Umatilla Florida Blog

    When shopping for a home, there are three types of financial situations which may surround any particular piece of property on the market. These are:

a. A Normal Sale. This is a home being sold by a seller who has been able to meet his/her mortgage payments. The property itself is not being foreclosed.

b. Short Sale or Pre-foreclosure. This is a transaction in which the sellers have not kept their mortgage payments current. The bank has initiated the foreclosure process, although foreclosure heasn't yet occurred.

c. Bank-owned. These types of properties have been through the foreclosure process. The property went to auction and the mortgage holder bought the property back.

    The speed at which any particular closing can take place depends upon which of these three conditions surrounds the transaction.

    The fastest and most reliable is the Normal Sale. These can typically close in 30 days or less.

    The second fastest is the Bank-owned. In this situation, the bank now owns the property. Banks, not normally wanting to hold real estate, are somewhat motivated to get these properties off their books. They already know what the property should go for and closing can occur in 30-45 days.

    When a property is in pre-foreclosure, any potential buyers must exercise a great deal of patience for the transaction can take up to 90 days to be completed. Once the offer has been made by the buyers and accepted by the sellers, it must be submitted to the bank or financial institution holding the mortgage. The bank then must determine if it wants to accept the amount offered in the contract as being sufficient to release the mortgagors (Sellers) from their obligations under the mortgage and promissory note. This process is deliberate and time consuming. Banks have many, many of these going on at any given point of time. Their loss mitigation analysts are overloaded. Thus these types of transactions are the slowest in terms of arriving at the closing table. Patience is definitely required.

Geoffrey Presson

UmatillaHomeZone

Barbara L. Johnson Realty, Inc.