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Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Foreclosure wheels begin to turn again for Bank of America, GMAC
NEW YORK – Oct. 19, 2010 – Bank of America and Ally Financial’s GMAC Mortgage have begun to lift their freezes on more than 100,000 foreclosure cases in Florida and other states, saying they’re not finding flaws in their paperwork.
Late Monday, Bank of America issued a statement saying that it expects to begin going back next week to courts in the 23 states where foreclosures are a judicial process, including Florida. A statement from spokesman Dan Frahm said the lender is preparing to re-submit documents in 102,000 foreclosure cases already underway.
Also Monday, Ally Financial spokesman James Olecki confirmed that GMAC is re-submitting documents in some foreclosure cases including at least one in Florida “as each of those files is reviewed and remediated when needed.”
Among major lenders, Bank of America had called a halt to all foreclosure sales nationwide. It also, along with GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial Services, initiated reviews in the 23 judicial foreclosure states. Bank of America later extended its review nationwide. Wells Fargo did not undertake a review of its procedures.
Major lenders in September began announcing halts to all or parts of their foreclosure processes, after revelations – in sworn statements submitted in lawsuits in which homeowners are fighting foreclosures – showing that employees or representatives failed to verify mortgage paperwork before submitting foreclosure cases to courts.
The so-called “robo-signers” said, under oath, that they handled thousands of documents each month without knowing whether they were accurate, as required by court procedure.
The GMAC and Chase documents surfaced in Palm Beach County cases that are still going through the courts.
On Monday, Bank of America said its “initial assessment findings” have shown “the basis for our foreclosure decisions is accurate.”
GMAC’s Olecki wrote in an e-mail, “Again, we have been in the midst of a review for approximately two months and have found no evidence of any inappropriate foreclosures to date.”
A spokesman for PNC Financial said the lender hasn’t changed its position on reviewing foreclosure documents. A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase repeated the bank’s intention to review about 115,000 foreclosure files and delay foreclosure sales.
Monday’s developments won’t speed the foreclosure process in Florida’s overburdened courts, said Alexander Fernandez, director of homeownership preservation for Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida. He noted there are more than 50,000 cases in Broward County alone that are still pending. And renewed cases, he said, would probably go to the back of the line.
Foreclosure defense attorneys questioned how the process can be re-started. “Do they simply get to resubmit the document and go on like nothing happened?” said Matthew Weidner, a St. Petersburg foreclosure defense attorney.
Beyond Florida, Bank of America said it would continue its halt of foreclosure sales in the 27 states that do not handle foreclosures through the judicial system.
Reprinted courtesy of the Florida Sun-Sentinel and Florida Realtors: http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=248980
Foreclosures in Florida: Remedies, Defenses, and Lender Liability
The mortgage foreclosure crisis in Florida: a 21st century solution.: An article from: Florida Bar Journal
Late Monday, Bank of America issued a statement saying that it expects to begin going back next week to courts in the 23 states where foreclosures are a judicial process, including Florida. A statement from spokesman Dan Frahm said the lender is preparing to re-submit documents in 102,000 foreclosure cases already underway.
Also Monday, Ally Financial spokesman James Olecki confirmed that GMAC is re-submitting documents in some foreclosure cases including at least one in Florida “as each of those files is reviewed and remediated when needed.”
Among major lenders, Bank of America had called a halt to all foreclosure sales nationwide. It also, along with GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial Services, initiated reviews in the 23 judicial foreclosure states. Bank of America later extended its review nationwide. Wells Fargo did not undertake a review of its procedures.
Major lenders in September began announcing halts to all or parts of their foreclosure processes, after revelations – in sworn statements submitted in lawsuits in which homeowners are fighting foreclosures – showing that employees or representatives failed to verify mortgage paperwork before submitting foreclosure cases to courts.
The so-called “robo-signers” said, under oath, that they handled thousands of documents each month without knowing whether they were accurate, as required by court procedure.
The GMAC and Chase documents surfaced in Palm Beach County cases that are still going through the courts.
On Monday, Bank of America said its “initial assessment findings” have shown “the basis for our foreclosure decisions is accurate.”
GMAC’s Olecki wrote in an e-mail, “Again, we have been in the midst of a review for approximately two months and have found no evidence of any inappropriate foreclosures to date.”
