Probably one of the most common questions that I hear negotiating Short Sales in Los Angeles and Orange County, California is:
“Do I have to be behind on my mortgage to do a short sale?”
It is a totally logical and fair question.  Unfortunately, there is no really clear cut answer.  It all depends on your particular [...]

This was a great article from Barrons about Fannie and Freddie.

Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have declined by approximately 90 percent from the previous year and both companies are reporting quarter-over-quarter losses, leading some to believe than a government take-over or complete privatization is imminent.
MAKING SENSE OF THE STORY FOR THE CONSUMER
· According [...]

I regularly deal with a number of large asset management companies and lenders who need to sell off their real estate owned property, often referred to as REO property.  The word on the street is that most are expecting a 100% increase in the number of properties that are going to foreclosure in the next [...]

A great real estate agent and friend of mine, Aaron Simons, sent me this chart about the consequences of a short sale versus a foreclosure.  The chart was developed by the Distressed Property Institute.  I think it does an excellent job of dispelling some myths about short sales and their actual consequences to a borrower.
FORECLOSURE [...]

Well, last Friday was the first time I actually “lost” control with a client.  We have been negotiating a short sale with this one particular client for about 3 weeks making great progress.  In fact, it looks like we will be able to get the approval on the short sale today.  This is a personal [...]

After about a year of actively transforming my real estate practice from the the "old" model to the Real Estate 2.0 model, I have learned a ton, too much to talk about in this one blog post, but I will try and hit the highlights.  It has been an incredible ride and I can honestly [...]

Number 10
I can’t make my house payments but I do have an ability to pay back all or part of the negative equity. Also, I want to preserve my credit score…is a short sale right for me?
Probably not. In cases where the seller can pay back all or part of the negative equity (usually to [...]

I learned an interesting fact the other day from a Countywide Loss Mitigation Negotiator.  These are the people that we work with when we are negotiating a short sale.
This individual said that Countrywide has over 28,000 short sales in process, but only closes about 7% of these.  Wow!!  You know what that means?  Only a [...]

The short sale process, at times, can seem very overwhelming.  The following is a list of items to expect while doing a short sale on your house in the Los Angeles and Orange County, California areas.  Different states and counties have different laws, so this information may or may not pertain to you depending upon [...]

This is a great article on short sales and foreclosures.
Unable to Make Mortgage Payments, Many Give Up
By Kyle Kennedy THE LEDGER
Published: Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 7:40 a.m.

Melanie Odom has spent the past several months fighting to save her husband from lung cancer, and considering the magnitude of that [...]