Noemi Cardoso's Q&A

Happening this Sunday 03/29/09 from 1 to 3pm.Directions: Main Road right acroos from new Partners.

Unfortunatly they can. When on a short sale situation the bank has control of the situation and does not have to accept the amount offered.Keep your eye on the property tough. I had a short sale that we asked the bank to accept an offer for 450k on a property with a mortgage balance of 475k the bank said no after 3 months of wait. Well 6 months later the property went through the foreclosure process and came back on the market for 375k.Good luck!Noemi

Bank are so overwhelmed with the number of foreclosures that for a while now they just hire and real estate agent to list the property.You should get a buyer agent to solely represent your interest. You also can go straight to the listing agent but remember the listing agent represents the bank and has the bank best interest in mind. So again having an agent that represents you will protect and will work in your best interest.Hope this will help. Good luck.Noemi

You can check the Registry of Deeds for that information. Just keep in mind that the owner might have refinanced after purchase or did a second mortgage. Your Buyer's Agent should be able to help you with that issue.Good Luck!

April 1st. Your mortgage broker should clarify you on that also what your payment will be. Good luck!

Hi JonYou can sign up and pay for Realty Trac or check with agents in your area since many foreclosures are listed with agents with MLS access.Just keep in mind that there many other good deals out there that are not foreclosures since the foreclosures are driving the prices down.My advice would be to find a prefessional Realtor in your area who deals with foreclosures and use his/hers help on guiding you through the process.Hope this will help you.Noemi CardosoRE/MAX On DemandSomerset MA

Hi SpeedypA pre-foreclosure home doesn't necessary means that this home will be foreclosed at all. The current owner might be able to negotiation with the bank to refinance, to re-write the loan with new terms and interest, or just to get up to date with late payments.One way would be to approach the owner which can be very, very awkward since a lot of the owners who are in a hardship situation don't want to talk with anybody and are very agressive at the whole situation.At a pre-foreclosure stage the bank still doesn't owns the property and any negotiation will have to be done with the current ownersthe owner agrees to talk with you and considers an offer that is less what they own it will be a short sale. Which means after the owner accepts the offer it will be submited to the holding bank for final approval. This process can be lenghty. (I had a client who waited for 4 1/2 months for an answer from the holding bank without any guarantee that the bank woud even consider his offer or if other offers would not be accepted creating a bidding war).As you see a short sale requires a lot of cold blood and patience.Of course throughout that process the current owner can manage to catch up with the mortgage and there are no longer a need to sell the home.Good luckNoemi Cardoso

Hi SpeedyYou can find that information at the registry of deeds in your town. Then call banks and try to contact their foreclsoure departments. If you are luck enough to reach a live person who know what you are talking about chances are they wont't even bother talking with you since they are overwhelmed with files to process. The best way to buy a foreclosure will be searching your local newspaper for public auctions and also contacting real estate agents in your area since the majority of banks due to the high number of foreclosures are hiring the services of a professional to unload these properties.Foreclosures properties are sold as is and majority of banks won't give you any disclosures, properties might be winterized and you will be the responsible party to de-winterize and then winterize again, always do your homework since you will be buying a property completely without any history on it. Foreclolsure can easily become a good deal into a dreadfull nightmare so counting with the help of an experienced Real Estate professional (Foreclosure or Short Sale Agent) who will assist you on finding as much information as possible and also helping and guiding you with the paperwork and what to expect will make the whole process much easier and you will still get a good deal.Hope this will help you.Noemi CardosoRE/MAX On DemandSomerset MA