Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Time Management in a Nutshell - Being more

My Brother who is a successful Short Sale Negotiator and Realtor ran across these, and we both think they are really good tips. By the way, we both work together on real estate & short sales.


Time Management in a Nutshell 

Be prepared to make drastic changes. Be creative to find and introduce
different ways of doing things. Assess what efforts and activities are most
productive, and which are not.

Manage your emails and phone calls - don't let them manage you. Ideally
check at planned times, and avoid continuous notification of incoming emails.

Really think about how you currently spend your time. If you don't know,
keep a time log for a few days to find out. Knowing exactly what's wrong is
the first step to improving it.

Challenge anything that could be wasting time and effort, particularly habitual
tasks, meetings and reports where responsibility is inherited or handed down
from above. Don't be a slave to a daft process or system.

Plan preparation and creative thinking time in your diary for the long-term
jobs, because they need it. The short-term urgent tasks will always use up all
your time unless you plan to spend it otherwise.

You must plan time slots for unplanned activities - you may not know exactly
what you'll need to do, but if you plan the time to do it, then other important
things will not get pushed out of the way when the demand arises.

Use the 'urgent-important' system of assessing activities and deciding
priorities. Important is more important than Urgent.

When you're faced with a pile of things to do, go through them quickly and
make a list of what needs doing and when. After this handle each piece of
paper only once. Do not under any circumstances pick up a job, do a bit of it,
then put it back on the pile.

Do not start lots of jobs at the same time - even if you can handle different
tasks at the same time it's not the most efficient way of dealing with them, so
don't kid yourself that this sort of multi-tasking is good - it's not.

For all your real estate sales, home short sale selling needs contact Chad Stewart - Rockford Realty Group. Realtor & licensed mortgage broker - short sale consultant.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Foreclosure VS Short Sale

This is general information & concepts. I suggest talking with an attorney or tax professional....
Short sales can be very complex...  Often borrowers tell the Bank to “just foreclose” either as an act of desparation or as a negotiation tactic, but in reality, Short sale agreement is a much better way to go, and come careful planning & consulting by Realtors, Attorneys, and Tax professionals can get you into a much better position in the long run. 

There will come a point where it will be well worth accepting a Short Sale on the 1st mortgage and a settlement or small payoff plan on the 2nd mortgage…. Here is why…


Short Sale
First Mortgage often forgives substantial amount in writing , IRS tax free per current short sale laws.
Offers from 2nd mortgage are often in the form of cash settlement or as a payment plan option in writing, and IRS tax free as well.


Foreclosure
2nd mortgage rights to the property are “wiped away”, but they usually retain rights to a deficiency judgment.
1st mortgage, especially in down markets have filing for a motion for deficiency after the foreclosure sale, this often results in a certified court judgment for the deficiency, in many cases this can be hundreds of thousands of dollars (not cool)

 In reality, Short sale agreement is a much better way to go. Massive settlement on the first mortgage gets done, and you can continue to work in the 2nd mortgage, or often even the 2nd mortgage is settled at closing.

Again, these are general concepts & information. Every lender can be different, Every investor can be different, and I reccommend contacting qualified professionals to assist you with your real estate Short Sale.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act and Debt Cancellation - Short Sales

There are alot of Questions regarding Short Sales & the IRS taxes afterwards...

Regarding the IRS taxes, right now there is an Act called Mortgage forgiveness and debt relief act..
The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 generally allows taxpayers to exclude income from the discharge of debt on their principal residence. Debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as mortgage debt forgiven in connection with a foreclosure, qualifies for the relief.

From this link…

·       HomeOwners:
 Qualified principal residence indebtedness: This is the exception created by the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 and applies to most homeowners.

Investors:

·         Insolvency: If you are insolvent when the debt is cancelled, some or all of the cancelled debt may not be taxable to you. You are insolvent when your total debts are more than the fair market value of your total assets.

I would recommend checking with your accountant on this regarding the Insolvency category, and if it would apply. .

If not, you also may be able to take a Capital Loss that would usually cover the short sale “Income”.. See info here