West Bank
• DTA Solutions LLC Short sale

Can we add you to our list of successful Short Sales?

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

A home owner in Winter Haven, FL got in touch with me a few months ago about short selling his rental property. We discussed the process and what I could do to help, what he could do to help himself etc. He decided to go ahead and proceed and list it. So I sent over the short sale listing package for him to fill out and return. Then I didn’t hear back from him for a few days so I called...nothing, left a voicemail. I called a couple times for the next few weeks and couldn’t get in touch with him.

Then finally he calls me out of the blue to tell me he’s sorry he never got the package back to me. The home has now been foreclosed on. He and his wife are very upset. He wanted to know if there is anything that I can do to help. No, unfortunately there isn’t. If the package had been returned earlier I may have been able to help, but as it is, it’s too late. So we parted ways on good terms.

Then about a week ago the same seller calls me and tells me he is in the same situation with his residence and would like my help with a short sale of that home. This time I can probably help him out. I told him about Bank of America’s new Florida Enhanced Short Sale Relocation Assistance Program and asked him to call the lender to make sure his loan qualifies.

Less than an hour later I received an email from Bank of America (good job BOA!) letting me know that his loan qualifies and they need me to upload a 3rd party letter of authorization into Equator. We were off and running. This seller has a very strong chance of receiving between $5,000-$20,000 in cash at closing. Great news for everyone. I wrote up the LOA and sent it over to the seller to sign and send back.

Then, again, I didn’t hear from him for 4 days. I wrote emails and left messages that I only had a limited time to get this in the system and get the short sale initiated in Equator before he no longer qualified for the program. The short sale has to be initiated before November 30, 2011 to qualify.

He called me back to tell me that his wife just won’t send the paperwork back from work and he doesn’t have time to do it himself. So he’s decided to just let the home be foreclosed on. With a possible $20,000 on the line he decided it wasn’t worth the trouble of stopping by Staples or Office Depot and sending a quick fax.

I guess the old saying is true: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink...

Image Courtesy of SouthernAnts at Flickr

PURCHASE AND REHAB YOUR HOME IN WINTER HAVEN FLORIDA WITH THE FHA 203(K) LOAN - Most home buyers are turned off at the sight or even thought of buying a fixer-upper; a foreclosure or an older home today. However, educated and informed home buyers are utilizing the FHA 203(k) loan to buy their new home and fix it up with no additional out-of-pocket expense.

The FHA 203(k) loan is a tool that savvy home buyers, successful contractors, Realtors and mortgage originators have been using since 1978. An FHA 203(k) loan is very similar to the traditional FHA loan. The only real difference is that with the FHA 203(k) loan, the home buyer is adding money to their mortgage balance to finance-in any repair/improvement cost.

Whereas the traditional FHA loan requires that certain repairs be done before the home is purchased, theFHA 203(k) loan allows the home buyer to purchase their home and complete the repairs after the transaction closes.

The other traditional FHA qualifications (appraisal guidelines,seasoning rules,credit qualifications, etc...) still apply. But with the FHA 203(K) loan, a home buyer can fix up his home and not have to worry about the additional out-of-pocket expenses for the repairs/improvements. What a brilliant way to purchase a fixer-upper!

HERE ARE THE REASONS SMART HOME BUYERS ARE CHOOSING TO GO WITH THE FHA 203(K) LOAN

1. Better opportunities for a great financial deal on a home purchase

2. Allows buyers who are approved for an FHA loan to buy properties that would not otherwise qualify

3. Allows buyer to put personal touches into the interior/exterior making it feel like more of a home

4. Sellers do not have to pay for repairs prior to listing the property if they do not care to

5. There is less competition to buy fixer-uppers which forces sellers to accept lower offers

6. FHA loans are assumable; so when buyers go to sell house it will be easy to market.

Legoland Florida Opens October 15' 2011 - Winter Haven FL - Polk County

There is a lot of buzz going around with the Grand Opening of Legoland Florida on October 15, 2011. There are so many things to do in Polk County with cities such as Winter Haven and Lakeland. I thought I would share this upcoming excitement about the Grand Opening of Legoland Florida that has been the talk of the town.

The family oriented park is located in Winter Haven, FL - Polk County, which was the former ground of Cypress Gardens, which was one of the oldest Florida attractions that closed its doors in 2009.

There are currently only 496 single family homes for sale in Winter Haven, Florida for an average listed price of $200,475. 347 of these are regular equity sales, 29 are REO/Bank Owned foreclosures, and 120 are short sales. From the statistics, it is clear that sellers who are listing their homes as regular equity sales are listing their homes at higher prices. Those homes on average spend more time on the market than the short sales and foreclosures.

There are 226 homes in pending status in Winter Haven, Florida which means they are under contract and waiting to close. 64 are equity sales, 28 are REO/Bank Owned foreclosures, and 134 are short sales.

There were 64 homes sold in Winter Haven, Florida during the month of August 2011. 31 were equity sales, 17 were REO/Bank Owned foreclosures, and 16 were short sales. The average sold price for a home in Winter Haven, Florida during the month of August 2011 was $94,636, while the average listed price was $101,065. These homes were on the market for an average of 93 days.

The majority of homes sold for less than their listed price in August and the real estate market in Winter Haven, Florida is still in a gradual decline with prices being somewhat unstable. The early summer months saw prices level off some but the month of August saw a significant dip in prices.

The chart below illustrates the price trend over the last year for homes sold in Winter Haven, Florida.