What do you do if you are a real estate agent selling homes in an area where no one is buying and foreclosures are rampant? Instead of finding a new job, many real estate agents will specialize as foreclosure real estate agents. This not only keeps them using their real estate skills, but allows them to sell to buyers all over the world. In areas like New York and Florida, the real estate has depreciated so significantly and the dollar value has dropped so much, that foreign investors are looking to buy foreclosed properties in the United States as investments.
When A Realtor Can Help
When a home is in preforclosure, the homeowner can work with a realtor to try to sell the house through a short sale. If the real estate agent specializes in foreclosures, they will have access to investors looking for properties that will provide them a return on their investment, but the lender still has to agree to the short sale. Lenders will want to get the most for the property that they can get to recoup their losses, but the buyer may just want to release the property and clear their credit as best as they can. So, foreclosure real estate agents can use their negotiating skills to help the buyer get out of a tough situation by finding a buyer for the property and negotiating with the bank a short sale. This is something that the average homeowner would not know how to do, but a realtor can do for them.
Get On The Foreclosure Bus
Another way that foreclosure real estate agents work with foreclosures is to provide maximum exposure for foreclosures. Many banks are holding too many foreclosures on their books and want them gone. Investors may come into an area specifically looking to buy foreclosures and have limited time. Foreclosure real estate agents will organize groups of 20 or 30 investors to tour foreclosed in an area. They cultivate leads to help them sell in a soft market and banks may end up making a sale.
Identifying Promising Foreclosures For Investors
Since foreclosure real estate agents are intimately connected to their local markets, they know what the neighborhoods are like and whether a property might be worth looking into. Just because a property is a foreclosure doesn't mean you can't get it inspected, although it may be hard to enter and tour some of the foreclosures that are closer to auction time. In addition to owner-occupied preforclosures, foreclosure real estate agents should be able to identify the Real Estate Owned (REO) properties and HUD ones too in the area.
The Florida real estate foreclosure nightmare is still not over. There are many factors that have contributed to the Florida real estate foreclosure nightmare: adjustable rate mortgages, an over-inflated housing market, and the loss of jobs in a recession. These factors have contributed to one of the worst foreclosure markets in the United States. Even now, banks may feel like throwing up their hands in despair than trying to work out yet another foreclosure problem, seeing that those that could refinance have already done so. With the economy taking a nosedive, temporary solutions that stall foreclosure may not be enough to stall the process long enough to get the homeowner time to regroup and get back on their feet. No one seems to know how long the economy will be in the dumps, but the glut of foreclosed homes in the Florida real estate foreclosure nightmare continues to contribute to the problems there.
The Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Many of the adjustable rate mortgages taken out to finance homes in the Florida area reset, and even more are due to reset in the near future. These loans were sold to customers on the premise that they could refinance should the need arise, but with too many foreclosed homes on the market, the prices of the remaining homes have depreciated. This has left homeowners with a Floridian real estate nightmare that just gets worse over time. Their homes may be worth far less than what they paid for them, if they bought at the height of the housing bubble, and this makes it impossible for them to refinance without making up the difference. Added to that are the potential fees associated with early refinancing and most loan modifications are not within reach of Florida homeowners. This has led to massive Florida real estate foreclosures around the state.
Fallout From Foreclosures
As the foreclosures affected prices, the economy began to sputter reigniting more woes in the Florida real estate foreclosure drama. Housing constructs slowed down and workers were laid off. People moved away to areas with better job prospects leaving jingle mail behind for lenders. The loss of revenue from residents affects small businesses and can cause jittery employers to lay off in anticipation of worse times. Without a job, with rising prices, and falling home values, Floridians are left to wonder whether foreclosure isn't the lesser of all evils. At the point where it became impossible to modify the loan or pay for it even if it was modified, most borrowers simply gave up and moved out.
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