Chesterton, IN

December's Season of Celebrations & Sharing Contest:

Chesterton Indiana Hometown Holiday Celebration is a wonderful way to celebrate the holidays!

Friday, December 16- there will be FREE horse drawn carriage rides through the historical downtown area. This is only one of many events they are hosting throughout the weekend.

Saturday, December 17 - hot chocolate will be for sale at the Kiwanis tent in the Chamber parking lot and toy donations are being accepted.

Santa will be in the Santa House in Thomas Centennial Park from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The Chesterton Chamber organizations are the sponsoring hosts for this event. For more information call 219-926-5513.

Holiday Happenings:

Independent Cat Society of Westville Indiana – Annual Holiday Open House

Miller’s Senior Living Communities – Santa for a Senior

St. Jude House Storytelling Fundraiser – Dec. 3

Hebron Fire Department Food Drive – Dec. 11

City of Valparaiso Holiday Clean out – Dec. 27-30

Toys for Tots – Crown Point, IN

Valparaiso Indiana Touch a Truck Toys for Tots - Dec. 10

Portage Indiana Township Trustee – The Santa Clause

This year, we have personally experienced less number of short sale listings and closings compared to 2010 when 25 % of our closed transactions were subject to a lenders approval of a short sale.

We've blogged about short sales many times before. The length of time involved in completing a short sale transaction can vary from lender to lender and be slow (months) or quick (days).

Whenever we have a short sale transaction that goes relatively smoothly, we feel blessed:)

This was the case with a property we listed in Northwest Indiana that closed in only 53 days after an accepted offer to purchase!

It was our 1st short sale since the new MARS Law went into effect a few months ago.

Indiana Short Sales are impacted by HB 1359, which, in many cases, helps expedite the transaction.

Northwest Indiana Home For Sale Listed by F.C.Tucker 1st Team Real Estate Subject to Short Sale SOLD & Closed in 53 days after accepted offer to purchase!

If you are considering the sale of your property subject to your lenders approval of a short sale, give us a call.

Important Notice:

F. C. Tucker 1^st Team Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender.

Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

If you stop paying your mortgage, you could lose your home and damage your credit.

When we get a call from a prospective seller in NW Indiana, we always ask -> How did you find us? Tracking the origin of our business is important to us.

Most new clients come from referral of family, friends or neighbors of previous customers that we've served. Other referrals happen from being a part of the Leading Real Estate Companies of The World and from being one of many F.C.Tucker's offices (Indiana's largest Real Estate Company).

This time, when potential sellers called to interview us and we asked this question, the answer was :

We came across homes for sale in our town on the Internet and liked the way you marketed them.

Yesterday, after the closing, we thanked our client for the opportunity to represent them in the sale of their Porter County Property.

Chesterton, Indiana 46304 Real Estate For Sale by F.C.Tucker 1st Team Just SOLD

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If you are thinking about selling your Northwest Indiana Home soon- Talk To Tucker!

Repeat Clients called us to List their Home For sale in Chesterton, Indiana 46304 and we received 2 offers to purchase on day 89 on the market...so now it's SOLD!

Thinking about selling your Northwest Indiana property?

Talk To Tucker - Indiana's Largest Real Estate Company, established in 1918.

Third Time's The Charm - Another Short Sale Property Listed By F.C. Tucker 1st Team Real Estate in NW Indiana and CLOSED.

Back in mid April we listed a Property in Porter County, IN subject to lenders approval of a short sale.

Short Sales are Not a Game.

First, you need a sale-able property in good condition and a cooperative seller. The short sale process is MUCH more involved than a traditional real estate transaction.

Next, you have to hope for a negotiator from the lenders loss mitigation department assigned to the file who is adept at the process and at communicating in a timely fashion.

WE were very fortunate = we HAD BOTH OF THE ABOVE !

However finding a READY, WILLING and ABLE buyer was a journey of 5 months.

We had an offer within 7 days of listing the home on the MLS which fell about 25 days later due to Buyer unwillingness to wait for a short sale approval.

Now in Indiana, we have a newer law = IN HB 1359, so the time frame for approvals is to acknowledge the offer within 10 business days and to accept/counter or reject the offer within 30 business days.

Sure enough, we got the approval a week after the buyer had requested mutual release.

Meanwhile, we were having showings on the property. Even with an accepted offer we encourage all our sellers to continued the show the home - Sale Pending Does Not mean SOLD these days! Backup offers are always welcome on our listings.

A few weeks later another accepted offer was submitted, and another processor assigned. Starting all over again, we resubmitted everything and about 45 days later....

Bingo! we get a short sale approval (the second time).

In the meantime, a 3rd offer (Backup offer) was in place. (There were even more offers submitted on this property, however they were so low, and asking for even more, that our seller did not accept them).

All along, we informed the Buyers agent that there is not alot of time to wait to accomplish agreed upon contract erms of due diligence(i.e. inspections, appraisals, surveys, underwriting, etc..) once the short sale is approved.

Alas, the contract expiration date came and went with no mutual extension for time granted.

The backup offer became the primary offer. For the third time, we resubmitted the new paperwork for the file (by this time Jeff and the loss mitigation processor were on a 1st name basis:)

We received an approval even quicker than the 1st or 2nd time and closed within 31 days of submitting the offer to purchase to the lender!

Lessons learned =>

'Tis a lesson you should heed, Try, try again. If at first you don't succeed, Try, try again.

Short Sales are NOT for every Buyer

• You should be willing to wait for an approval. The experienced listing agent will have a good idea of this time frame as they have already started submitting the short sale package and talked to the lender about applicable state laws verses company policy time frames. Some special circumstances may take longer.
• You should be willing to do your due diligence according to the terms and conditions you agreed to in the purchase agreement. This means risk that you, the Buyer must be willing to accept. (i.e. the cost of doing any inspections, appraisal, etc.
• The lender of a short sale property DOES NOT have to accept your offer. A short sale is NOT a fire sale:) they have done a BPO and their investor has a bottom line on what they are willing to accept.
• Backup Offers can move to the primary position once the expiration date of the purchase contract has passed and there is no written extension of time in place agreed upon by all parties. Being a backup offer in a short sale may be worth it.

We have closed many short sales in Northwest Indiana over the last few years.

If you are considering buying or selling a home subject to lenders approval of a short sale - work with a REALTOR experienced (SFR) in this process.

Our references & client testimonials are available.