Need attny recs for a short sale

I'm also looking to buy and have looked at several "foreclosure" homes. I took a great one-night class from PropertyShark on what they call "distressed" properties. It was really geared towards investors who are going to resell the property, but I still learned a lot. I'm no expert, but here's my basic understanding of the whole process.

Basically, in NY, a lien can be filed after 3 months of non-payment ("lis pendens") and then it goes into the court system, which can take up to 18 months. So that gives the owner over a year to try to sell for at least what they owe on the mortgage before the property goes to auction. (This is much different from most of the country where the property goes to auction right away.)

I've been finding that most properties listed as "in foreclosure" are a bit cheaper because the seller needs to sell it fast. But in some cases, if they bought the house or took out a lot of equity during the bubble, they may owe more than what it's worth.

Posted by: laurie at April 29, 2008 6:32 PM in response to foreclosure home?

The Nolo Press book is out of print, which is probably why the Amazon prices are so high. Their books are usually $25-30. Might be worth contacting them directly (www.nolo.com).

Posted by: laurie at May 13, 2008 12:53 PM in response to Landlords: How long did it take to rent your apt's

I'm in a similar situation. Can anyone who has installed an interior stairway give a cost estimate? Thanks.

Posted by: laurie at May 19, 2008 2:50 PM in response to 3-family - how to use as 2-family?

Thanks for the estimate and the detail on the lolly columns. It gives me a good place to start in deciding whether it will be worth it.

Posted by: laurie at May 20, 2008 1:51 PM in response to 3-family - how to use as 2-family?

To 10:48 (guest @ 10:48, not kuroko@ 10:48), I am very comfortable with the internet; I've posting to communities/ BBS since the late 80s and have actually designed and managed community sites. I MUCH prefer to identify people by a handle -- not by their real names or professions or ages or locations, just a handle -- for all the reasons stated above.

More importantly, being able to identify a posters instills a sense of "knowing" him/her and feeling part of a community. If I begin to understand opinions and associate them with people, it's becomes easier for me to interpret future posts because I know where they are coming from. Similarly, I can easily ignore posters that are known argument baiters.

The usefulness of the Forum would be greatly improved as people make recommendations and offer things for sale or trade. How valid is a recommendation from "guest"?

If you want to remain an anonymous insider, register as anon_insider and don't put any info in your public profile.

I'd participate a lot more if people were registered.

~ laurie

Posted by: laurie at May 30, 2008 1:12 PM in response to Taking the Pulse on Anonymous Commenting

The price is actually lower than other houses listed in that neighborhood, but priced about right, IMO. The property is in lis pendens, which may explain the lower price. The foreclosure maps show a significant number of defaults in Bed-Stuy.

I've been looking at homes in Crown Heights and Bed Stuy for several months and the real estate agents seem to be guessing ($950? 750? 550?). While the house looks nice, it's pretty far east and the walk to the Ralph Ave. subway is not great. So $525 seems about right.

Posted by: laurie at June 3, 2008 3:17 PM in response to House of the Day: 456 Bainbridge Street

The house was listed on Craigslist and Property Shark. I also took a great class from PShark, where I learned all the ins and outs. There are a lot of short sale houses out there right now.

Posted by: laurie at June 4, 2008 11:33 AM in response to Need attny recs for a short sale

Thanks, 12:04. This is fraught with peril, I know, but I like the house.

Posted by: laurie at June 4, 2008 12:48 PM in response to Need attny recs for a short sale

Thanks, everyone, for the recommendations. I just got off the phone with Michael Reinhardt, who immediately "got" the picture. He's very straight forward and I think he'll do me well.

Posted by: laurie at June 4, 2008 1:28 PM in response to Need attny recs for a short sale

In most states missing three mortgage payments means foreclosure and the auction block. In NY and a few others, missing 3 payments puts the property into Lis Pendens and the court system where it can languish for about 18 months before official foreclosure and auction. This gives the seller over a year to try to refinance, sell or simply get back on track. So NY will always have a lower foreclosure rate than the national average. The real comparison would be to look at the number of homes going into Lis Pendens.

Posted by: laurie at June 6, 2008 9:48 AM in response to U.S. Foreclosures Continue to Soar; NYC Still Not Bleeding

This is also a great site for finding past sales prices of co-ops. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/property_val_sales.shtml

Posted by: Biff Champion at July 24, 2008 3:44 PM in response to How do I research comps?

Use a broker, to help you with the comps.

Posted by: Xander Crews at July 24, 2008 9:59 PM in response to How do I research comps?

StreetEasy is great too. Membership is about $10/month and gives you access to both listing and sale prices for properties. Still, the best way to identify comps is to go to lots of open houses. See what is out there at your price point and you'll pretty quickly be able to judge if a new listing is over/under priced. Also, what is your apprehension to working with a buyer's broker? My husband and I worked with a broker to find an apartment and she was invaluable. We probably could have done the initial listing searches and research on our own, however, once we found the right place she helped us present our offers strategically, coordinate with the sellers and their broker, and generally made sure everything was moving along smoothly. It took a lot of the stress and time consuming work off of our shoulders.

Posted by: fawn at July 25, 2008 9:50 AM in response to How do I research comps?

I find that many brokers aren't responsive to the the buyer's needs, they just want to make a sale. But if you had a good experience, maybe I'll use that person--what was his/her name and firm?

Posted by: Garp at July 25, 2008 4:07 PM in response to How do I research comps?