Issue 38, October 2010

Sarah Shew, Keller Williams

SHORT SALE SHOP TALK

Pretty much all of my business today is

short sales—either with me representing

the seller, or counseling a prospective

seller, or working with a buyer to pur-

chase a short sale. It might be easier to

understand what a short sale looks like

with some illustrations—so here is a look

at some of September’s stories, without

naming names.

In Phoenix: I represent a charming fam-

ily who waited for nearly three months

for the seller’s lender to accept or reject

their offer. Lender counters, bumping

price up $6K, buyer counters back,

lender accepts—then buyer cancels due

to home inspection.

In Peoria: I represent the nicest couple

who have lived in their home for nearly

20 years. Business set-backs and health

issues changed their situation, making

short sale their best option. Found a

buyer, seller’s lender countered the offer.

Before countering back, buyer did home

inspection, found issues that affected

what he was willing to pay—I negotiated

with the seller’s lender, convincing them

what comps supported—and we closed.

Seller is able to get on with the next

phase of life.

In Tolleson: I represent a young family

who moved out of state to take a job

that would support them. Short sale—

buyer offers full price, seller’s lender

wants more, buyer offers more, seller’s

lender says “not enough” - says their bot-

tom line, and we’re waiting for buyer

to say what he’ll do (while we look for

another buyer).

In El Mirage: My buyer’s offer was in

back-up position. While seller’s lenders

are deciding whether to accept the offer

they have, buyer #1 pulls out, and that

opens the door for my buyer. In the

meantime, my buyer has found something

he likes better but—here’s the cool

part—I have another buyer who has

been looking for something just like this

one. We put in our offer, seller accepts,

seller’s lenders accept, no issues at home

inspection or appraisal—and we are set

to close September 30. Win-win.

In Surprise: After waiting two months

for a response from seller’s lender, my

buyer cancels—and we’re looking for

something else for her.

New Listings: Three new short sale

listings in the past couple of weeks—one

is under contract, another has had sev-

eral showings and is nearly under con-

tract, and marketing is ready to begin on

the other.

Call me with your questions about

short sales—they make up more than half

of the local real estate market. I’m at

623.640.1219.

Special Points of

Interest in This Issue

• Short Sale Shop Talk

• From the Heart of Sarah

• Positive Positioning

• Life After Bankruptcy

• Movies and Books

• Three Tips for Credit

Repair

Keeping in Step with the SHEW TEAM

SHEW NEWS by

Sarah Shew Associate Broker

Keller Williams Realty Professional Partners (623) 640-1219 sarah@sarahshew.com

From the Heart of Sarah

Page 2

Positive Positioning

Sarah Shew, Keller Williams Realty Professional Partners

Back to real estate. I am blogging again. It’s a way to keep some of my experiences from getting away. I’ve called it Diary of a Realtor. If you’re interested, you can go to www.sarahshew.blogspot.com/. I went to a class recently on tax consequences of a short sale—and put some notes on the blog. So the next time I talk to somebody about a short sale and we bring up taxes, I can point to the blog and—voila—there are my notes. You get

the idea.

Did I tell you I went to a Keller Wil-liams conference in Austin in Sep-tember? It was great. I’d been to my first one last year, and this was just as good if not better. One take-away is a white paper entitled “Reasons Why Now is a Great Time to Buy a Home!” I’ll send it to anybody who is interested. Hard to argue these points: home prices are cheap, mortgage rates are at rock bottom, sellers are moti-vated, financing is available, owning beats renting, and homeownership is at the center of the American dream. Owning a home leads (or should lead) to financial stability, wealth building; it is a forced savings account, a tax deduction—not to

mention a place to live.

Women of Faith Conference is (make that “was” by the time this reaches you) Oct 1-2. When thou-sands of women get together, you can count on LOUD - great wor-ship, laughter, and learning. Good

for the heart.

Bless your hearts!

I have a new friend who enjoys mak-ing and teaching parchment art and, according to Linda Wilson, uses simple techniques. It takes time and patience, but the end result is truly a work of art. It is thought to have begun in medieval Europe in a religious order where the nuns made Communion cards featuring drawing, embossing, perforating and cutting. The embossing technique creates the white raised look to the paper. The perforating and cutting are what create the lace-like look. The art traveled to South America through a Sister House and then back to Europe. Take a look at

this three dimensional example:

(The coin in the picture is to give you a sense of size—TINY!) If you have time and interest in learning this art form, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the ex-pert. It makes me smile to be

around people who are so talented!

