By Tom Branch, on January 16th, 2011 According to the Distressed Property Institute, more than 80 percent of distressed homeowners who go into foreclosure have never contacted their lender or a real estate professional for help. That’s a staggering number when help and relief are available.
 Licensed from iStockPhoto Without fail, our phone rings off the hook near the end of every month from desperate homeowners looking for help. After checking the local foreclosure lists, we often find that the house is already scheduled for foreclosure the following week. At that point, it’s nearly impossible to get a Short Sale in place to stop it.
An important thing to understand about Short Sales is that the process is anything but “short.” The only thing “short” about a Short Sale is the payoff to the lender. The sooner the homeowner contacts someone for help, the more time is available to work the Short Sales process.
We encourage homeowners across the United States to get educated on the options available should they become financially distressed. Short Sales are a great tool, providing relief to all parties.
Just remember to choose a REALTOR® with a proven Short Sale track record to negotiate on your behalf. Making the right choice can mean the world of difference to your financial future.
Based on “Avoiding Foreclosure – The Field Guide to Short Sales” © 2010 – Tom Branch and Gina Branch
By Tom Branch, on January 14th, 2011  Copyright 2011 - Imaged2Sell 3 Bedrooms | 2.1 Baths | 2-Car Garage | 2319 SF/Builder
Plano TX Townhomes For Sale – Gorgeous new construction with stone exterior. Gourmet island kitchen with oversized breakfast bar, granite counters, tile back splash, stainless appliances, and gas cook top. Designer touches include art niche, bull nose corners, and iron balusters. Second living area perfect for game room. Enclosed patio with gas. Full service HOA for low maintenance living.
Current status, pricing, photos, and a virtual tour for this Plano TX Townhome for Sale.
Source: NTREIS
By Tom Branch, on January 14th, 2011  Copyright 2011 - Imaged2Sell 3 Bedrooms | 2.1 Baths | 2-Car Garage | 2319 SF/Builder
Plano TX Townhomes For Sale – Stunning new construction with stone exterior. Gourmet island kitchen with oversized breakfast bar, granite counters, tumbled marble back splash, stainless appliances, and gas cook top. Designer touches include art niche, bull nose corners, brushed nickel fixtures, and iron balusters. Second living area perfect for game room. Enclosed patio with gas. Full service HOA for low maintenance living.
Current status, pricing, photos, and a virtual tour for this Plano TX Townhome for Sale.
Source: NTREIS
By Gina Branch, on January 13th, 2011  Photo Copyright 2011 – Imaged2Sell The Preserve in Allen is poised to be the premiere new address in West Allen. Ashton Woods recently purchased 32.8 wooded acres for a new residential community in a prime location fronting McDermott Road east of Custer and west of Twin Creeks.
 Base Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA This west Allen area bordering Plano is seeing tremendous growth northward towards Highway 121, The Sam Rayburn Tollway. In addition to new retail and restaurants, The Arts of Collin County will break ground shortly on their state-of-the-art facility in a 100+ acre park just north of The Preserve in Allen.
This residential project is still in the development stages. As more details become available, we will pass on.
For more than 35 years, Ashton Woods has offered quality, energy efficient, affordable homes in five southern states including Texas.
Read more about The Preserve in Allen.
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By Tom Branch, on January 11th, 2011 While many people think that Texas is hot and dry, we do get a couple of hard freezes a year. For most people it simply means that the heat runs a bit more. However, if your house is vacant and the utilities have been turned off it could result in thousands of dollars in freeze damage.
 Copyright 2011 - Imaged2Sell I received an email from a client with a vacant house last week worrying about this issue because of a blast of cold arctic air that is supposed to drop temperatures into the teens and stay near freezing for a few days.
Rather than having him turn on the utilities, we suggested he have the property winterized. Locally, we often use Mark Kissee of Kissee Inspections to handle this process for our clients. Winterization usually costs less than $150 (a bit more if there is a pool or a really large house) in our market. This is far less than the time and expense of having the utilities turned back on.
Worried about your vacant house? Winterize it!
By Tom Branch, on January 9th, 2011 I’ve been meaning to write this blog for a while but I had forgotten about it. I was showing a home today and there was water everywhere in the laundry room at one of the properties. As I looked around I noted a small trickle at one of the laundry room washing machine faucets. The water was running down the wall soaking the sheet rock and puddling up on the floor. I made a quick call to the listing agent to let her know.
 Copyright 2010 - Imaged2Sell It reminded me of a listing I had had in Frisco. The owner had painted the house and put down fresh carpet so it would look nice and sell quickly. She had moved out of state and the house was vacant. It was a slow time of year and there were not many showings. I dropped by the house one day only to find the new carpet soaked in water! I traced the source back to a dripping laundry room faucet that day as well. Luckily we were able to have the carpet dried and suffered no real damage other than the several hundred dollar clean-up bill for the seller and several hours of my time making sure it was taken care of.
I used to recommend that sellers vacating a property cap off the laundry room and ice maker faucets. After that day, I started providing my sellers with the caps. I purchase them at my local hardware store and a set of three costs about $10. Not only is it an added service but it might just save the seller a bunch of money and myself a lot of time.
Cap those faucets before you move!
By Tom Branch, on January 8th, 2011 The phone rang in the office this morning. I had just walked in and grabbed the call. I introduced myself and asked the caller what I could do for them. “We saw the house you have for sale at 123 Anywhere and we want to place a bid on it” the caller stated.
 Licensed from iStockPhoto I ran through my usual questions:
“Are you working with an agent?” – “No, we don’t have an agent.”
“Have you seen the house?” – “No, but we want to place a bid!”
“Are you paying cash or have you been preapproved for a mortgage?” – “We’ll need a loan but we can take care of that next week.”
“Are you aware that this is a Short Sale property and make take some time to get bank approval?” – “It’s a foreclosure?”
I was holding a power-hour open house later, so I suggested they stop by and take a look. This house is priced well below market because it needs extensive work. Personally, I think financing is going to be a problem because of structural issues.
But none of this is what really got to me today. It’s the eBay mentality that appears to be taking over our industry. The only listings where I can place a “bid” are HUD Foreclosures. HUD Foreclosures are sold using a sealed bid auction format.
Every one of my 36 listings is “for sale” and I’m not running a reserved price auction. Yes, price and terms are negotiable but I expect buyers to make offers on a property by completing the proper contracts, being able to show reasonable earnest money, and proof of funds or a mortgage pre-approval from a reputable lender. When I’m working with buyers, I explain this to them if they talk about placing a “bid” on a property.
It’s not just the clients either. I hear Buyers Agents talk about placing bids on properties all the time.
Why do I think we need to make sure that buyers are not in “bid” mode?
While there are many issues, many buyers expect to be able to cancel their “bid” at any time without ramification. I had a buyer on one of my listings who decided to back out at the last minute. To make matters worse, the agent calls asking us to release the earnest money back to the buyer so they can use it for another property! This is not just a non-performing bidder email and a negative feedback situation. There can be serious legal and financial consequences.
How did we get here? Perhaps it’s a combination of the run-up mentality leading up to the melt-down in 2008 and a generation that has grown up purchasing things through auction sites. Regardless of the reasons, little real estate is sold in auction format and it’s critical to understand the implications of entering into a contract.
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