Jacksonville Beaches Real Estate

The Senate passed the new housing rescue bill today and President Bush is expected to sign it in just hours. The bill goes into effect October 1st. Who's eligible to participate? Qualified borrowers must live in their homes and have loans that were issued between January 2005 and June 2007. Additionally, they must be spending at least 31% of their gross monthly income on mortgage debt to be eligible for the program. They can be up to date on their existing mortgage or in default, but either way borrowers must prove that they will not be able to keep paying their existing mortgage - and attest that they are not deliberately defaulting just to obtain lower payments. Before homeowners can get FHA-backed mortgages, they must first retire any other debt on the home, such as a home equity loan or line of credit. Borrowers are not permitted to take out another home equity loan for at least five years, unless it's to pay for necessary upkeep on the home. To get a new home equity loan,...

Can you believe we are STILL trying to negotiate a deal with the loss mitigator?? We have been working on this for FOUR MONTHS! Now, we found out that the house has to have a NEW ROOF ($6500)!! OMG. What next? We are still trying to negotiate a lower price, to cover the cost of the roof replacement! You know what the lender is saying: AS-IS...You are buying the property AS-IS. We can't even get financing without a roof! Good luck to us. I'm not so confident that we can make it happen. I'll keep you posted...

I promised you I'd give you a heads up when we finally heard from the lender about our short sale offer. WE FINALLY RECEIVED A COUNTER OFFER from the lender this week! We immediately countered and hopefully they'll take our offer. The listing agent warned me that it might be 2+ weeks before we hear from the lender again! We rec'd a response/counter offer from the lender on day 70. If we hear back from them in 2 weeks, that will mean that it's been 90 days to get acceptance of our offer! TEXT BOOK SHORT SALE! Unfortunately, it will probably be 30 days after that before we close! Short sales are a great way to save money when you buy a house. But you have to understand that it might take MONTHS until you close. This all depends on how far along the process is when you find the house. If it's still early in the process--be prepared for a 3-5 month wait until closing. The interest rates are creeping up at a pretty fast clip. Please don't continue to wait too...

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For those of you that have wondered if it REALLY takes 90 to 120 days to close on a Short Sale, I'm here to tell you that it does!! At least that long! We put an offer on a property on April 3rd and here it is June 3rd (almost) and we have NOTHING from the lender! I have talked to the listing agent at least once a week since this game began and she is on the ball, but the lender isn't! They told her last week that they would look at the offers on this property on June 10th and try to have an answer by the end of June! agggggggghhhh . My poor buyer is about to blow a gasket! I warned him, but the reality is hard to accept. I never dreamed that it would REALLY take this long. Looks like this is going to be a "text book" short sale. 90 days until we find out if they accept our offer and then 30 days until we close. I'm not real crazy about these short sales. Patience never was my strong suit. Can you get a good deal on a home that's a short sale? ...

This article was written by Donna Robinson. I found it so informative that I wanted to share it. It's a real eye opener about how the proposed FHA Loan program will work. It's well worth the read! Well, the new FHA expansion bill appears to be rocketing through congress with virtually no opposition. I got my email from NAR last week, (several times in fact) asking me to make sure that I contacted my congressional representatives to request passage of this bill. NAHB is in strong support of the measure, saying that it will help stablize the housing market. In fact, if you read the mainstream media, you would get the impression that this bill has no opposition anywhere. You may even think that this idea will be beneficial for you if you are an agent or broker who is suffering under the strain of the present slump in retail sales. However, there is a HUGE downside to this bill. The problem is not in wanting to help people and stabilize the largest single asset class in America. Th...

The market continues to chug along. The majority of the homes being sold right now are short sales and/or foreclosures. I am personally working with 3 right now. I am beginning to believe that the instructors in the classes I attended on Short Sales were right!! It is really taking a long time to get the lenders to even acknowledge that they received our offer!! We submitted it 3 weeks ago and so far the listing agent hasn't been able to get us any information. We have requested a reply from the lender or we are walking. Our offer expiration date was last week and my client (thankfully) didn't submit a binder fee with the offer. We were to process the binder fee within 3 days of acceptance of the offer. I am so GLAD we didn't throw any money on the table! If we don't hear something in the next couple of days, we are going to start looking for another home. We really, really like this house, but we can't wait forEVER! I'll let you know how it all plays out. It co...

