We will be having our Tour of Homes May 12, 2012, of 6 homes located in Plainfield and Sterling.  

How does this work?   Meet with us at our office that morning at 9am, and we will leave promptly at 9:25am.  2 or 3 of our Agents will accompany us on the Tour.  You will follow in your vehicle as we visit each home for 10 minutes each.  This will be just enough time for you to get a general feeling of the home, and we will have flyers for you, with basic information (age of home, bed/bath count, square footage, etc).

If, after previewing one of the homes, you would like more time to inspect the home, one of our agents will be happy to set up a private showing for you at a later time.

All of these homes are actively for sale; one or more of these homes may become Sale Pending by the time of the Tour;  we will visit the home as scheduled.  If you want to join us at any of the homes along the route, you may do that as well.  We will keep to our schedule as closely as possible.

Here is the schedule for our Tour.  Once you sign up, you will receive a Tour Flyer in your email (please make sure to type your email address correctly! )

1. 09:30am at 9 Palmer Court, Central Village
2. 09:55am at 84 Snake Meadow Hill Rd, Sterling
3. 10:10am at 257 Snake Meadow Rd Plainfield
4. 10:25am at 60 Sterling Hill Rd Plainfield
5. 10:40am at 209 Starkweather Rd, Plainfield
6. 11:00am at 82 Red Oak Drive, Plainfield

If you have been thinking about the great deals available by purchasing foreclosed homes in eastern Connecticut, then you have come to the right site!  Our office has vast experience in dealing with Foreclosures and REO's, and our agents have been specially trained, so they understand the in's and out's of how to work with this detailed and specialized sector of the market.

While our office works will all manner of real estate transactions, from the traditional, "retail" sale, to foreclosures, we have over 14 years of specialized knowledge working specifically with the foreclosure market.  Some of the factors to consider:

1. Foreclosed homes are "discounted" - while the home may be exactly like the homeowner-owned home next door, as soon as a buyer realizes that one home is bank owned, they will value it less.  The common thread is that the bank has to sell, so they will be more willing to negotiate on price.  This is already factored in to the price of the home, but ultimately, the price is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay.  If the bank can't find a willing buyer, the price will get dropped until they can...
   
2. Seller financing - this depends on who the actual seller is, but some REO sellers are willing to offer special financing and incentives, in a move designed to bring the financing back to them.  Let's face it, the Bank lost a lot of money taking a home back at foreclosure, (the national average used to be a $37,000 loss, may be higher than that now), so by financing the home again, at least they can recoup some of their losses in new mortgage costs.
3. Closings can occur quickly - where a Short Sale could take months to finalize and close (if it actually does), an REO is already owned by the Bank, and as we stated above, they aren't in the business of owning homes, so they are ready to move it off their asset list.  REO's can close in 7-10 days if all the Title work is done.
   
4. No Liens or surprises - a fact often not understood by many buyers, but when the bank takes the home during the foreclosure process, it extinguishes any second mortgages or liens (with the exception of IRS tax liens).  Connecticut is a judicial state, meaning that the lender has to go through a legal process to take ownership to a property.  One of the factors that comes into play is that, if there is a second mortgage or a lien in place, the bank has to proceed with an Auction.  This gives the lien holders the chance to perhaps purchase the home themselves at the auction, so they can preserve some of their lien's value. But if you asn an individual decided to purchase a property at an Auction, you may take on some of those tax liens. REO's are free and clear of all liens. This includes HOA fees if they exist.
   
5. Great mortgage rates- while not exclusive to the purchase of an REO, let's face it, the current mortgage rates are highly affordable...  I used to purchase homes in the late 80's and early 90's, to "fix and flip", and I regularly had to purchase with mortgage rates in the 14-17% range.  Compare that to the current rates in the 4-5% range, and "money is cheap".

We will be having our Tour of Homes May 12, 2012, of 6 homes located in Plainfield and Sterling.  

How does this work?   Meet with us at our office that morning at 9am, and we will leave promptly at 9:25am.  2 or 3 of our Agents will accompany us on the Tour.  You will follow in your vehicle as we visit each home for 10 minutes each.  This will be just enough time for you to get a general feeling of the home, and we will have flyers for you, with basic information (age of home, bed/bath count, square footage, etc).

If, after previewing one of the homes, you would like more time to inspect the home, one of our agents will be happy to set up a private showing for you at a later time.

All of these homes are actively for sale; one or more of these homes may become Sale Pending by the time of the Tour;  we will visit the home as scheduled.  If you want to join us at any of the homes along the route, you may do that as well.  We will keep to our schedule as closely as possible.

Here is the schedule for our Tour.  Once you sign up, you will receive a Tour Flyer in your email (please make sure to type your email address correctly! )

1. 09:30am at 9 Palmer Court, Central Village
2. 09:55am at 84 Snake Meadow Hill Rd, Sterling
3. 10:10am at 257 Snake Meadow Rd Plainfield
4. 10:25am at 60 Sterling Hill Rd Plainfield
5. 10:40am at 209 Starkweather Rd, Plainfield
6. 11:00am at 82 Red Oak Drive, Plainfield

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If you have been thinking about the great deals available by purchasing foreclosed homes in eastern Connecticut, then you have come to the right site!  Our office has vast experience in dealing with Foreclosures and REO's, and our agents have been specially trained, so they understand the in's and out's of how to work with this detailed and specialized sector of the market.

