David Barr's Sarasota and Venice Real Estate Blog

I have a full explanation of how short sales work for buyers of Sarasota real estate on my website, www.davidbarrhomes.com/short_sales_buyers. One of the finer points of short sales deserve a more in-depth analysis, namely, the presence of a short sale negotiator in the purchase process. A short sale negotiator can be either a licensed real estate attorney or a title agent, hired by the seller to work with their lender.  The property owner most often pays an upfront fee to their negotiator to begin the process of gathering necessary documentation to present to their lender.  They advocate on behalf of the seller by getting the lender to accept the sale of the property at current market value. Another key role of the short sale negotiator is obtaining a reduction in past due fees to a HOA or condo association is central to a successful short sale. Short sale negotiators do provide a valuable service.  However, in almost every case, the short sale negotiator will...

It goes without saying that short sales are a subject of frustration for home buyers, sellers, and the real estate agents that serve them. One of the most frequent issues I see with buyers is the question of what kind of offer should they make; specifically, can or should a buyer make a low offer on a short sale, hoping to negotiate a better price? Recently, an article came out about lowball offers and their consequences, which you can read here: http://bit.ly/N18Vb4 . I decided to take this article a step further and research what is actually happening in my real estate service area of Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte Counties.  Using MLS sold data, I examined the list price to sales price ratio for short sales.  I took this even further by examining this data by price range.  The data includes all short sales (single family homes, condos, etc.) from January 1 to June 30, 2012. The local data supported the article referenced above.  The sales price was uni...

I just updated my best deals page on davidbarrhomes.com and there's one in particular that has been languishing on the market for over a year. Check out the property on Hawk's Harbor Drive in Bradenton.  This is a waterfront home located just north of SRQ Airport and west of the Trail.  Many homes in this area are on small lots and do not have a pool, but this one does, along with a dock and a boat lift. Do you have a lot of toys?  This home has a 9-car garage.  Need room to spread out?  It has over 5700 of air conditioned living space. The last sale price was over $1.5 million in 2005 and it's listed as a short sale at $725,000.  What a great deal for so much house in such a great location. Interested buyers, contact me with any questions.

This article was linked on the Drudge Report, so it likely got a lot of hits.  The dire headline:  Foreclosure Sales Flood Market. The basic problem with the article is that it relies on Realtytrac.com as a source.  Ugh. Realtytrac is the same thing as Zillow.  They are not a licensed real estate broker, and they do not have access to MLS data.  They scrape the same property tax assessor websites as Zillow.   As we all know, tax values have little to do with actual market values. Apparently, the doom and gloom for this article comes from the fact that local municipalities have recorded a higher number of foreclosures.  This does not mean these foreclosures are even on the real estate market, but the article says this increase is an indicator of a future glut of distressed properties. In the Sarasota and Bradenton real estate market, a year ago there were approximately 5500 short sale and bank owned properties available for sale the MLS....

I represent a lot of buyers, and a recent conversation I had with a short sale listing agent about a possible offer raised a major red flag. My client wanted to make an offer on a short sale listing.  The attachments on the MLS listing directed me to contact the short sale negotiator, who told me they would put together the paperwork for me to send to the buyer to sign with the information I provided.  That sure would would save me a lot of work.  So far, so good! I verbally provided the buyer's offer price and purchase terms.  The short sale negotiator then told me (in writing) the listing agent had to "review the offer and if he was 'comfortable' with it, would then submit to the seller".  Whoa nelly!  The listing agent would not even accept a written offer below a certain amount, which the listing agent set himself. Under FL real estate law, and the Realtor Code of Ethics, it is the responsibility of the listing agent to submit ANY and ALL offers t...

More and more, I believe the answer is NO. If you are considering a short sale, you are likely already in financial stress.  You don't have to pay money to a title company or real estate attorney to handle your short sale for you. The short sale negotiation industry grew out of the need for real estate title companies and attorneys to increase their income as a result of the real estate downturn.  Sharply reduced sales meant sharply reduced revenue.  To make up for this, title companies and real estate attorneys marketed their services to homeowners and real estate agents. The services were marketed to include the mundane tasks most real estate agents can't or won't undertake, including collecting the seller's financial information, disclosures, and keeping constant contact (supposedly daily) with the seller's lender to push the transaction to the head of the line with the lender, who is likely overwhelmed with the volume of short sales and foreclosures. The...