Judy Chapman, REALTOR® ~ Short Sales / Luxury & Lake Properties

Don’t lose your home to foreclosure. These smart homeowners didn’t. Instead, they put their home on the market as a Short Sale.

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.

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.

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 statistics should give you a feel for what’s happening in the luxury segment of the Orlando FL real estate market.

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members.

Data drawn from the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

A few tidbits of note ...

Homes listed above $500,000 often take longer to sell than properties priced at the lower end of the market. While many houses priced below $500,000 may take 6 or 7 months to sell, homes in upscale neighborhoods may take as much as 2 years to unload.

Keep in mind that some 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. On the other hand ...

Steep discounts may NOT reflect a distressed situation. Just because a house sold for considerably less than original list price doesn’t necessarily mean it was a foreclosure or short sale property. Because luxury homes are often one-of-a-kind, it’s difficult to find comparable properties that will help in determining current market value. In the end, it’s a buyer — and not the seller — who determines the market value of a property.

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 statistics should give you a feel for what’s happening in the luxury segment of the Orlando FL real estate market.

Properties have been listed and sold by various MLS members.

Data drawn from the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

A few tidbits of note ...

Homes listed above $500,000 often take longer to sell than properties priced at the lower end of the market. While many houses priced below $500,000 may take 6 or 7 months to sell, homes in upscale neighborhoods may take as much as 2 years to unload.

Keep in mind that some 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. On the other hand ...

Steep discounts may NOT reflect a distressed situation. Just because a house sold for considerably less than original list price doesn’t necessarily mean it was a foreclosure or short sale property. Because luxury homes are often one-of-a-kind, it’s difficult to find comparable properties that will help in determining current market value. In the end, it’s a buyer — and not the seller — who determines the market value of a property.

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.

Don’t lose your home to foreclosure. These smart homeowners didn’t. Instead, they put their home on the market as a Short Sale.

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.