A spokesman for PNC Financial said the lender hasn’t changed its position on reviewing foreclosure documents. A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase repeated the bank’s intention to review about 115,000 foreclosure files and delay foreclosure sales.
Monday’s developments won’t speed the foreclosure process in Florida’s overburdened courts, said Alexander Fernandez, director of homeownership preservation for Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida. He noted there are more than 50,000 cases in Broward County alone that are still pending. And renewed cases, he said, would probably go to the back of the line.
Foreclosure defense attorneys questioned how the process can be re-started. “Do they simply get to resubmit the document and go on like nothing happened?” said Matthew Weidner, a St. Petersburg foreclosure defense attorney.
Beyond Florida, Bank of America said it would continue its halt of foreclosure sales in the 27 states that do not handle foreclosures through the judicial system.
Reprinted courtesy of the Florida Sun-Sentinel and Florida Realtors: http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=248980
Foreclosures in Florida: Remedies, Defenses, and Lender Liability
The mortgage foreclosure crisis in Florida: a 21st century solution.: An article from: Florida Bar Journal
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Foreclosure investigation growing, state official says
Plantation firm asks judge to toss subpoenas
By Diane Lade, Sun Sentinel
A lawyer with the Florida Attorney General's Office urged a Broward County judge Tuesday to allow the state to continue its investigation of a giant South Florida foreclosure law firm, saying regulators were uncovering "substantial, egregious activity."
Jeffrey Tew, representing the law offices of David J. Stern in Plantation, argued the state had no right to subpoena documents from the firm under the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act because the company did not advertise to or directly deal with borrowers. Stern's operation, one of four being investigated by the attorney general, prepares foreclosure paperwork for lenders and loan servicers.
"I think it's laughable to contend that any of [Stern's] lawyers engaged in trade or commerce with anyone who was being foreclosed on," Tew told Judge Eileen O'Connor.
But Theresa B. Edwards, assistant attorney general, said the state has the right to investigate after receiving 200 complaints. "It is a broadening investigation," said Edwards, noting regulators have taken 100 sworn affidavits and looked at complaints going back as far as five years.
One claim being examined was that the foreclosure firms were giving kickbacks to the loan servicers, Edwards said. Tew called the allegation "totally untrue."
O'Connor is expected to issue a ruling in several days.
Three of the four firms under investigation, which are believed to handle most of Florida's foreclosures, are fighting their state's subpoenas. Attorney General Bill McCollum lost the first round last week when a Palm Beach County judge denied the action against Shapiro & Fishman of Boca Raton, saying, among other things, that regulating attorneys' actions was the responsibility of The Florida Bar or the court system.
Tew made the same claim Tuesday, although he focused on the deceptive trade statute. McCollum has asked for another hearing in the Palm Beach County case.
The state also is taking a hard look at lenders and servicing companies handling foreclosures and home loans. Complaints continue to mount about sloppy paperwork and "robosigners," the nickname for employees who have testified they signed documents — sometimes thousands a month — without verifying they were true or the figures accurate.
McCollum sent letters Tuesday to five major lenders and loan servicers: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Ally Financial's GMAC mortgage unit, PNC Financial Group and Litton Loan Servicing. He asked them to meet with him in Tallahassee "as soon as possible."
The partial or complete halt some of these companies have placed on their foreclosures, evictions or sales over the past several weeks is "counterproductive to obtaining the swift solution necessary," McCollum said. Reopening the foreclosure cases "may take many months, even years, given the state of our overburdened court system," he said, stalling the state's economic recovery.
Banking officials earlier this week were predicting the foreclosure reviews could be finished within two weeks to a month.
Peter Zalewski, a principal at the Bal Harbour-based CondoVultures consulting firm, said the lenders' foreclosure moratoriums could seriously slow real estate sales in South Florida. A third of the listings here are foreclosures or short sales.
GMAC spokesman James Olecki did not comment on McCollum's request but said the company has hired independent consultants to review its foreclosure process nationwide. Representatives of Chase and Bank of America said they would work with state attorneys general nationwide. State regulators, led by the Iowa attorney general, are launching a foreclosure task force this week.
