A Bank Executive Explains Slow Response to Short Sale Offers
I recently attended the annual National Association of Realtors’ Conference in New Orleans where I heard a very informative talk on Short Sales by Senior VP at Bank of America, Matt Vernon. He addressed the crowd of Realtors who were very vocal about their frustrations with the amount of time it takes to hear back from a bank when an offer is submitted on a short sale. Mr Vernon explained the decision-making process to us and detailed the efforts his bank has made to improve it.
A bank like Bank of America is the service provider for a loan. It is the bank’s investors that make the ultimate decision about whether to move forward with a loan modification or a short sale. The investors can either decide to maintain control of these decisions or to delegate them back to the bank. Currently, most of Bank of America’s loan’s fall under the non-delegated category meaning that they have to package the loan modification or short sale request as best as possible and then wait for a decision from their investors.
Bank of America admits to being understaffed when the flood of short sale and loan modification requests began a few years back. They have since tripled the number of employees dealing with distressed loans. Mr Vernon stated that BOA is now averaging 50 days for short sale notification. Their ultimate goal is to set up “cooperative short sales” where agents, borrowers and banks are all working together from day one to set the list and acceptable sales price so that the days of waiting on a word from the bank will be over.
It was certainly helpful to hear from Mr. Vernon about the ins-and-outs of the short sale process. Short sales are certainly not going away and it is crucial that banks and their investors get together to solve the problem.
Pinecrest Real Estate Update
Family-friendly Events in Miami for the Weekend of November 13 and 14
The 70th Annual Ramble at Fairchild Tropical Garden
This weekend is one of the classic South Florida events – the Ramble at Fairchild Tropical Garden. Started 70 years ago to raise funds to buy a truck for the new garden, it has grown into a true spectacle. The Ramble Festival offers something for everyone as visitors can browse through a wonderful collection of old and rare books, shop for priceless antiques and collectibles, find that special plant, garden accessory or holiday gift and enjoy delicious food. Where else but The Ramble can you stroll through an artists’ village, watch a woodturner or ceramic artist at work or sit on the grass and listen to the music of a Waterpoorter?
Alice in Wonderland at The Playground Theater
The PlayGround Theatre’s adaptation of Alice Adventures in Wonderland adds a tropical twist to a familiar story. Lewis Carroll’s Alice is a 19th century 7-year-old who lives in the English countryside. The PlayGround’s Alice is a 21st century 11 year-old who lives in metropolitan Miami. While you watch, Alice tackel the challenges of an ever-changing dream world, look for costumes, sounds, objects and images that infuse the classic fairytale with contemporary life.
The PlayGround Theatre offers many plays and other events for children of all ages. Check out their website for other upcoming activities.
Recommended for the whole family. Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)
History Miami Tours & Free Family Day History Miami
Head out and learn about this beautiful city through one of the many tours offered by History Miami (The Historical Museum of South Florida) On November 13 try the Oleta River evening Eco Boat Tour and on November 14 the walking tour of the Bay Harbor Island featuring the area’s MIMO architecture. The tours are always lead by knowledgeable guides well-versed in the history and/or ecology of the area.
Also, on November 13th is one of the ongoing Free Family Days at the museum. From 12-5 stop by to learn about the wonders of Florida’s coral reefs featuring a slide-show and hands-on activities lead by eco-historian Frank Schena
Fun Events This Weekend South of Miami
As the weather is starting to cool down here in Miami, the weekend activities are picking up! Here are a few of my favorites offerings for this weekend:
1. The Kampong Kid’s Concert – Sat. Oct 16th at 1:30.
The Kampong is offering a really fabulous concert for kids. Mr Nick, a well-known performer and music teacher from Coconut Grove will be performing in this breathtakingly beautiful spot. Tickets are a bit steep at $25 for adults and $15 for kids, but you can get a discount if you become a Kampong Fellow by donating to this very special place. This really should be a blast – take your kids and let them run around and dance while you sit back and relax.
2. Stone Crab Season is back starting Friday October 15! Click here for some good places to have a feast.
Read more here
Why it’s important to hire a realtor who sweats the small stuff
We recently listed a property for rent on exclusive Brickell Key in downtown Miami. It was a lovely well-maintained condo with stunning water views. The owner wanted to list it for the highest asking price in the building and he wanted it listed the following day.
If an owner is asking us to list a property at an unreasonably high price, we will usually politely decline the listing. Simply put, we can’t afford to keep it. Paying the cost to market and show a property that probably won’t sell (or won’t sell for a very long time) is not good business.
In order to make that decision, however, we do a lot of research. Some of it is studying the numbers, but we also pay close attention to how other properties in the area are being marketed. In this case, it was astonishing how poorly most of the properties in competition with ours were being showcased on the MLS. Most of the other Realtors did not spend the money to hire professional photographers. The images were dark and made the units look far gloomier and small than they actually are. Many of these condos had sat on the market for a number of months.
