The Obama administration is prodding mortgage companies to reduce the monthly payments of millions of Americans at risk of foreclosure, but danger lurks for people trying to grab that lifeline.  Thousands of firms have popped up to charge fees – often more than $1,000 – to negotiate with banks for easier mortgage terms.  In many cases, though, these firms take the homeowner's money but fail to deliver on that promise.   Other firms charging these fees may be legitimate, but there is an alternative:  free advice from counselors certified and subsidized by Uncle Sam.   "Borrowers don't need to pay anybody," says William Apgar, a senior advisor to Shaun Donovan, President Obama's new secretary of housing and urban development.  Borrower's should first try calling their loan services (the firms that send out their monthly bills) for help with their loans, suggests Jack Guttentag, a retired finance professor who offers free mortgage information at his website, www.mtgprofessor.com.   If that does not work, they can try to get a free, government-approved counselor.  Find someone by calling the mortgage industry's "Hope Hotline" at 888-995-4673 or by clicking on www.hopenow.com.  No one has found a way to determine which of the fee-charging firms are legitimate. 

The old cliche’ of the best homes sell first still is holding true as evidenced by our recent pending sale of 7973 Iglesia Drive in Dublin. Everyone who saw this home thought this home was going to sell quickly and it did.

“What is a short sale?”
Simply put, a short sale is a real estate transaction where the homeowner owes their lender more than what their property is worth and they need to sell. In a short sale, the lender must approve and accept less than what they are owed as full payoff (this means they may settle for $600,000, even if you currently owe them $800,000…even if the loss is hundreds of thousands of dollars).

Are you facing a financial hardship that you know will decrease your income?

Are you getting behind on your mortgage and you’re not sure if you can catch up?

Or do you just need to sell quickly but your home is worth less now than when you bought it?

If you are facing any of the situations above, and you think a short sale might be your best option, then read on.

Don’t worry.  It’s not your fault…
You must remember, we’ve all had our ups and downs in life and a lot of other good people are also in the same tough spot as you. Life seems scary when you’re facing the reality of foreclosure and I know how you feel when you just don’t want to answer the phone any more… 

We all agree that we’re in the middle of a national mortgage and economic crisis and that, in many cases, homeowners who have bought or refinanced in the last few years have been seriously abused by unethical lending practices!!

You bought your home and hoped (like we all did) that it would increase in value (and some folks were even promised it would!), but most likely the harsh reality is that now your home is worth less than when you bought it and the value is still declining sharply.

We have helped many homeowners in this position get the help they deserve. 

It’s sad but true!
Did you know that nearly 90% of the homeowners nationwide who try to “short sale” their home will end up losing their home to foreclosure due to an uneducated or lazy Real Estate Agent?

Don’t allow this to happen to you!
I hate to say this about my fellow agents, but the majority of them that are “trying to help” have not been properly trained and sadly, they are misinformed as to how to even negotiate with lenders. Some even get so far as to submit your ’short sale packet’ and then just sit back and wait for a response! In the end, they simply don’t know how to help you and you will become one of those “90%” that were not helped.

“Short sales are not easy!”
…unless you seek the help of an expert agent with a proven track record. We have been personally trained by a former Chief Loss Mitigator who is a career loss mitigator and asset manager with 20 years in the business (he is ultimately the guy at the bank who accepts or declines short sales). We are now helping save even more folks from foreclosure.

We have successfully negotiated short sales for many families and as you can see from our recent approval letters below (we swap out some of our recent approvals every couple months, so you will notice these are up to date) we actually get the banks to say YES to our short sales. Before you agree to have an agent help you sell your home, ask him/her to show you just one short sale approval within the last 6 months… I doubt they can.

Now it’s up to you…

We are ready to go to battle for you. Are you ready to take a serious look at your options and see how a short sale can help you:

• Avoid paying TAXES on the money the bank loses at foreclosure! (Yes, you may have to pay taxes on the amount of loss to the bank if the home goes to foreclosure!)
• Save your credit from the “Foreclosure” ding
• Avoid Bankruptcy
• Avoid Foreclosure
• Relieve the stress that this financial burden has become
• WITH NO OUT OF POCKET FEES OR ANY UP FRONT COSTS OF ANY KIND!  …or in other words, you pay us nothing and if we do our job and save you from foreclosure, only then will we get paid by the lender!

Even the rain could not stop over 35 visitors from coming to my first open house at 7973 Iglesia Drive in Dublin yesterday. Since we anticipated high traffic due to the home being so unique (it offers a complete and fully contained second home on the property), I had 2 team members with me so we were able to talk to each person coming through the home.

The response was terrific and everybody really thought the home was incredible. The kitchen of this home was designed by Jeff’s Kitchen in San Ramon. The rich Cherry wood looks fantastic with the the Black Galaxy granite. The current owners have really put their heart and soul into this home and it really shows.

It was interesting to see the trend continue of more and more buyers coming from the Peninsula and from the South Bay. Let’s face it, the homes are more reasonably priced than what you are going to find on the Peninsula and much newer too!