PNC Financial did not comment on McCollum's request but said the company was reviewing its foreclosure procedures. Litton could not be reached for comment after several attempts to reach the company by telephone.
Deerfield Beach foreclosure defense attorney Peter Ticktin said state or federal agencies were welcome to examine 150 depositions from cases his firm had handled over the past year and a half, each involving robosigners. Ticktin piled the files, forming a small mountain, on top of a glossy marble table before calling a news conference in his office Tuesday.
Ticktin said the employees mostly were unaware they were committing perjury when verifying documents they never had seen were true, in part because some were so poorly trained. One signing agent was a beauty school graduate, he said, another a truck driver.
The servicers "were looking for [employees] with little or no secondary education who wouldn't question the banks," Ticktin said. "What we are looking at is nothing less than a conspiracy."
Reprinted courtesy of Florida Sun Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-foreclosure-stern-20101012,0,6231808.story
By Diane Lade, Sun Sentinel
A lawyer with the Florida Attorney General's Office urged a Broward County judge Tuesday to allow the state to continue its investigation of a giant South Florida foreclosure law firm, saying regulators were uncovering "substantial, egregious activity."
Jeffrey Tew, representing the law offices of David J. Stern in Plantation, argued the state had no right to subpoena documents from the firm under the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act because the company did not advertise to or directly deal with borrowers. Stern's operation, one of four being investigated by the attorney general, prepares foreclosure paperwork for lenders and loan servicers.
"I think it's laughable to contend that any of [Stern's] lawyers engaged in trade or commerce with anyone who was being foreclosed on," Tew told Judge Eileen O'Connor.
But Theresa B. Edwards, assistant attorney general, said the state has the right to investigate after receiving 200 complaints. "It is a broadening investigation," said Edwards, noting regulators have taken 100 sworn affidavits and looked at complaints going back as far as five years.
One claim being examined was that the foreclosure firms were giving kickbacks to the loan servicers, Edwards said. Tew called the allegation "totally untrue."
O'Connor is expected to issue a ruling in several days.
Three of the four firms under investigation, which are believed to handle most of Florida's foreclosures, are fighting their state's subpoenas. Attorney General Bill McCollum lost the first round last week when a Palm Beach County judge denied the action against Shapiro & Fishman of Boca Raton, saying, among other things, that regulating attorneys' actions was the responsibility of The Florida Bar or the court system.
Tew made the same claim Tuesday, although he focused on the deceptive trade statute. McCollum has asked for another hearing in the Palm Beach County case.
The state also is taking a hard look at lenders and servicing companies handling foreclosures and home loans. Complaints continue to mount about sloppy paperwork and "robosigners," the nickname for employees who have testified they signed documents — sometimes thousands a month — without verifying they were true or the figures accurate.
McCollum sent letters Tuesday to five major lenders and loan servicers: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Ally Financial's GMAC mortgage unit, PNC Financial Group and Litton Loan Servicing. He asked them to meet with him in Tallahassee "as soon as possible."
The partial or complete halt some of these companies have placed on their foreclosures, evictions or sales over the past several weeks is "counterproductive to obtaining the swift solution necessary," McCollum said. Reopening the foreclosure cases "may take many months, even years, given the state of our overburdened court system," he said, stalling the state's economic recovery.
Banking officials earlier this week were predicting the foreclosure reviews could be finished within two weeks to a month.
Peter Zalewski, a principal at the Bal Harbour-based CondoVultures consulting firm, said the lenders' foreclosure moratoriums could seriously slow real estate sales in South Florida. A third of the listings here are foreclosures or short sales.
GMAC spokesman James Olecki did not comment on McCollum's request but said the company has hired independent consultants to review its foreclosure process nationwide. Representatives of Chase and Bank of America said they would work with state attorneys general nationwide. State regulators, led by the Iowa attorney general, are launching a foreclosure task force this week.
PNC Financial did not comment on McCollum's request but said the company was reviewing its foreclosure procedures. Litton could not be reached for comment after several attempts to reach the company by telephone.
Deerfield Beach foreclosure defense attorney Peter Ticktin said state or federal agencies were welcome to examine 150 depositions from cases his firm had handled over the past year and a half, each involving robosigners. Ticktin piled the files, forming a small mountain, on top of a glossy marble table before calling a news conference in his office Tuesday.
