sellmyhousefastsantaclarita

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How to Increase the Number of Buyers For Your House?

When selling a home through traditional methods, it may seem like there aren’t enough buyers out there but in reality there are a ton of people that want to buy a home. Some of these people just don’t have the means to qualify for a loan with a traditional lender such as a bank. Some people have a good job, good credit and enough money for a down payment but still can’t qualify for a loan because they may have just moved locations with their job. Some times relocation is enough to make you not qualify. Some lenders will require you to work for 2 years at the new location before they will finance you.

So if you want to increase your chances of selling your house, 2 simple things to consider are owner financing and rent to own. Owner financing is where the seller becomes the bank. The seller sells the property and carries back a promissory note; this allows them to receive mortgage payments instead of those payments going to a bank. The promissory note is secured by the property so that if they don’t pay the mortgage, you can take the property back, just like with a bank. Offering owner financing is one of the best ways to increase your chances of selling the property at your asking price, especially if you want top dollar for your property.

Another option to increase the number of buyers for your house is rent to own. Offering rent to own can increase your buyer pool even more than with owner financing. With owner financing, it’s common to still need a sizable down payment because you are buying the house at that moment. With rent to own, they are buying at a later date but you still receive an option fee up front and then they make monthly payments until they are ready to buy. With this method, it’s just like having an investment property but typically rent to own tenants treat the home with more respect because they’re paying a premium, they put up a sizable option fee and they plan on buying it in the future. This method works very well for people that can’t qualify for a loan at the moment but will be able to qualify in the future. They can rent until they can qualify and then purchase once they are able to.

If you’re interested in doing rent to own or owner financing, you should work with someone that understands the ins and outs. There are many companies that will help you navigate owner financing and rent to own properties. Some of these companies charge hourly for consulting. Other companies can buy your house on owner financing terms. There’s even a few that can handle all details of rent to own and even finding a tenant for you. When a company handles the rent to own process for you, they can negotiate their fee into the purchase price or the rent that the tenant-buyer will pay.

These 2 simple strategies can increase your buyer pool by 5-10 times. So, if you’re having trouble selling your home either FSBO or through an agent, you should consider offering at least one of these options.

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California Governments Halted Foreclosures For 90 Days Post State Of Emergency

At the beginning of this month, California decided it would be a good idea to halt foreclosures and evictions during this state of emergency. This has saved many people from living on the streets during this tough time. Many people are very happy that the government stepped in in this regard. Foreclosure sucks and dealing with a foreclosure during a pandemic, I couldn’t even imagine. 

However, while foreclosures and evictions have been postponed we want to take a moment to remind everyone, just because you can’t be evicted or foreclosed on doesn’t mean you should stop paying rent and your mortgage. If you have the ability to, you should still pay because those months are going to add up and you’ll eventually have to catch up on them. This halt on foreclosures and evictions will last for 90 days after the government declares that we are no longer in a state of emergency. We don’t really know how the transition back into normal life will go. Some lenders may be very lenient with people catching up, others may not.

Foreclosure isn’t something you should take lightly. There’s many negative consequences that may happen due to you going through foreclosure. So, during this pandemic, you want to be smart with your money so that when this is over, you aren’t facing even more financial hardships than most are facing during this crisis. We are facing unprecedented times but we need to be responsible and ready for anything that happens.

Another thing to note is, most people are under the impression that they’ll be returning to their old jobs when the economy reopens, but that may not be the case for everyone. We’ve heard of many businesses that won’t be able to open back up after the executive orders are lifted. 

No one really knows how things will turn out. So you want to be prepared for any situation that may come about by being smart during this time. 

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Saving Your Credit In Foreclosure

Foreclosure isn’t a fun time for anyone. It can have a drastic affect on a person’s life and finances. The affects of foreclosure can last many years keeping you from being able to buy a house, car or even rent. So if you are unable to save your home from foreclosure, the next best thing is to save your credit. Although you will have to move out if you just want to save your credit, by saving your credit, it will allow you to move on sooner and start over with a new place to live.

