Buying Again After a Short Sale If your payments have never fallen behind 30 days late and the lender does not require that you pay back the loan, Fannie Mae guidelines may allow you to buy another home immediately. The wait for an FHA loan is 3 years. If your payments are in arrears yet a short sale is granted by your lender, you may qualify to buy another home with a Fannie-Mae backed mortgage within two years, regardless of whether the home is your primary residence. Buying Again After a Foreclosure With certain restrictions, you may be eligible to buy another home in 5 years if the home was your primary residence. Without restrictions, the wait is 7 years. If you are an investor and do not occupy the home, the wait to buy with a Fannie Mae insured loan is 7 years. Affects on Credit... 06/19/2010

Approximately 7.5 million first-lien borrowers fell behind on their mortgage as of March 2010, about 15% of the 51 million total borrowers. Of the 7.5 million, more than 5 million made a payment in the last three months, which means more than 10% of all mortgage borrowers are seriously delinquent, according to the report. Since the US government introduced delays in the foreclosure process, such as the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program many believe the shadow inventory represents the foreclosed inventory that has yet to reach the market, Morgan Stanley measures the “shadow inventory” as the amount of homes that will need to be liquidated through the REO process. The shadow inventory includes all loans behind by 9... 06/01/2010

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm. When the storms of life come upon us - and all of us will experience them - we can rise above them by setting our minds. The storms do not have to overcome us.  We have the ability to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives. We can soar above the storm. Remember, it is not the burdens of life that w... 05/26/2010

Foreclosure is one of the most devastating financial challenges that a family can face and one that many times can be avoided now more than ever. Your lender does not want your property and would rather have the homeowner find a solution so they do not have to foreclose. The options available are many, including but not limited to short sale. Following is a brief explanation of these solutions: Reinstatement A reinstatement is the simplest solution for a foreclosure, however it is often the most difficult. The homeowner simply requests the total amount owed to the mortgage company to date and pays it. This solution does not require the lender's approval and will 'reinstate' a mortgage up to the day before the final foreclosure sale.Forbearance or Repayment Plan A forbearance or repayme... 05/21/2010

Buying Again After a Short Sale If your payments have never fallen behind 30 days late and the lender does not require that you pay back the loan, Fannie Mae guidelines may allow you to buy another home immediately. The wait for an FHA loan is 3 years. If your payments are in arrears yet a short sale is granted by your lender, you may qualify to buy another home with a Fannie-Mae backed mortgage within two years, regardless of whether the home is your primary residence. Buying Again After a Foreclosure With certain restrictions, you may be eligible to buy another home in 5 years if the home was your primary residence. Without restrictions, the wait is 7 years. If you are an investor and do not occupy the home, the wait to buy with a Fannie Mae insured loan is 7 years. Affects on Credit... 05/21/2010

How to Save a Laptop from Liquid Damage from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit If you're tempted to down a soda, water, glass of wine, coffee, or other liquid while typing away at your keyboard, you may end up paying the ultimate price—liquid spilled into your computer from an accidental knock, a few drips or a dropped cup. If this happens, don't panic. Instead, follow these simple instructions as quickly as you can to try to salvage your computer. Steps Shut it off! Immediately remove the battery, the A/C adapter, and unplug the device after the spill. The biggest danger at first is the device shorting out. The electrolytic activity of combining electricity and liquids will begin as soon as the liquid contacts the powered circuits so removing the power and battery immediate... 03/08/2010

What is a 90 day sales promotion? There are a few variations of this sales technique albeit the two most popular being: "I will sell your home in 90 days or my commission is free!" and "I will sell your home in 90 days or I will buy it!" The first one being less risky to the agent for obvious reasons. Many agents balk at these two so called gimmicks because they seem outlandish and of course if true they show-up all the other agents who are not willing to go out on a limb and be gutsy enough to take the risk. These promotions are no different than any other sales promotions, the prospect must meet a certain criteria before being allowed to participate. Would you give a 0% interest rate on a car loan to a customer who has a 500 credit rating? It the same concept. I have found these promo... 01/24/2010

Kings Court West - A private guard gated community located in Kendall, Florida featuring 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a 1 car garage.  Lot sizes are 3600 to 4200 sf with fully gated back yards and beautiful court yard entrances.  Amenities include 2 pools, 4 tennis courts, basketball courts, racquetball, fitness center, gorgeous, mature, meticulously kept landscaping throughout the entire community.   Low monthly maintenance fees ($153.00)!  Rarely listed......  Call Agent for a private viewing 305-215-5564.  Monica LoMonaco. EWM Realtors, Coral Gables, Florida   10/18/2009

A while back I wrote a blog Top ten reasons your short sale will not close. I thought a perfect follow up would be a blog on the tools I use to stay organized and make short sales so simple that you'll wonder why you haven't delved into this niche market sooner. After reading through this post and you still don't want to handle short sales, I will pay a referral fee of 30% for those of you who would like me to handle them for you. I will take the listing and do all the negotiations and get it to closing. No upfront fees (scam) just good old Realtor networking. Did I mention I've gotten 100% approvals on all my short sales? Can't beat perfection. (Southeast Florida Only Please!) First off I want to disclose that I have in no way a relationship with the products or services I am promoting... 09/21/2009

Ok here's the skinny: I represented a buyer (No buyer broker agreement in place, this was a "friend") who was in the market for a cheap REO or short sale. I informed her that REO's and short sales could be a lengthy ordeal. Of course she said she had time. She wanted to take advantage of the exceptional deals out there but was limited by her budget. I showed and showed and showed until she decided on a listing that I had sent her via e-mail that I had taken her to see. We wrote up an offer and sent it in only to wait and wait and wait before I finally was able to contact the listing agent at which time she informed me that all offers require a DU approval. Mind you this was not spelled out in the listing nor when I spoke to her assistant. Well after that was cleared up we sent in the DU... 09/12/2009