Ticktin said the employees mostly were unaware they were committing perjury when verifying documents they never had seen were true, in part because some were so poorly trained. One signing agent was a beauty school graduate, he said, another a truck driver.
The servicers "were looking for [employees] with little or no secondary education who wouldn't question the banks," Ticktin said. "What we are looking at is nothing less than a conspiracy."
Reprinted courtesy of Florida Sun Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-foreclosure-stern-20101012,0,6231808.story
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Wells Fargo pays $24M to End Mortgage Probe
WASHINGTON (AP) – Oct. 8, 2010 – Wells Fargo is paying $24 million to end an investigation by eight states probing whether lenders acquired by the company made risky mortgages to consumers without disclosing their perils.
The states said loans known as option adjustable rate loans, or “pick-a-payment” mortgages, were deceptive to borrowers. Those particularly toxic loans allowed borrowers to defer some of their interest payments and add them to the principal balance. Borrowers could make payments so low that loan debt actually increased every month.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. announced the agreement Wednesday with attorneys general in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas and Washington state.
The loans were made by Wachovia Corp. and a California company it acquired, World Savings Bank. Wells purchased Wachovia at the end of 2008. Wachovia had already stopped making those loans before the acquisition was complete.
As part of the agreement, Wells has agreed to offer loan assistance worth more than $770 million to more than 8,700 borrowers through June 2013, though that amount will depend on how the economy fares during that time. The $24 million will be used to help states reach out to customers who took out such loans.
The agreement includes no admission of wrongdoing by Wells Fargo. The states’ investigation centered on allegations that consumers were misled about the possibility that their mortgage amounts would increase.
Such “pick-a-payment” loans were made by many large lenders during the housing boom, but have defaulted in massive numbers after the market went bust.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who led the investigation, said the loans were aggressively marketed in ways that misled borrowers by not making it clear that their mortgage amounts could increase.
This type of exaggeration caused many homeowners ... (to) take out these loans believing there were no risks,” he said.
Wells said the program will have no impact on its third-quarter financial results. It said “pick-a-payment” customers already have received about $3.4 billion in principal forgiveness.
Borrowers who already have received a loan modification from Wells will not be eligible for the new program. For information, call Wells at 1-888-565-1422.
The states said loans known as option adjustable rate loans, or “pick-a-payment” mortgages, were deceptive to borrowers. Those particularly toxic loans allowed borrowers to defer some of their interest payments and add them to the principal balance. Borrowers could make payments so low that loan debt actually increased every month.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. announced the agreement Wednesday with attorneys general in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas and Washington state.
The loans were made by Wachovia Corp. and a California company it acquired, World Savings Bank. Wells purchased Wachovia at the end of 2008. Wachovia had already stopped making those loans before the acquisition was complete.
As part of the agreement, Wells has agreed to offer loan assistance worth more than $770 million to more than 8,700 borrowers through June 2013, though that amount will depend on how the economy fares during that time. The $24 million will be used to help states reach out to customers who took out such loans.
The agreement includes no admission of wrongdoing by Wells Fargo. The states’ investigation centered on allegations that consumers were misled about the possibility that their mortgage amounts would increase.
Such “pick-a-payment” loans were made by many large lenders during the housing boom, but have defaulted in massive numbers after the market went bust.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who led the investigation, said the loans were aggressively marketed in ways that misled borrowers by not making it clear that their mortgage amounts could increase.
This type of exaggeration caused many homeowners ... (to) take out these loans believing there were no risks,” he said.
Wells said the program will have no impact on its third-quarter financial results. It said “pick-a-payment” customers already have received about $3.4 billion in principal forgiveness.
Borrowers who already have received a loan modification from Wells will not be eligible for the new program. For information, call Wells at 1-888-565-1422.
Reprinted courtesy of FloridaRealtors and The Associated Press: http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=248603
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press, Alan Zibel, AP real estate writer. Associated Press Writer Paul Davenport contributed to this report from Phoenix.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Foreclosure Freeze Slows South Florida's Residential Real Estate Sales
As banks suspend foreclosures, sales crucial in South Florida's troubled real estate market are in limbo.
By Toluse Olorunnipa
The decision by three major banks to freeze foreclosures will buy distressed homeowners months of extra time and temporarily block lenders from reclaiming homes.
