The home owner needs to contact us for a 5-10 minute consultation about the home, the situation and the timeline for a move. After that, the specifics can be evaluated and a fair offer can be made for the home.

We can close fast – if necessary, within 24 hours – or, we can fit your schedule.

We can take your property in “AS IS” condition.

We can offer you a fair price.

We can work with you on the timing of your move.

We are creative solution providers who can offer you a variety of options to get your home sold quickly with no hassles in Colorado Springs Colorado.

We have solutions for you if your house needs repairs, if you’re relocating, behind on payments, in foreclosure, going through a divorce, being transferred or just want out!
We require no fees or commissions up front. If you are not fully satisfied with the terms of our Agreement, you will never be under any obligation.

All of our transactions are very discrete. No one will ever need to know your situation. Everything is handled with your privacy concerns in mind. Contact us today or leave a comment below.

Currently, when a home owner falls at least 30 days behind on a payment, the bank will start their action plan. The first thing they might do is to order a BPO or broker price opinion. The homeowner will not even know about this but a qualified professional (someone like myself) will drive by the home, take a few photos and then assess the current value of the home. By this time the home owner has been fielding annoying phone calls for about two weeks from the mortgage company. They want to know when they can expect a payment to be made. This is the time to call or contact me about ways to solve the problem.

If you act early in the process it may be possible to modify the loan with the mortgage company. To do this, the home owner must prove that they have good reason to be behind in their payments. Financial statements, pay stubs and all bank statements from the past 3-6 months are then provided to the lender. No lender will approve a loan mod if the borrower has any liquid assets that could be used to pay the payment. This means if you have stocks, bonds or cash not in an IRA or 401K, you need to just go ahead and keep paying. Using the excuse of “my neighbors are not paying so why should I” is not an excuse.

The next and really best option is to put the home on the market for sale and attempt to get an approved short sale done. Most banks are getting better at approving short sales for home owners in distress. Be sure to contact an experienced short sale Realtor that knows how to get the transaction completed. There is much more to a short sale then just getting it under contract with a low price. Having an agent that understands the process is half the battle!

The final thing to do if the above two options have failed or are not possible, is to wait for the foreclosure to occur. As soon as hte sale has happened, the home owner or tenant will have a visit from the listing agent that will be handling the REO listing for the bank. This agent will make an offer of CASH or the occupants to vacate the property. We REO agents call this Cash For Keys or Financial Relocation Assistance. The home owner or tenant must sign a form stating that they agree to move out on a specific date (usually fairly quickly), leave the property in broom-clean condition and then a check will be presented as compensation to the tenant or former owner. Tenants may have the right to stay for up to 90 days if they can provide a copy of their current lease. No rent is paid and the cash offer still applies.

The best thing to do when having trouble with house payments is to make an action plan and contact me for assistance. I specialize in helping distressed home owners solve their mortgage problems. I have seen many different situation and problems get solved but it takes the initial contact to get things started. I have found that the home owners stress level is greatly decreased when I can offer my assistance. Contact me now if you are facing this problem. I am here to help!

No surprise here!

This chart from The Business Insider shows recent activity for the major US loan servicers for loan modifications.  It just so happens that my servicer, Bank of America is failing (just my opinion) at their attempt to modify mortgages in their portfolio. According to this chart, BOA is offering loan mods to only 21% of eligible borrowers! That’s right only 21%! What happened to the Making Home Affordable program set up by our president and his genius staff???

I have a loan serviced by BOA so I gave them a call a few months ago to talk about doing a loan mod to make my loan more affordable. That was in May 2009 and this is now November. No word from them officially but I did make a few follow up calls only to be told that I did not qualify for their program. They can’t seem to tell me exactly how I can qualify for the program either. Bottom line here is that they don’t really want to modify loans. My revenge will be to just get busy and pay off my mortgage as soon as possible. I will feel vindicated knowing that I took as much interest income away from them as possible!

Scan the chart and see that the other major banks are not doing much better. Citi is modifying 50% and Wells Fargo is at 41%. Not good but better than BOA.

This data tells me that home owners who hope to modify their loan in order to avert a crisis will have to go to Plan B. If you are facing financial difficulty, please contact me now. There are other things that we can do to save your credit if a loan mod cannot be done. The best solution would be a short sale. I am experienced in short sale transactions and the odds of getting to closing are improving daily. For details on how to modify a mortgage or to list your home for sale, please contact me. I am here to help you!

Real Help!

Many Colorado Springs home owners are under great stress right now while trying to stay current with their mortgage. Home values have dropped considerable in many parts of the city leaving those who need to sell their homes in a real bind!

We Have A Solution!

Our office has cash buyers waiting to buy homes in Colorado Springs right now! They understand the pitfalls and hassle of buying short sales and are willing to wait for offers to be approved by banks and lending institutions.

What Is A Short Sale and How Can It Help You?