I can't believe it! In less than 24 hours I sold one short sale home and listed another one! I learned enough in my seminars to make them both happen fairly smoothly. Just in case, I brought in a back up agent to watch my back and to help me with the bank negotiations. I think that after submitting our offer on a cute house in the West Beaches area, it's time to "hurry up and wait!!" I've been warned that sometimes it takes 3-6 months to close on a short sale! I think this one just might happen faster. I hope to get a response to our offer in less than 2 weeks. If our offer wasn't enough, then I hope to have the opportunity to go back to my clients lender and get more money!! I don't know if that will fly or not. I feel like our offer was fair. My client really likes the house and I went by and met one of the neighbors over the weekend. They would love to have my client as a neighbor!! I hope it all works out. In a perfect world, here's the...

I think the buyers have come out of hibernation! My listing on Ashglen Dr North has been shown non-stop! Not only that, but the official numbers were released by the National Association of Realtors today and they were good. The number of homes on the market has dropped (less competition) and the number of sold homes was up. Finally! For the past 6 months sells have steadily dropped. Maybe this is the beginning of the end of the housing slump. Inventory numbers are better too. It now takes 9 months to sell a listing, I know that sounds awful, but it's a 3% improvement over January. I'll keep you posted...

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that nearly 3 million homeowners were behind on their mortgages at the end of last year. An additional 1-million-plus borrowers were at risk of imminent foreclosure. Wow! As if that's not bad enough, a lot of the borrowers are finding out that they're so upset down, they just mail in the keys! Don't leave your house without a fight! The lenders can't help you, they can't work with you, they can't do a thing except foreclose if you mail in your keys and walk away from your house. Do NOT use this crazy option if you're upside down. Lenders are working harder to help you keep your home. FHA has programs to help with the ARM loans out there right now. The lenders are working with home owners after recieving pressure from the Feds to help them. Hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners are reaching out for help. The Homeownership Preservation Foundation, part of the Hope Now Alliance, fields more than 4,000 cal...

You can find great local Jacksonville, Florida real estate information on Localism.com Ronda Densford, REALTOR is a proud member of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network, a free online community to help real estate professionals grow their business.

I have been trying to research the subject of foreclosures in the Jacksonville area. It's really sad. Depending on exactly what search criteria I use, the average number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1300 homes. This does not include Condos. There are approximately 100 of those. These homes are either in some stage of preforeclosure, have already been foreclosed on and are now owned by the lender, or they are currently offered on the market as a short sale. I think that the community of Realtors needs to figure out how we can HELP these people that still have a chance to keep their homes. There are a whole lot more people that are just one late payment away from getting into arrears on their home loan. These are the folks we need to concentrate our energy on. There is hope! If you are in trouble, please read the following tips taken straight from the HUD web site. This will keep you out of trouble! If you are unable to make your mortgage payment : 1. Don't ignore the prob...

Here is the "official definition" of a short sale Qualifications for a Short Sale Before you eagerly climb aboard the short sale bandwagon, consider the following to determine whether you may qualify for a short sale. If you cannot answer yes to all four requirements, you may not qualify for a short sale. The Home's Market Value Has Dropped. Comparable sales must show that the home is worth less than the balance due the lender. This unpaid balance may include a prepayment penalty. Have your Realtor do a CMA or BPO on the house to be sure. A Realtor will do a CMA for free. Some lenders might require a appraisal. The Mortgage is in Default. A lender will not consider a short sale if the payments are current. As long as the lender is receiving timely payments, the lender is satisfied. You should probably be 60-90 days late on the mortgage payments. Please contact your lender direct to see if they will work with you to get the payments current. Some are being more helpful...

I attended a 3 hour seminar today about the Short Sales opportunities we now have in the Jackonville market. There are SO MANY of them on the market! I found out that not all "upside down" homes are true short sales. The criteria is very clear on what qualifies as a short sale. The seller must a) be insolvent with NO ASSETS (no IRA, no 401K, car paid for car, no boat NOTHING of value. b) must be behind on the payments (60-90 days) c) mortgage balance must be higher than actual market value d)Seller didn't cause the problem that caused the issue (medical bills, act of nature etc). Wow. That's not quite what I thought a short sale was. I thought if you were upside down, and you wanted the bank to take less than you owed; you were a short sale. Wrong. The guidelines are very clear. Are you facing troubled times with your mortgage? There is help out there. I have contact numbers for several agencies that can help. Please call me before the situation gets any worse. The fu...

Once again, the interest rates have begun to creep back up. Now is the time to lock in your rate and BUY A HOUSE! My seller at 12641 Ashglen Drive N is entertaining offers. This home is the least expensive home in the South Kernan Blvd area. Priced at $199,900.

This condo is being sold for 219K. Fully furnished, right down to the linens! Even includes the washer and dryer. All furniture is included. This unit has a garage plus a reserved parking spot. Motivated seller has already moved. Bring offers. Community includes 2 pools, cabanna bar, business center, mini theater, total fitness center, tennis court, gated entry and more.