Charles Stallions Real Estate Services Pensacola Homes - 800-309-3414

Last weekend I had the privilege of joining twenty four other business people in an annual Christian Leadership event. The program runs for one year and is designed to teach communitiy minded folks how to become better leaders. During the year we meet once a week to go over local programs, economic plans and general ideas that we can use to better our areas. As well as six times during the ear we have weekend retreats to accomplish certain areas of each other lives that will create self improvement on an individual basis.

We arrived on Friday afternoon around 1 pm and came back home on Monday around 11 am. We were split up into two - six people teams. One of the things we had to do was overcome a fear that we had. Of course when we were selected to go through the program we filled out a questionnaire and what we feared was one of the questions. My fear was heights and another was question was, what we considered our biggest draw back. My answer to that was being able to totally trust others.

My feat for the weekend was to be blindfolded and lifted up to a platform about thirty five feet off the ground and to fall backwards depending on my team to catch me in a fireman's net. This had to be one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Saturday morning I pretty much refused to even try, after much encouragement and pleading by that afternoon I would go up on the platform but would immediately come down. When one didn't do as they were ask, the group would go on to the next candidates fear and come back to the other after rotating around the group.

Finally on Sunday I decided I had to do it. I didn't want to let this team down and all but one had completed their assignment. So at 3:15 on Sunday afternoon I went up onto the platform blindfolded. I had pretty much decided by this time I was going to do it or die trying. I did it, I have very seldom been prouder or felt like I had accomplished so much as this day.

I do want to thank the council, as well as my teammates, John, Jerry, Mike, Beth and Susan for a wonderful time. We have three more months to go and lots of lasting memories of this past year.

We have been discussing what to put into our new relocation package and here is what we came up with. Please feel free to add to it if you like or use our example to make your own.

1. Free area map, perferablly one with the MLS infromation.
2. A local Newspaper.
3. We print out off the internet the local businesses looking to hire.
4. Local eatery coupons, we have talked to some of the eateries and they have provided us with buy one get one free or buy one and get the second one half price.
5. A top ten things to do in the area.

I have joined with some of the people I enjoy working with like the gym I joined to offer huge discounts from their business as well. I along with two mortgage companies, my insurance agent, my gym and my CPA put these together. We share in the total cost and all agree it has been well worth doing. What say you ?

I hope folks don't hate me for this shameless post. But with the Gators winning the National Championship and Arizona soon to be crowned champions people ask who is your favorite sports team. OK here comes the shamless part.

Team CHARLES, Yep there it is. You see I have for ten years sponsered a CO-ED sofball team, Five years a girls softball team, a little league baseball team and a tee ball team and a YMCA football team. I pay $1500. a year, I meet over 100 parents just on our teams and close to 2000 overall. They all come to the games and I along with friends make it a point to show up and support the kids. My name is on the shirts, on the signs and annonced throughout the games.

One benefit is my shirts are different in the way that say Team CHARLES and gets a lot of notice from the kids as well as parents and there is always a Charles on the team that gets a kick out of it.

So what this shameless post is really about is hey for a couple of hundred bucks you can sponsor a team of your own, help out some wonderful future buyers kids and win a national championship.

Let me start by saying that everywhere you turn now, there is a short sale expert. SO much so agents have created a class and designation for it.

Stastics show that 1 out every 4 people will be affected within the next five years by a short sale. If this is you or even someone you know, be a friend and gives this message to them. Print it, forward it or somehow get them to read this.

No one needs to be embarrased or have to deal with inexperienced folks claiming to be experts. Short selling and pre - forclosures are tedious at best and require attention to detail. I did my first short sale in 1995, I was taught by one of the best. I know the talk and walk the walk sort of speak. Give me ten minutes on the phone or in person and I will tell you right then and there what you need to do. No games, no guessing, just the facts.

Preparing for a sale requires some work on your part of which I will do. As far as credit it will do minium damage, I know others say it will do nothing to your credit, but like I said this is no time for wanna be experts. I am a perfectionist and detil oriented person and it has really paid off in these trying times.

You can go to my website www.charlesstallions.com and get some of the information, you could go to a thousand websites for that matter. But why not bypass all that and lets talk, over the phone or in person and lets get you feeling at ease and trouble free. Short Sales are local and you need a local to get the job done.

I know this is short and sweet but it really can be that simple and I am just a phone call away so CALL NOW 850-324-5109.

Looking for a Short Sale or Foreclosure in Pensacola, Florida (Click Here)

The latest thing to happen in the Real Estate Industry is Short Sales and everyone is quite the expert. Don't be a victim twice, do the research and find out if this is for you.

Every lender is different, but I have found that you have to get to the loss mitigation dept. and you have to stay on top of them to the point of calling sometimes as much as four times a day. Get your offer to the board as quickly as possible because they will ultimately make the decision no matter what you've been told. It has to go to the board and most boards meet every thirty days and go over short sales for the past thirty days, then make the decisions to accept, turn down or put on hold.

Here is how I package a deal, hope it helps.

I include a hardship letter from the sellers and it has to be hard, not just that the market is bad(boo hoo) if that is all you've got, forget it. It has to be a Job loss, medical crisis, something that means the seller cannot pay this loan back.

Then the board wants to know how close is the offer to the loan amount. I have found that banks will take as much as 35% less than owed. I have heard but not confirmed that it cost the banks as much as 28% to foreclose including trying to collect the loan, court cost, attorney fees etc., then you can figure the cost of maintaining the property etc. and use that as your benchmark.

I include a HUD 1 from the title company ( this is a must), I have found that you have to be willing to negotiate the Realtors Fee with 2% being the norm but hey I have collected 6 in the last month.

The Board will want an appraisal less than 30 days old if they don't have one they will order one, this is where time is wasted by the banks because everybody and his brother at the bank thinks someone else has ordered it. I furnish them with two BPOs if possible, one from me and one from another agent at another company that I work closely with. The board is really impressed with this and can shave a lot of time off your deal.

I take photos of the comps as well as the subject and send with the package.

Pre-approval letter for buyers, make sure it doesn't show more than the offered price( common sense you would think).

Even with these you're looking at 30 days depending when the board meets, but if these are not done it will take 4 to 6 months.

It goes without saying but I will say it anyway. Remember there is a $10 an hour clerk that is answering the phone and most of the time handling the deal and they leave at five everyday whether you like it or not. So always and I mean always be nice to everyone you talk to, it really does get you to the next person or level.