Mymiamiblog

Being a Realtor for over 10 years in the South Florida market I have seen the market go through several highs and lows; but truth be told this most recent market is certainly one for the books… after experiencing gains in property values that doubled and tripled in less than a year in most areas the after shocks of such a boom have now caused property values to drop to levels not seen since 2002 and before.  Some analysts believe we have not reached the bottom of the market; Earlier this week, Fiserv, a financial information and analysis firm, forecast that Miami average home values will plunge another 30 percent by June 2010, on top of price declines of 48 percent since peaking in 2006. Prices are forecast to fall another 26 percent in Fort Lauderdale.

All this being said then what do you do if you are a homeowner faced with dropping property values, a job loss or job relocation, or any reason that may require the selling of your home in this current market?  Well if you purchased prior to this most recent boom, or avoided the lure of refinancing to dip into the equity you once had chances are you will probably still be ok. Sure you will probably not walk away from the closing table with a double-digit return on your purchase, but you will be able to walk away with something.

What if  your are not so lucky and are faced with having to sell your home that is now worth considerably less than what you owe on it?

• you can walk away, try not to look back and let the home go into foreclosure (but deal with the consequences)
• you can try to modify your loan and work out a way to stay
• you can list your home for sale at a price set by your believed value or total amount still owed on loan regardless of the actual current value and hope that a cash buyer will fall in love with it and pay your full asking price .
• Or you can try to Short Sale your home

I am not here to say that a Short Sale is the right thing to do… as a matter of fact I always suggest that before a seller decides to take the route of a short sale he investigate and ask his attorney, accountant, or Short Sale mitigation company any questions he may have and make sure he understands what they mean by the responses.  I intentionally leave myself out as the Realtor because my job is to make sure once you have decided to Short Sale your home that it is priced correctly, that you provided all the required documents for the lender, that we get an offer as quickly as possible, and most importantly once we have an offer make sure that everyone understands what PATIENCE really means.