While our office works will all manner of real estate transactions, from the traditional, "retail" sale, to foreclosures, we have over 14 years of specialized knowledge working specifically with the foreclosure market.  Some of the factors to consider:

1. Foreclosed homes are "discounted" - while the home may be exactly like the homeowner-owned home next door, as soon as a buyer realizes that one home is bank owned, they will value it less.  The common thread is that the bank has to sell, so they will be more willing to negotiate on price.  This is already factored in to the price of the home, but ultimately, the price is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay.  If the bank can't find a willing buyer, the price will get dropped until they can...
   
2. Seller financing - this depends on who the actual seller is, but some REO sellers are willing to offer special financing and incentives, in a move designed to bring the financing back to them.  Let's face it, the Bank lost a lot of money taking a home back at foreclosure, (the national average used to be a $37,000 loss, may be higher than that now), so by financing the home again, at least they can recoup some of their losses in new mortgage costs.
3. Closings can occur quickly - where a Short Sale could take months to finalize and close (if it actually does), an REO is already owned by the Bank, and as we stated above, they aren't in the business of owning homes, so they are ready to move it off their asset list.  REO's can close in 7-10 days if all the Title work is done.
   
4. No Liens or surprises - a fact often not understood by many buyers, but when the bank takes the home during the foreclosure process, it extinguishes any second mortgages or liens (with the exception of IRS tax liens).  Connecticut is a judicial state, meaning that the lender has to go through a legal process to take ownership to a property.  One of the factors that comes into play is that, if there is a second mortgage or a lien in place, the bank has to proceed with an Auction.  This gives the lien holders the chance to perhaps purchase the home themselves at the auction, so they can preserve some of their lien's value. But if you asn an individual decided to purchase a property at an Auction, you may take on some of those tax liens. REO's are free and clear of all liens. This includes HOA fees if they exist.
   
5. Great mortgage rates- while not exclusive to the purchase of an REO, let's face it, the current mortgage rates are highly affordable...  I used to purchase homes in the late 80's and early 90's, to "fix and flip", and I regularly had to purchase with mortgage rates in the 14-17% range.  Compare that to the current rates in the 4-5% range, and "money is cheap".

In my office, we do a LOT of photo management: adding date stamps, reducing the file size and resolution, and creating Contact sheets (I'll explain this in a little bit).  You see, I list REO and Foreclosure properties for the banks.  And my client banks are never in the local area (most are in Maryland, Texas, Florida, Colorado, or California). So, I am their "eyes and ears" on the ground. 

Because of this, I take loads of pictures, so that I can forward to my clients.  It also helps to take mundane pictures when I'm at a house, so that when, at some later time, I need to know what the water meter reading is, or the level of oil still in the tank, etc, I can just review my pictures, and it could save me an hour or two of my time, as well as gas money.

When I think back to how we use to handle the photo processing, I cringe now, knowing how much easier it could have been. So, here's my recommendation:

www.faststone.org 

This is freeware which, for those that don't understand what this is, it's computer software that is free, rather than you having to pay to get a copy; how great is that?  (There is another category called "shareware", where you can download the software and try a demonstration version, usually missing some key functionality.  If you like the demo and purchase the "full" version, you can un-lock all the features).

So, you can go to the website link above, and I recommend downloading the "FastStone Image Viewer".  Installation is very simple, just follow the prompts.

I will say that, after you use it a few times, it will come up with a screen, asking you to donate if you like the software; I think there is a checkbox in the lower left, so it won't show this each time.  What I will say is this:  after I found this software and realized all it could do, I sent them $50 through Paypal.  I love free stuff as much as the next person, but when something works this well, the developers deserve some financial recognition. And no, I don't know them or work there!

I will add more details about the software in coming blog entries, but here are some of the features I use almost every day:

• Date stamping - I really like my Olympus digital cameras (and recommend a digital SLR like the e-420), but Olympus cameras will NOT add the date stamp as an image, on any of their cameras.  I know, because I called their support hotline when I purchase my latest SLR.  However, all their photos have a digitally coded date and time stamp.  So, I use FastStone to imprint the digitally coded data on the front of the photo.
• Resolution reduction - some of our vendors and agents have cameras that you just can't "dumb down" enough;  in the race to make 13 megapixel cameras, the small resolution settings are still way too large.  I can just bring up the photos I want to reduce, whether 3 or an entire folder, and with 3 or 4 clicks, have them all reduced to a manageable file size.
• Screen capture - this one is fun and handy; when talking to some tech support firm, about why their software doesn't do what it's supposed to do, or why am I getting this error code, I simply grab an image of the screen, and email it to them.
• Cropping, editing, drawing - these should be self explanatory to most
• Contact Sheets - these are what photographers print out, before they make their larger prints. a great way to put 30 photos together on labeled sheets, label them and date stamp them first if needed, and send to a bank or customer as a pdf (oh yeah, FastStone will create pdf's for you too!

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At Sellstate Leading Edge Realty, we understand more about this part of the real estate market than anyone in our area!