A short sale is a real estate term meaning a “short payoff” or “preforeclosure workout” with your lender. If you owe more than your home is worth you have two options: bring a lot of money to the closing table or do a short sale. The short sale is negotiated between you and your mortgage lender. The lender will agree to accept less than the origianl amount that is owed on the property when it is sold to a third party. This releases the borrower from the mortgage obligation and prevents foreclosure.

What Are The Benefits of A Short Sale?

The short sale is done at absolutely no cost to the home seller. The bank will agree to pay all of the real estate fees and closing costs for the seller. Our services to you are absolutely free!

A short sale can help preserve your credit. When a homeowner has a foreclosure on their credit, it can be damaged for at least 7 years. Short sales are much less hazardous to your credit health!

Stress can cause real health problems! We know that seller’s facing foreclosure have extremely high stress levels while just trying to keep it all together.  Our services are discreet and will help take the load off of your shoulders during this time.

How Do I Sell My Home With A Short Sale?

Simple–call eSaleHomes Realty now at 719-264-7777! We will evaluate your home and its present value. We will asses your situation and present a plan of action. This will allow you to understand the process and how we can help.

Feel free to leave a comment or contact us. We are here to help.

Hire a Pro

The first rule of thumb when you are thinking of selling a home in Colorado Springs will be to choose a top real estate agent. That agent will do a current market analysis to determine your home’s value. Once you settle on the agent, price and terms, the home is listed in the MLS for all the world to see.

Colorado Springs home listings are now published on the Internet so that people who want to search for homes can do just that. Make sure that you have a chance to review public comments posted on the listing that your new agent submits. Many times we see that private type of comments are put in the public section of the remarks that only licensed Realtors should see. If your situation indicates a distressed type of sale, you might not want the world to see that info.

Lock, Stock and Barrel

The lock boxes that we use to gain access to homes are now very high tech. The box in use by agents who are members of PPAR, is the most secure that we have available. Agents must use a special key pad that is updated every night via phone link. If for some reason an agent has violated the rules or is a security risk, they will be “locked out” of the system. If the key cannot be updated, the home lockbox will not open.

In some cases a combination lockbox might be used. This is almost the same as just leaving your home unlocked! Many agents use the same code on all of their listings. Some do not even bother to change the code from the one set by the manufacturer. If your agent’s office does not have a very secure system for setting up a showing, it is very easy to obtain the code and gain access to your home while you are away.

I recommend that all home sellers leave their homes during showings. This gives the buyer and their agent time to really view the home without the seller looking over their shoulder. Having a good secure access system gives all Colorado Springs home sellers piece of mind and safety.

For more info on safely selling your home, leave a comment below or contact me.

In recent years many people calculated their wealth based on the equity in their homes. If you bought your home in the past few years, that equity has declined at a rapid pace. The good news for those that can stay put for a while is that the market will improve over time.

Be Prepared!

If you think you might need to sell your home using a short sale, don’t wait to get started. Short sales can take a long time depending on the lender that holds your loan. Many times homeowners will spend too many months in denial before finally contacting me to talk about a short sale. If your home has an FHA loan, the bank will want 90+ days prior to the foreclosure sale date to submit the completed short sale package. This means that if you have waited too long to get started, the short sale won’t have time to be completed before foreclosure.

Get organized

The first thing to do after speaking with a qualified Short Sale Realtor is to get your paperwork in order. Think of this as having to un-qualify for a mortgage. You will need lots of documentation to prove that you need to sell the home and have a big portion of the loan forgiven. Some of the things you are going to need are: financial statements, pay stubs, real estate listing agreement, copy of the MLS listing etc. I recommend that you contact the lender directly to find our exactly what they need for your case, then make a special file for everything so that when the time comes we can submit the entire package together.

Be wary!

In Colorado Springs there are many “Short Sale Vultures” lurking around looking for distressed homeowners. They often have investors waiting to buy your home with the intent of selling it immediately to another buyer at a much high price. Be very careful here! If this is not fully disclosed to your bank, you could be held liable as part of this potentially fraudulent scheme. I see these situations every day and see this as a major problem. Call a reputable Realtor, not one of these people that have flimsy signs at road intersections.

Get your home ready!

The Colorado Springs real estate market is highly competitive. Even if your home is priced way below the market value, it still needs to be staged and ready for showings. Make it easy and appealing for buyers to view your home. They can buy other homes. Your home needs to stand out as special. Remember, the short sale process is a big hassel for the buyer and especially their agent. Most agents do not have the patience to wait for a short sale to be approved. If it falls apart, they have to take the buyer out again to find a new home. This means twice the work for them. The buyer needs to be very in love with your home to make it worthwhile to wait for the short sale approval.

Choose your Realtor Wisely

When selecting an agent, make sure the agent has successfully completed short sales before! Don’t just work with your neighbor’s brother’s friend because they need the business or you met them at the BBQ last week. Make sure the agent is aggressive, professional and knowledgeable. Gone are the days when an agent could just put a home in the MLS. Selling a home in today’s market requires much more than that. I am experienced in short sales. I know how to communicate with banks–I do it every day!