10.) You sent in multiple offers to the bank. Put yourself in the bank's shoes, what would you do if you got 3,4,5 or 6 offers on your property? That's right you would wait to see if you get more at higher prices. We all know short sale departments at banks are extremely organized and they can surely keep track of multiple offers (Yes I'm being sarcastic). Oh did I mention accepting and having your seller sign multiple offers is probably a little against the law and at the very least unethically? Third party approval is just a contingency just like an inspection or financing. You wouldn't keep accepting offers if there was an only and inspection contingency right? 9.) You don't call the bank periodically for updates, you rely on them calling you. With literally thousands of short sale o... 08/21/2009

For a pdf version click here       08/14/2009

If you've tried to buy a property lately you know it hasn't been easy. Multiple offers, offers above list price, cash offers and prices that are so high you know they won’t appraise-are all happening with more and more regularity today. It closely resembles the boom of the early 2000's and it's the same type of buyers doing it again with mostly cash.   It seems as though this group of buyers doesn't want to miss out this time around so they are jumping in and artificially inflating an already delicate market. This could spell disaster down the road. Eventually the cash will run out and we will be right back to where we were at a few months ago, but worse.   Sooner or later financing will have to play a role in market stabilization. If agents and banks don't begin entertaining financed o... 08/13/2009

I wrote this article in August of 2007 although it seems as I was being naive about the real trouble we were going to be in, the numbers seem to be working out. Enjoy   The media has reported gloom and doom for the real estate market for some time now. I wanted to take the time and clear some things up about the market as a whole. Real estate is a localized business in nature. What happens in one part of the country doesn’t necessarily affect another. This is true in any market including the one we are in today. There are parts of the country that are enjoying property appreciation and brisk sales. While most of the country is in a market where there are plenty of homes but no buyers, however we must keep this situation in perspective. (You’ll see what I mean at the end of the article.)... 08/13/2009

                        Date MAY 2008 JULY 2009 For Sale 235 145 Sold 10 5 Pended 11 20 Mon of Inv. on Sold 23.5 29 Mon of Inv. on Pended 21.4 7.3 Avg. Act Price $233 $167 Avg. Sld Price $202 $192 Avg. Sq. Ft. Price $142.44 $133.22 Sold/List Diff. % 93% 96% Days On Market 161 47 Median Price $188 $195 Great news for the West Kendall Condo market!  The criteria used for this report included condominiums and townhomes in the 33173 zip code.  Watch for even better reports in the coming months based on an 81% increase in pending sales.  Note also a, Median Price increase of $7.00/sf.... For assistance in buying or selling contact EWM Realtors Agent, Monica LoMonaco at lomonaco.m@ewm.com or visit www.ResidenceMiami.com. Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist and Chairman's Club (top 2% ... 08/10/2009

Released March 31, 2009 - Sales at Kings Court West increase during the first quarter of 2009.  Contact your local EWM Agent Monica LoMonaco at lomonaco.m@ewm.com for information concerning selling or buying property in Kings Court.       Source:  Southeast Florida MLS and Dade County tax records.  Information is deemed to be accurate but not warranted. 04/03/2009

For More Information call: 305-225-5033 If you are looking to purchase a vacation home or a rental property in Kendall, Florida, you should consider hiring a property management company to assist you in looking after your property. Royalty Concierge Services can offer you a wide array of property management services, which are very beneficial to the international or out of state homeowner who needs someone to take complete care of their investment property or vacation home in Florida. When you interview with property management companies in Kendall, you need to find someone that is reliable and trustworthy. When you contract Royalty Concierge, we have the experience on our side, to manage your property. Royalty Concierge will coordinate on your behalf the payments on your utility bills ... 02/12/2009

The rave that seems to be making the rounds in the Real Estate community is the short sale option contract. It goes something like this: A Realtor gets a call from a prospect to list a property for sale which is worth less than owed (Short Sale Scenario). The agent does not want another short sale listing but reluctantly takes it and turns to an investor for help. The investor makes an extremely low offer with an option to sell. He then takes over the short sale negotiation from the agent who has agreed to let him do so. The hitch is that the property is then actively marketed for a higher price while under contract. A buyer is found and a contract is written with the investor as the seller. Once it closes it is immediately sold to the buyer. Of course there are other variables and scen... 01/30/2009

Recently I received an unsolicited e-mail (spam) from someone named Sally Larabee about a very interesting subject. She claimed that Realtors all over the nation will be getting sued for calling themselves experts in short sales, when in fact they haven’t completed not one. It went on to list how this would take place and the only way to avoid it is to take their course (probably at a hefty price). It also states that if you really want to call yourself an expert you need to take their course and prepare yourself.  I thought to myself now wait one minute you just said if I don’t do a bunch of short sales and gain “experience” that I can’t call myself an expert, now you tell me if I take your course you can call yourself an expert. Which one is it? Expertise is not measured by how many t... 01/06/2009

"Joot" is a phone-in transcription service that had simplified many's people life. Here is how it works You simply call a toll free - number (866) JOTT-123, and leave voice-mail reminders for yourself. You set up free basic acoount at Jott.com by providing your cell number and e-mail address. When you want to jot yourself a reminder, you call the toll-free number and leave a voice message tht's transcribed and inmediately sent to your e-mail address ortext-messaged to your cell phone. You can use the service as a recorder quick reminder using the service as a personal assistant, you have 15 seconds to record a message. Five minutes later, the typed message appears in your inbox, or if you'd like in your cell phone. You can upgrade to the Joot Pro for $ 3.95 a month for more features suc... 11/30/2008