You have a couple options when it comes to saving your credit, most have to do with selling your home. While this isn’t the most ideal situations you have to take into consideration the pros and cons compared to going through foreclosure. There are multiple ways to sell your house when facing foreclosure, including selling with an agent, offering your home as rent to own, doing a short sale and selling to an investor.

Selling your home with an agent can be a great option to get top dollar from your home if you start early. Selling with an agent typically takes 3-6 months, so it may not help if you wait until the last minute to sell. Also, when working with an agent, you have to pay the agents commission for the buyer’s agent and your agent, which can add up quickly. 

Selling on Rent to Own Terms can be a great option to maximize the money you get out of your property. Since with a rent to own solution you aren’t getting completely cashed out of your property, it will typically only work if you aren’t behind by a lot. The way this would work, is your tenant buyer would put up a deposit, specifically it would be an option payment (they pay for the right to purchase in the future) this is the money that would be used to pay back your mortgage. Then, you would rent out the property and collect rent payments ideally above your monthly mortgage payment although sometimes it may be less. Having to come out of pocket a couple hundred dollars a month (if you can afford it) may be better than getting a foreclosure on your credit. Then the tenant rents the property for X number of years and buys your property at a later date. Typically you can get current market value by offering this strategy.

A Short Sale is another option, a short sale still has an impact on your credit just not as much as a foreclosure. In a short sale the bank agrees to allow you to sell your property for less than you owe and they’ll lose the difference. This is usually only the case when the property is worth less than the mortgage. At that point it’s not really beneficial for them to go through foreclosure. Since they won’t make the full amount back either way. Make sure you discuss this with your lender so you won’t have to pay the difference between the loan and sale price.

You can Sell to an investor for cash. There are investors that buy homes cash and can buy in just days. They can be a great option especially if you waited until the last minute. They don’t always offer the highest price if you want a cash offer but many of them can offer more if you’re willing to do something similar to the Rent To Own listed above.

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House Selling Tip #2

If you have the money, paint your home and buy new fixtures. Paint and new fixtures has a larger impact on the perceptive quality on your home than you probably realize. A fresh coat of paint can take a home from looking dirty and/or run down to an average home or better depending on the quality of the floors, bathroom and kitchen.

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House Selling Tip #1

Clean your house before pictures and showings.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to sell their house either FSBO or on the market is, they don’t clean their house. It’s hard for a buyer to fall in love with your home if it isn’t clean. You want the buyer to be able to picture themselves living in the home.

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We Buy Houses Companies

We Buy Houses Companies are popping up everywhere. These companies are real estate investment companies that buy properties cash in order to help people out of difficult real estate problems such as foreclosure, relocation, divorce, or just troublesome tenants. They buy headaches so that the owners can get relief from the situation.

Many of these we buy houses companies can buy properties fast, sometimes in just 7 days... that means you can have cash for your home and be relieved of your headache in just 7 days. It almost sounds too good to be true but we know many people that have been helped out of a difficult situation by these companies and honestly if you have a troublesome real estate situation what is there to lose.

While there are many trustworthy we buy houses companies out there, with all things there are some bad actors out there that prey on people in bad situations. When working with one of these companies you want to pay close attention to whether they are trying to help or if they just want to make money. If they are money hungry, they will try to make as much money as possible from your situation rather than trying to help you by creating a mutually beneficial solution.

So, these companies are a great solution if you need to sell your house fast but as with anything you should be your own judge on whether the solution being provided is the best for you.

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Quarantine and Social Distancing

The quarantine and social distancing is slowing real estate down to a screeching halt. In Santa Clarita, it went from an average of 300+ real estate sales/month to around 100. Since escrow is commonly 30-60 days when working with an agent, many of the ones that are still selling were probably already in escrow before the quarantine began. This makes it hard to determine whether the real estate market will take a major hit. We’ll be able to tell more as time passes but the number of sales is definitely going down due to the quarantine.