But it also threatens to buckle South Florida's home sales.
Bank-owned properties make up about 40 percent of home sales in South Florida, and suspensions by JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and GMAC could deliver a debilitating blow to that crucial segment of the embattled real estate market.
``People don't realize that this is our market,'' said Matthew Murray, a Realtor with Pat Dahne Realty Group who specializes in bank-owned sales. ``It's what's selling. If you delay the process, it's going to delay the recovery.''
There are mounting reports of approved foreclosure sales being stopped pre-closing, and buyers being left in limbo as banks try to deal with exposed ``robo-signers'' and unverified affidavits.
As the foreclosure moratoriums play out, a slowdown in low-priced, bank-owned properties coming through the pipeline could further hamper sales in South Florida, which depends on foreclosures more than most parts of the country.
The lenders have put the brakes on their foreclosure operations after bank employees and affiliates confessed they had been individually signing thousands of legal documents each month without verifying the details of the cases. Those documents, which contain crucial information like the amount owed and the owner of the note, have sparked allegations that thousands of foreclosure filings are tainted by fraud and forgery.
As paperwork issues stall sales, the hottest sector of the local market -- bank-owned properties, or so-called REOs -- lies at risk of going cold.
Together, the three lenders represent nearly a third of the local REO market. Bank of America, for example, has nearly 500 REO properties listed for sale in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to its website. GMAC, now known as Ally Financial, has at least 200 REOs in South Florida and JP Morgan has at least 250. Many of those properties have buyers and are currently pending sales, the banks' websites show. Other banks could follow suit in stopping foreclosure sales, although Wells Fargo announced Wednesday that it would not go that route.
IN LIMBO
Realtor Matthew Murray pointed out that most of his sales have not yet been affected, but other Realtors said bank suspensions have left some current sales in limbo and the future of the REO market uncertain.
Ashton Coleman, a Realtor with Keller Williams, planned to close on the sale of a North Bay Village condo this Friday before he got a letter from Bank of America saying the sale was being stalled.
``We figured that it would be fine since the bank already owned the property, but we figured that the bank probably found something wrong,'' Coleman said. ``The bank will be delaying [the sale] for at least 15 days, and for as many as 90 days.''
GMAC sent out letters to real estate agents last month alerting them that pending REO sales would be delayed an additional 30 days, Realtors said.
Anthony Askowitz, who has a few pending deals on GMAC-owned properties in Miami, said many of his buyers are investors, and have been willing to wait.
``If it's an investor, the investor is going to be able to handle it a lot easier than someone who has to move out of their current home by a certain date,'' said Askowitz, a broker and owner of two Re/Max offices.
But the depths of the foreclosure mess have not fully been uncovered, and no one knows for sure how long it will take lenders to clear up paperwork problems and re-start the foreclosure machine. With banks facing new calls for federal investigations and full-on foreclosure moratoriums, 30 days might not be enough.
HIGH-LEVEL CALLS
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Al Franken and Florida Congressman Alan Grayson are among those calling for bank probes and foreclosure halts across the U.S.
Most REO sales contracts have provisions that allow banks to halt a sale if issues come up concerning the property's title, said Murray, who added that has happened to him just twice in 20 years.
``The only way that happens is if they can't give you free and clear marketable title,'' he said.
Banks have authority to push these sales back for months, but not all buyers will be willing to hang around. Bank-owned properties are often abandoned and unkempt, and the longer a home stays empty, the more vulnerable it is to vandalism and disrepair, which can affect the home's value.
``It's in the bank's best interest to get this rectified as soon as possible,'' Askowitz said. ``So I don't think that this is going to drag on.''
Dennis Donet, a Miami foreclosure defense attorney, said that the despite the banks' desire to fix things quickly, legal battles could stall foreclosure sales for a year or more.
One of his clients recently learned that the sale of his foreclosed property was being canceled by its new owner GMAC, because of problems with the lender's foreclosure affidavit. Jeffrey Stephan, the GMAC employee who signed the affidavit, was exposed last month as a so-called ``robo-signer'' during a deposition. Stephan said he had signed more than 10,000 foreclosure documents each month, indicating that he had not taken the time to verify the details of each case.
