One of the buyer misconceptions about our current Fort Myers area real estate market is that banks will approve ultra-aggressive, low-ball offers on short sales and foreclosures. Approving low-ball offers in Lee County has absolutely not been the operating model for lending institutions during 2009.
[more] →The Miami Press reports on new guidelines coming out from the U.S. Treasury that will place a 10 day limit on bank approval for a short sale. These guidelines cover mortgages for institutions participating in the Home Affordable Modification Program including JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America.
[more] →The St. Petersburg Times reports that the bottom feeding foreclosure workout firms will face significantly more scrutiny in Florida. These workout specialists promise miracles, typically charge a desperate homeowner a large upfront fee and then don’t do anything to help save the home from foreclosure. Here locally, there are firms operating in under the guises [...]
[more] →The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports on short sale flipping fraud that is becoming more prevalent here in Southwest Florida. In a nutshell, real estate professionals and investors are teaming up to by undervalued distressed properties from banks and then immediately flipping the property to a new buyer at a hefty increase. The short sale flippers [...]
[more] →The real estate market in the greater Fort Myers area has been dominated by foreclosure and short sale activity. This REO activity has driven significant price declines in Southwest Florida real estate. In the third quarter of 2009, home prices in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area dropped on average 40%. This 40% decline led the [...]
[more] →Business Week reports on the tightening short sale standards that banks are imposing these transactions. Time frames to close short sale deals are widening and lenders are looking for increased concessions from many sellers. Short sales have been challenging in our market for quite some time. The sheer quantities of short sales in Southwest Florida [...]
[more] →According to a recent USA Today article, only 23% of short sale deals actually ever close. This figure came from a February 2009 survey by Campbell Communications of 1,300 Realtors. More than 90% of the agents cited slow responses from the lender as the reason that short sales were lost. These figures certainly jive with [...]
[more] →Lee County home sales soared to 1,705 in June 2009, up from 1,417 in May 2009. Additionally, sales are up 137% from the 719 homes sold in June 2008. The median price of these June sales was $87,900, a slight drop from the May median of $88,500. Distressed properties that were either foreclosures or short [...]
[more] →One of Florida’s major title insurance companies, Attorneys Title Insurance, announced that they will no longer insure transactions involving a short sale option contract. A short sale option contract is a technique being used by opportunists to buy a short sale from a bank at below market value and then flip to a true buyer [...]
[more] →Fort Myers MLS Map Search
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