We told the owner that we would take the listing and market it at the high price, but he would need to give us a few days so that we’d have a chance to get our photographers in the unit. He agreed, we posted the pictures and activated the listing on Monday and by Tuesday afternoon we had a bidding war between 3 parties. The person who won out had never even seen the unit in person and got the unit for just below the owner’s asking price.
There are many aspects to consider in the marketing and selling or renting of your home. There are many Realtors who will not spend the time or money needed to make your home shine. We will. Call us to find out more.
How will the halt in the foreclosure market effect you?
The latest news about the fraud and mismanagement that has occurred in the foreclosure market is both worrisome and disappointing for those of us in the industry. Just as we are beginning to feel a bit of an upswing in the market we’re hit with more bad news. Virtually everywhere I have gone in the past few days, people have been asking me about it. “Is your business at a standstill?” “How is all of this affecting your bottom line?”.
While the halt in the market will certainly be a setback for the broader South Florida real estate market (and the already damaged reputation of lenders), the fact of the matter is that in many of the areas where we work, foreclosures are few and far between. A recent Miami Herald article stated that over two-thirds of the current inventory in South Florida are bank-owned properties. In Pinecrest, Coral Gables and South Miami combined, however, foreclosures make up a mere 3.7% of the residential properties currently on the market. In these areas only 13.4% of the total sales year-to-date have been foreclosures. *
One of our mantras here at Lowell International Realty is that real estate is local in nature. We read or hear these sweeping statements about the market in the news and they simply don’t always pertain to us – or to you! Whether buying or selling, find someone who really knows and understands what is going on where you live – or want to live. Make sure your Realtor updates you regularly about the trends in the neighborhood where you’re selling or looking to purchase a home. Continue to pay attention to national and state-wide trends – of course it is always good and important to keep the big picture in mind. But know, however, that in Miami-Dade, we have some very unique neighborhoods and circumstances that often times cause us to buck the trends in real estate.
*Data taken from trendgraphix.com & is deemed reliable but not guaranteed
10 Reasons Why You Should Pick Lani Kahn Drody And Her Team To Sell Your Home
1. The focus is on you, the client. Your needs, hopes, & goals are always kept at the forefront of our work.
2. We work using a ‘team’ approach. There is not just one person working on the sale of your home, but rather a team of experts, each well-versed in a particular aspect of real estate sales and marketing with Lani always at the helm.
3. We take the marketing of your home to the next level by using a professional team of photographers, graphic designers, and programmers so that your home stands out from the crowd.
3. We create a website exclusively for your home. (see www.3443percivalave.com) with loads of details, images, area information & much more.
4. Your listing is syndicated on the web via its own website and other portals to:
- 37 other real estate associations in Florida
- It’s translated into 30 language and sent all over the world via www.immobel.com and www.worldproperties.com
- It is sent to popular websites like trulia.com, zillow.com, and realtor.com, and way too many more to name here!
5. Integrity is the cornerstone of our business.
6. We’re passionate about market research. We take the time to stay on top of the real estate statistics in your neighborhood.
7. We keep you informed in whatever way works best for you. Would you rather us call? email? text? We’ll find out.
8. Lani has sold a half billion dollars in her 15 + years of marketing and selling real estate in South Florida
9. Lani is a Miami native who knows the neighborhoods and the history of the area well.
10. Simply put, we are a pleasure to do business with.
Pinecrest vs. Palmetto Elementary – By the Numbers
Pinecrest Elementary School Boundaries
A few days ago, during a debate as to which is the better school, Pinecrest or Palmetto Elementary, a friend of mine asked me for the average price-per-square foot of a home within each of the two boundary areas. While I pretty much knew the answer for the Palmetto school district, I rarely look at the Pinecrest Elementary district as a whole that way and thought it would be interesting to find out.
Some Good News for the Miami-Dade Real Estate Market
This July Miami-Dade bucked the state-wide trend of declining home sales. While the number of homes, condos & townhomes sold in Florida decreased 14% in a month-to-month previous year comparison, Miami experienced an increase in sales of 4%. There was a whopping 77% increase when comparing the number of homes sold this summer with those sold in the summer of 2008.
In continuing good news – the average price of homes sold increased slightly this summer from $162 per-square-foot to $165 per-square-foot and the average number of days properties remained on the market before selling decreased.
Why the good news for us in Miami-Dade? Two of the main factors were probably the large number of international buyers looking to invest in our market and the fact that our higher-than-average property prices mean that the expiration of the first time homeowner’s tax credit probably had less of an impact here than in other parts of the state. Whatever the reasons, it’s a great reminder that real estate trends really are local in nature.
What’s selling? A quick overview of the past 6 months in Miami-Dade real estate
In the past 6 months (March 1 – August 31) in Miami-Dade county 12,196 residential properties sold
- 48% were single family homes
- 52% were townhomes or condos
- 35% were foreclosures
- 24% were short sales
- 89% of the properties sold for less than $499,999
- 7% of the properties sold between $500,000 & $999,999
- 2.2% of the properties sold between $1 million & 1.99 million
- 1.4% of the properties sold for over $2 million
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