LONG-TERM ISSUE
Donet has been talking with attorneys that represent banks, and said the general consensus is that questionable affidavits and lost documents will leave foreclosures hanging in the balance for a long time to come.
``There isn't anybody saying that this isn't going to be at least a six-month to one-year delay on the process,'' he said. ``Anything that interrupts the flow of capital is bad for the community.''
Reprinted courtesy of The Miami Herald: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/06/v-fullstory/1861253/foreclosure-freeze-slows-home.html
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
PayBox.me - The New PayPal? Free $50 to Find Out
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For those of us who were online when PayPal first hit the scene, we remember the incentives that they offered to get folks to join their service. PayPal paid a referral fee for every person a member referred who joined their new 'revolutionary' service. While it certainly helped expand PayPal's reach in an effective and viral way, it also was a very lucrative referral system for those who referred their friends; a win-win scenario.
There is a new service now on the scene called PayBox. PayBox is in their pre-launch phase with the launch anticipated to be in 2011. As with any financial service, they need to have a solid customer base before they officially get off the ground.
As an incentive for new members, PayBox.me is offering
$50 Free just for signing up.
In addition, by logging in frequently to help them expand the service during the pre-launch phase, they'll pay you up to $20 per day.
Furthermore, earlybird users who refer their friends receive
$5 for every new member they refer.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, so what's the catch?
Best I can tell thus far, the only catch is that you have to actually log into your account on a weekly basis to keep in active during the pre-launch phase. When you sign up, they don't ask for any proprietary information (no social security number, no year of birth, no first born). All you do is create a username and password and then subscribe to their blog. Simple.
My wife and I signed up and thus far everything is going as they've described. With any luck, PayBox.me will have a successful launch and we'll have an alternative to PayPal... which could mean that PayPal will finally have some competition and will have to reduce some of their fees.
Click Here to Visit the PayBox website or to Join Free and Receive $50:
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South Florida house prices: 'Price Reduced' becoming the new normal
As South Florida house prices are reduced, thousands of dollars in phantom equity disappear.
By Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel 6:37 p.m. EDT, October 4, 2010
The "Price Reduced" sign in front of a house is showing up more and more on properties listed for sale in South Florida .
The percentage of homes with price reductions in Palm Beach County has risen to 26 percent of the market compared with 22 percent at the beginning of the year, according to the real estate research firm Trulia Inc. In Broward County, the percentage inched up to 18 percent from 16 percent.
Of the homes listed for sale in select ZIP codes in early September, the proportion with the wet blanket of a price cut ranged from 6 percent in Boynton Beach to 30 percent in Boca Raton andHighland Beach. And the average size of those discounts ranged from 7 percent in Boynton to 14 percent in Boca/Highland Beach.
In Broward, 14 percent of the listings in Coral Springs/Parkland had price reductions, while a quarter of the listings in Fort Lauderdale had price cuts. The average size of the reductions in those areas was 11 percent.
With the posting of every new "Price Reduced" sign on a street, thousands of dollars in phantom equity disappear.
"What we look at is the potential wealth lost, and the amount of equity they [homeowners] thought they had and didn't," said Ken Shuman, a spokesman for Trulia. "But if you live on a street with five houses for sale, and three are bank owned, you're going to have to adjust your price."
Discounts have become commonplace in South Florida . The median sales price in Broward fell last month to $206,700, about what it was in early 2004. In Palm Beach County, the median dropped to $227,800, a price last seen in 2003.
Michael Citron, a real estate agent for RE/MAX ParkCreek in Coconut Creek, said the first 30 to 45 days are the most important for a new listing.
If it's priced too high, it won't get any offers, forcing the buyer to cut the price. A house with multiple price reductions tells buyers that something's wrong, Citron said.
He said many sellers often have unrealistic expectations about their asking prices. "I always tell my sellers to price the home at or ahead of the market so they don't have to chase the market," Citron said.
If you have to unload the property as a "short sale" — that is, for less money than is owed on the mortgage — some agents suggest dropping your price 5 percent to 10 percent every seven to 10 days. Those attempting to sell a moderately priced home under ordinary circumstances should look at the competition in the neighborhood and adjust accordingly.
Reprinted courtesy of The Sun-Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/os-house-price-breaks-zip-20100927,0,381799.story
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