With short sales and foreclosures making home buying a bit tricky, 15 Tampa Bay offices of Prudential Tropical Realty have signed an agreement with law firm Yesner & Boss to represent clients of the real estate agency.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The St. Petersburg real estate and bankruptcy law firm will provide corporate counsel for Prudential Tropical offices all over theTampa Bay region including St. Petersburg, Temple Terrace, Brandon and the Pinellas beaches, according to a release. Realtors will refer clients to the firm who need help with foreclosure defense, short-sale negotiations, asset protection and consumer protection.

“The goal of Yesner & Boss and Prudential Tropical is the same, to help property owners sat in their homes and work their way out of mortgage difficulties to which the current market is subjecting a lot of people,” said Christopher Boss, a partner with Yesner & Boss, in a release.

There are nearly 60,000 homes in foreclosure in Florida,according to Yesner & Boss, and the Tampa Bay region is one of the mostly heavily beset by foreclosures and short sales.

“While there are signs of life flickering in the residential real estate market, it is a long way from flourishing,” Boss said. “And improvement will not be significant until foreclosures return to normal numbers and the backlog of foreclosed properties is cleared. There is, unfortunately, still a lot of work to be done out there.”

Prudential Tropical Realty first opened 50 years ago and now has offices in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties.

Yesner & Boss was founded in 2004, according to the firm’s Web site, and specializes in real estate, foreclosure defense, bankruptcy, evictions, and corporate planning and probate.

Get in touch with a Real Estate Agent at Prudential Tropical Realty for help listing or buying your distressed home anywhere in the Tampa Bay area.

Rae Catanese, Realtor 

Phone number: 813 784 7744  Emailto: realtyrae@yahoo.com

No matter where you live in the area, there’s a fireworks display close by. And, it’s not Fourth of July without ‘em, so grab your blanket, your cooler, and get your group together to one of these fireworks hot spots.

If the housing market is going to rebound, then the federal government has to be ready to expand an $8,000 tax credit to all buyers and to convince Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to start buying jumbo loans.

Those were just some of the insights Florida Association of Realtorschief economist Lawrence Yun shared with members of the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors Thursday morning.

“We have the lowest mortgage rates since President Eisenhower but not with jumbo loans,” Yun said. “We hear about the 50-year low mortgage rates at 4.9 percent or 4.8 percent, but with jumbo mortgages, they still remain stubbornly high at 6.5 percent and 7 percent. Fannie and Freddie can’t buy those, so they have to charge a higher interest rate.”

At the same time help is needed to sell homes listing for more than $300,000, Yun said. “The government needs to raise the loan limit or get rid of the loan limit altogether if they want the housing market to stabilize,” he said.

“In the middle market, we are seeing a rise in foreclosures, and the high end will begin to suffer if there are no buyers. If there are no buyers, then they have to reduce prices, and reduce prices and reduce prices, and we’ll never find a bottom.”

Last year, many of the foreclosures hitting the market came from interest rate resets caused by adjustable rate mortgages. Now, however, other economic issues like job loss and other large bills are fueling that particular market, which is likely to stay strong through the rest of the year, Yun said.

“This area has had large job creation in recent years, but now we’re seeing job cuts that are much deeper than in past recessions,” Yun said.

One of the leading industries with job losses is construction, but financial jobs and business services aren’t that far behind, he said. In fact, the only areas that seem to be showing solid growth are education and health care.

“Independent of any political philosophy, the most likely occurrence is that there will be increased health care spending and increased education spending, so we’ll probably continue to see growth in those areas over the next four years,” Yun said.

On a broader scale, the United States is facing some of its biggest budget deficits ever, which could force the government to call on the Federal Reservemore, thus boosting inflation. Such a move could be good for homebuyers.

“In an inflationary society, the winners would be property owners as they would see their values rise,” Yun said. “If it’s a deflation, the losers would be responsible homeowners with mortgages.”

The signs are in place for a home sales rebound. During the economic downturn of the 1980s, home sales dropped dramatically because mortgage rates were rising from 10 to 18 percent, Yun said. In the most recent prior recession, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, home sales actually rose mostly because mortgage rates were falling from 8 percent down to 6.5 percent.

“Today, it is 5 percent, and it’s likely to be 5.5 percent by the year’s end,” Yun said. “That represents great opportunity. Home sales can rise, even in a recession, when the mortgage rates are favorable. We may be facing an unemployment rate of 10 percent, which is a high unemployment rate, but that still means there are 90 percent of the people out there with jobs.”

What is a short sale?

 A short sale occurs when a property is sold and the lender agrees to accept a discounted payoff, meaning the lender will release the lien that is secured to the property upon receipt of less money than is actually owed.

Right now in Tampa one half of all homes on the market are a distressed sale.  In my experience as a Realtor, I believe that there are more short sale listings than foreclosed properties/bank owned. This makes actually buying a home a tedious process for many home buyers.  

Things to consider when purchasing a short sale:

Take into consideration that the 8,000 tax credit expires at the end of the year.  That being said, a contract would need to be written by October, just to give the buyer’s lender enough time to close.

If it takes up to 60-90 days to hear from the bank whether or not they have accepted your offer, technically an offer would need to be presented to the bank by August. If you think you have time to wait before you start looking you may want to reconsider!

I’ve been working with a client of mine writing offers on short sale condos.  She had some questions which I thought would be helpful for the buyers out there who are considering purchasing a short sale.

How do you feel about writing a contract on the short sales? 

It’s more about how you feel and the waiting game. If it’s not bank approved, it could take up to 60-90 days to hear back from the bank to respond to your offer. It will not be a contract until the bank signs it, even though the seller will sign it. It is subject to 3rd party approval.

If an offer has been submitted on a short sale, does it mean the property is off the market? No, not necessarily. It depends on the seller, seller’s agent and what type of contingency you put in your offer. For instance, if you want to continue to look at other properties while you are waiting to hear back from the bank, the seller/agent will want to keep the property on the market. In that case, they will be able to receive other offers to submit to the bank.  This may cause a bidding war!

If the 1st contract is denied, would the 2nd offer automatically be presented at that time or would it have been rejected at first offering?  If two offers were presented to the bank at the same time, usually they will look at both and pick one.

How do you feel about writing an offer on more than one short sale?

That’s difficult because you have to put a stipulation that you can withdraw your offer at any time prior to bank approval. The agent may not make it pending in MLS and they will continue to market the property and look for other offers. Some sellers/agents won’t take that contingency on an offer, some will. No guarantees with anything.