Here’s something interesting—also totally unrelated to real estate - a world clock with statistics, that change as you look, on a number of topics. To check it out, just copy to your browser and click on http://w w w . p o o d w a d d l e . c o m /

worldclock.swf

Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:10-12 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. Ec-clesiastes 7:11-12 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruc-tion. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced them-selves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteous-ness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:9-11

Page 3 Sarah Shew, Keller Williams Realty Professional Partners

It took a movie to lead me to a book—rather, an author and several books. Did you see “The Jane Austen Book Club”? I loved it, even if I didn’t recognize most of the

actors.

So now I’m reading (among other things) Sense and Sensibility.

That will be followed by:

• Mansfield Park

• Pride and Prejudice

• Persuasion

• Northanger Abbey

• Emma

Tell us what you’re read-ing or seeing at the mov-ies. Just call me or you can send Bob an email at

sarah@sarahshew.com.

Life After Bankruptcy—by Geoff Rooker Bankruptcy is an uncomfortable subject for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is the potential havoc it can wreak on your finances. Running a close second is the nega-tive stigma which is often attached to the process. This negativity is important to mention because strong emotions can sometimes lead to unsound financial decisions

with devastating results.

Bankruptcy becomes a viable option for someone who is “upside down” in terms of cash flow. In other words, when a person has more money going out each month than coming in, bankruptcy should be considered if no reversal of this negative cash flow is within sight. The longer someone waits to explore the various options avail-

able, the more serious his or her situation may become.

One of the worst things people can do in this situation is to borrow more money to try and pay off their debts. On paper, this is clearly an unwise financial deci-sion. In the real world, however, it is very common for individuals to pursue this strategy in an attempt to buy time and hold off on filing for bankruptcy. On the sur-face, this is certainly a noble notion; however it can often compound the problem and

serves only to delay the inevitable.

Here are some steps you can take to make the bankruptcy process as

painless as possible:

• Save all paperwork regarding your bankruptcy, and keep it organized. This will prove beneficial after your bankruptcy as you now have all of the pertinent informa-

tion in one place.

• Establish a household budget. This can be accomplished in many ways, but

there are several inexpensive computer programs available which do an excellent job.

• Throughout the bankruptcy, do your best to not only live below your means,

but to save as much cash as possible.

Be prepared for a barrage of junk mail. There will be sharks on the loose who are

hoping to capitalize on your need for credit.

While it does take time, there is definitely life (and credit) after bankruptcy. We have programs to help you get a mortgage loan as soon as 2 years after bankruptcy. Con-tact me anytime with any questions and for a free copy of our Consumer Credit Scor-

ing Booklet. For tips on rebuilding credit, see the following page.

Geoff Rooker

Branch Manager / CMPS

LO # 0910943

602-550-5626

Peoples Mortgage BK# 0904164

www.rookerteam.com

The Shew Team

SARAH SHEW Associate Broker

7025 West Bell Road, #10 Glendale, AZ 85308

623.640.1219

http://sarahshew.com

623.640.1219 sarah@sarahshew.com

This listing under contract

This under contract for Buyer

Three Tips for Rebuilding Credit

(continued from p.3)

1. If you must buy a car, focus on transportation as opposed to style. Buy an inexpensive, used car, and try to get a loan for it. It’s a good idea to figure out what your budget allows in terms of a dol-lar amount first. This means obtaining financing prior to looking for

a car.

2. Get a secured credit card. Secured credit cards allow for the cardholder to deposit a said amount of money into an account, thus establishing the spending limit of the card. Missed payments result in deductions from the account. Some of these cards will reward responsible borrowers by upping the limit without an addi-tional deposit. Some will even convert the account into a tradi-tional credit card. (Be wary of offers of “easy credit” or any card which asks you to call a 900 number. You will be charged for the

call.)

3. Meet with a credit repair specialist. Not only can they help you clean up the damage to your credit report, they can advise you

on specific ways to rebuild the credit you lost as well.

Affordable three bedroom Glen-dale home—well maintained and move in ready. Close to bus, schools, church, GCC, library—call me on this one quick—it won’t be on the mar-ket long at

$75,000.