Following these simple guidelines will give you an edge in selling your home in today’s Colorado Springs real estate market. Contact me or leave a comment below if you need help selling your home using the short sale option.

Smart Shoppers pay attention

Really, why would anyone pay more than 4% to sell their home? We ask ourselves that question all the time!

At eSaleHomes Realty we only charge 4% to sell your home! That’s right–just 4%.  No gimmicks, just a low price.

We offer full service plus cutting edge marketing.  Think about it–does your last real estate agent even have a blog like this?  I am betting they aren’t even on Facebook yet!  We are!  We promote all of our listings there as well.

Disount Broker is not a dirty word

If you talk to traditional full cost brokers, they might try to tell you that we can’t do what we do.  False!  They might try to convince you that other brokers won’t show your home if listed with a low commission brokerage.  False!  We do deals with every company in Colorado Springs!  They actually enjoy working with us. Don’t be fooled or guilted into paying more just because a slick saleperson says you should.

Out with the old

Back in the real estate dark ages, we used newspaper ads and flyers to market homes. In case you haven’t heard, newspapers are going out of business at an alarming rate. The owner of our local newspaper, the Gazette,  filed for bankruptcy this week. That tells me that nobody reads it anymore!

We concentrate our marketing efforts in new and interesting ways.  You might be surprised at what we do and how we do it!  Don’t pay more for less!

Give us a call or comment below. We would love to chat with you!

Radon is a major issue in the sale of homes these days. Lots of buyers are now testing for and finding radon levels that are higher than the EPA standard. When a high radon reading is found, the buyer asks the seller to install a mitigating system. These systems can cost between $800 and $1000.

Recent Issue

I recently had a transaction where radon was found (suburban Aurora, CO–nowhere hear the foothills). They buyer naturally asked the seller to provide a system to mitigate the high radon level. The seller declined the request saying that she had already come down enough on the price and would not pay for that item. The bad news is that now the buyer has walked from the deal and the seller will have to disclose to all potential buyers that Radon has been found in the home. Most likely, they will have to install the system.

The key issue here is that the seller might have had a test done prior to listing the property for sale. This way, the high level could have been found and the system would have been installed. The seller would have then included this cost in the sales price to the buyer. They also might have had a low test reading which could have been provided to the buyer at the time of contract. This would have caused the buyer not to test and ask for a system, saving everyone a lot of headaches.

How to interpret the results

The readings can vary according to weather conditions (pressure changes, I think) and other factors. The only way to get a true reading is to do a long term test over a period of weeks or months. I feel that when the reading is high as it has been in several homes I have owned, the seller should just go ahead and install a system.

A reading of 128 (EPA recommends no higher than 4.0) is not going to vary low enough to not mitigate. A reading of 4.6 certainly could dip below 4.0 over a longer period of time. Home sellers need to understand that the days of skating by with a buyer who does not test are over.

Home inspectors now have high quality testing equipment in their possession and they pitch the radon inspection to buyers as a way to increase their profits on inspections.

The easy solution!

Sellers need to go ahead and test prior to marketing their homes for sale and avoid any problems at time of inspection.

Feel free to comment below or contact me for a list of radon testing or mitigation contractors.

719-264-7777

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words

I like to look at home listings.  I know, you are saying…

“But Shawn, don’t you view homes for a living?”

Yes, indeed, I do!

In my off time, I enjoy viewing listings of homes from different cities around the country. Currently, I receive listing updates every day from an agent in the Scottsdale, AZ area. I find it interesting to see what my money can buy in a different city. It is also fun to see how styles and decor differ from one part of the USA to another.

Apparently, in Arizona, many agents like to take photos of the closets of the homes that come up in my search. It really amazes me that the home sellers must know that the agent will be coming over to take the photos yet they often do not make much effort to clean up for the shoot.

Case Study

This week however, I did receive a listing that caught my attention!

The listing really stood out for me when I came to the pictures showing the inside of the two closets in the master suite. Check out this photo!

This guy has real pants hangers! Wow!

Obviously, if this guy puts this much effort into his closet, he probably changes his funace filter every 28 days and makes sure that things are maintained according to schedule. This is a home that deserves a second look beyond just the MLS sheet!

Based on this one photo, I can tell that the house is CLEAN!

The Lesson

That’s over half the battle right there. In this market, a home seller has so much competition that they really have to be on their toes to compete. Many times, lowering the price is not going to make any difference. A home buyer coming to Colorado Springs to view homes has only so much time to look at listings in person. They have been viewing listings on our site and many others for weeks and often months.

If a home has unappealing photos, it will be bypassed for one that has a closet like this one!

Before I put my house on the market,  I think I had better go out and buy some of those special pants hangers ASAP!