Wade Ellis

You may have heard about the beautiful vacant building in downtown Fort Myers except for the one family that is living there. That building recently went into foreclosure and was sold to an affiliate of the original developer. The current owners goal is to sell all 125 units before the year's end. From now until November 19th, a new sales office has opened and prices are starting in the mid 100's with many different floor plans. The units that are not sold, will be auctioned off on November 20th at Harborside Convention Center in downtown Fort Myers by Fisher Auction Company, Inc.

Our Vice President gave us this chart in our team meeting yesterday. For individuals, particularly end users that are waiting for prices to fall, it may not help their monthly payment if interest rates rise. These are the lowest interest rates we have seen in a very long time and as this chart shows, even a couple points can make a big difference.

Starting April 5th, 2010, the government has implemented a new program for home owners in distress; Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative(HAFA). This program is designed to coincide with the already failing Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). My favorite provisions for the homeowner are the following:

Requires borrowers to be fully released from future liability for the first mortgage debt (no cash contribution, promissory note, or deficiency judgment is allowed).

$3,000 for borrower relocation assistance;

Only time will tell if this program will be a success. So far my experience hasn't been the best. When I called up Wells Fargo yesterday inquiring for a potential short sale client of mine, they were literally googling up the program to find out what the requirements were to try and answer my questions. They told me to list the property as normal and they would notify the client if he/she were eligible. I was a little leery since the HAFA program is supposed to set a pre approved list price before the property is on the market. The fact that I new more about the rules and regs than the bank that is supposed to be participating is not a good sign. Hopefully as time goes on, this will be implemented better with participating banks. This doesn't mean a traditional short sale isn't the best option, it may just mean that as usual the government and the banks will never work well together. To find out more on the Short Sale process, visit our website at www.RealFortMyersProperty.com

-Wade