Testimonials

Sitting at the closing table as a first time home buyer is easily one of the most exciting moments of your life. Getting there though, can be one of the most confusing, stressful, and heartbreaking experiences of your life, making you doubt your quest will ever come to fruition. That is unless you choose the right realtor. Someone that not only knows the basics of his trade, anyone can fill out paperwork, but possesses a wide array of intangible skills that allows them incredible knowledge of the market they service.

I am happy for myself and my family that I found a realtor in St. Lucie County that possessed the basics, advanced knowledge of the area, an understanding of the very volatile local market, and an incredible devotion to getting me into not just any house, but MY house. That realtor was Brad Colean and the rest of his team.

Brad helped my family understand the very turbulent market we were entering into (<100k bank owned properties) and educated us on what to expect. We would have a lot of competition for the good houses, going against investors with resources far beyond ours. Still though, he was undeterred in making sure we attained our first house.

You have to find a realtor that is going to help you find YOUR house, not try and force you into the first half decent place you come across. This can take an unimaginable amount of patience on the part of your realtor. Now let me be clear, my wife and I had some slightly different requirements for our first house and it lead to many instances of being just too picky. Over the 4 months of our search, we must have seen over 150 houses, dragging Brad all around the county, and with gas prices the way they are, I am sure it wasn’t cheap. Brad never complained though. Brad never seemed in a rush to get his commission check, but much more interested in making sure my family was in a house we would be happy with for years to come.

Most importantly was the amazing accessibility we had to Brad and his team. As first time home buyers we had an infinite supply of questions, and Brad had an answer for any that we sent his way. He never seemed annoyed, even if he was receiving the fifteenth phone call from us in the past hour. Weekends or after 6pm we still got answers, if not right away, well within what would be considered an acceptable time frame. We weren’t Brad’s only customers, though we felt like it, he was seemingly on call only working for us! Anytime we needed to go look at houses, whether it be 1 or 10, Brad would make himself available either the very same day or early the next morning.

Overall my family’s first foray into the real estate market was educational, exciting, and a pretty enjoyable experience. I owe most of our positive outlook to Brad’s services. Brad did an outstanding job educating us on the realities of the current real estate market, was never annoyed by the length of our search, and was full of expert advice whenever we asked for it. Most importantly, Brad made us feel comfortable, like he was happy to see us, and when we finally did get the home of our dreams, I am not sure who was more excited, Brad or my family!

After our experience with Brad and his team, it leaves little doubt who our real estate experts will be in any of our future real estate endeavors.

Sincerely,

The Mauss Family (Ted, Nicole & Teddy V)

— The Mauss Family (Ted, Nicole & Teddy V)

Some Banks Reaching Out To Home Owners in Port St. Lucie

Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 3:37 pm

When the government short sale program (HAFA) comes into effect in April, there are supposed to be improvements to the short sale process with banks that decide to participate. It’s a voluntary program that is full of bureaucracy and red tape, but if it improves the short sale process even a little, it may be worth it. With HAFA, distressed home owners will get $1500 after the sale to help them relocate and move on. The program is nothing compared to what I learned last week.

There are a couple of banks (I can’t name them, but if they hold your mortgage, you know who I am referring to) that are actually reaching out to home owners and encouraging them to modify their loans, or list their home for a short sale. They have over 4,000 loans on properties in Port St. Lucie, Stuart, and Jensen Beach that qualify. If you have received an overnight letter by Fed/Ex from your lender that you were not expecting, you are one of the lucky ones. These banks have a fast track program for distressed home owners, even if you are not delinquent on your payments.

If your loan cannot be modified, you can short sell it, and with the fast track program they offer, you can sell it quick. If a loan modification does not work for you (unemployed, too little income, etc.), the short sale fast track program will be offered. With this program, your lender will order an appraisal and give the listing agent the amount they will accept for a short sale within 7-10 days of meeting with you. Once your home is listed in the MLS, you will be able to close within 45 days of an accepted offer. If you have heard of the nightmare short sale time frames with some banks, you know this is an incredible improvement over other banks. Once you sell the home, they will give you up to $5,000 to get you on your feet, and if you only have one loan with them and a mortgage insurance company is not involved, they will not ask you for a deficiency note!

The fast track program I just described is incredibly streamlined if you have one mortgage with these banks and it’s a loan in their portfolio (not sold to investors or other banks). If you have a second loan on your property it’s still a much better system, but your lender has no control over your second lien holder (mortgage #2). These banks do, however, offer 10% to your second lien holder, much more than the standard “up to $3,000″ that most banks I have dealt with offer.

If you are a home owner who received an overnight letter from your lender, give me a call at 772-335-5400, or just fill out this quick contact form and I’ll be happy to meet with you and explain the process.

For buyers, this is great news! When you come across one of these homes you know you will be able to close just as fast as a normal listing or bank owned home, but most of the time you’ll get a much better deal. There won’t be a wait for bank approval because the bank will have approved it before it was listed. If you are interested in buying one of theses homes, give me a call at 800-876-3535, or just email me through this contact form.

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