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Avoiding Foreclosure Option #5

Sell to a professional home buyer, if you’re like many people going through foreclosure and don’t have 4-6 months to let your property sit on market, you may want to sell to a professional home buying company. They can purchase properties fast, as quick as 7 days, they don’t charge fees, and they purchase as is. If you need to sell fast, don’t want to fix up the property, or don’t want to deal with the uncertainty of listing this can be a great option.

There’s more options than you think when facing foreclosure. Some options allow you to keep your house, others require that you sell your house but will be less stressful and can completely relieve you of the situation. So you need to weigh your options and make the best decision for your situation. I hope this article helped inform you and allows you to make a more educated decision.

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Avoiding Foreclosure Option #4

Sell on the open Market, if you’re going through foreclosure but your loan balance is less than the value of the property then you can sell your home on the open market. This allows you to get top dollar for your property. However, this can take 4-6 months. Also, make sure you find an honest agent that will work with you not against you. Agents are great salespeople they will tell you all the right things in order to get the listing, so make sure you trust and/or like the agent you’re working with.

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CA News: Governor Newsom Issues Executive Order to protect renters and homeowners during Coronavirus Pandemic

In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order to help protect home owners and renters from foreclosures and evictions, respectively. He has authorized local municipalities to halt evictions and slow foreclosures. This doesn’t relieve home owners and renters from their debts but it will delay the foreclosure and halt the eviction process in order to help people through this tough time, thus allowing them time to catch up. Many people are becoming temporarily unemployed during this time so this is a much needed response by the government.

The executive order also requests that public and private vital utilities implement customer service protections to keep on the vital utilities.

We wish everyone the best out there! Stay Safe!

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Avoiding Foreclosure Option #3

Short Sale is another way to get out of foreclosure. Short Sale is when the lender agrees to take less money than what is owed by the borrower. This is usually the case when you owe more money than you can sell the house for or you owe more than you will net in selling the house. This goes back to the costs of foreclosure, banks and lenders understand that the foreclosure process costs a lot of money so they would rather take less money and have it be a done deal rather than going through the long and expensive process of foreclosure.

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Picture of Santa Clarita from the top of Shangri-La

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Avoiding Foreclosure Option #2

Bankruptcy is another way to avoid foreclosure. While bankruptcy may not be your first choice because it can have lasting effects on your credit, it can be a good strategy for saving your home. When you file for bankruptcy you are essentially telling everyone you owe money that you can’t pay them back. In many cases when filing bankruptcy the lender will be required to work with you on a repayment plan.

Bankruptcy shouldn’t be your first choice tho because it can stay on your credit for several years, thus hindering you from buying a new house, car, getting an apartment and pretty much anything else that requires credit including things that you may not think of such as student loans for your children to go to college.

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Avoiding Foreclosure Option #1

Contact your lender and work out a deal or payment plan that gets you back on track with your loan. Foreclosure is an expensive and time consuming process and many lenders don’t want to go through foreclosure unless it is an absolute must. The money they pay to go through the process can be in the 10s of thousands. Many would much rather the owner bring the loan current. So, this gives you a window of opportunity, reach out to your lender and figure out what terms they can give you to allow you to keep your home.

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A few ways to avoid foreclosure

Foreclosure can be a stressful time. No one wants to deal with losing their home but it’s best to take action rather than waiting and hoping it will go away. In most cases, it won’t go away and there probably won’t be a miracle situation that pulls you out of foreclosure. 

First of all, what exactly is a foreclosure. Foreclosure is the process a lender or lien holder goes through to take property from someone in order to pay off a debt. In most cases this happens when someone doesn’t pay their mortgage but there are other reasons foreclosure can occur, such as not paying taxes or HOA fees. So, over the next couple weeks I’ll post a few things that you can do to avoid going through foreclosure.