If you are a real estate agent in the state of Florida and you are listing short sales please read this update.
Our Realtor Association of the Palm Beaches and the Florida Association of Realtors have been actively engaged in making sure that the new law that went into effect on October 1, 2008 - FS-501.1377, is understood by Realtors and that the duties are set forth clearly.
Since there was some discrepancies regarding what is required when a Realtor takes a short sale listing the Florida Association of Realtors requested that the State of Florida Attorney General's Office, Bill McCollum address this issue and clear this up for all of us.
Bill McCollum replied in a letter back to the Florida Association of Realtors that if the seller wants to list his house for sale with a Realtor and the Realtor figures out that this property is going to be short sale and does NOT charge any fees of any kind upfront or at any time during or at the end of the sale other than the Realtor's commission- then these activities do not fall under the provisions of 501.1377.
It is now against the law for anyone except for an attorney to charge upfront fees for doing a short sale. No companies may charge any fees until the short sale is completed. If you are using a short sale company who is going to charge a fee at the closing- then you are within the provisions and must use the proper disclosures and adhere to the 24 hour waiting period.
You can read the letter here:
You can read our short sale series at: www.Short-Sales-Florida.com.
Contact Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtors®, International Properties and Investments, Inc. Licensed Realtors® in Florida at 561-753-0135 to list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Lake Worth, Hypoluxo Island, Lantana, West Palm Beach and the rest of Palm Beach County Florida and Port St Lucie Florida. We are accepting referrals.
Call us today at 561.753.0135 or Toll Free 800.444.3316. Contact us by email if you prefer by clicking on email me on the right side of this page under our profile.
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P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Palm Beach County Florida and Port St Lucie Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. Call us at 561-753-0135 to find out more about Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Short Sales.
Permission to repost, reblog or use this post to pass this information along By Katerina Gasset, with link back to original post here.*Florida Short Sales- Important Update From Florida Attorney General*
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
This makes a lot of sense. You should get paid on services completed, not services attempted. Without this provision you could see there could be a lot of abuse from scammers. They will be some that will probably try anyway(:
Unfortunately, there have been many instances of companies charging up front fees.
Happy Thanksgiving to and your family, Katerina and Nestor!
It was about time. . I wish that they will expand that to the whole country. .
Katerina... what's sad is that why did this take so long for them to come out with this law?... especially in Florida. I saw this coming a mile away, over a year ago. Especially when you had other companies out there trying to take advantage of short sales and foreclosures... the loss mitigation companies are popping up all over the place. I know Utah inacted a law about loss mitigation companies, that they have to comply with a handful of things... I just don't get it, why doesn't the gov't step in and make these things a federal law... make it the same for every state??? And why are these things done so last minute? Thanks for the update.
Jeff- Because our Republic is based on honoring states' rights. Each state needs to exersise their own congressional powers to enact their own fraud prevention laws. The less the Feds are involved with my life, my community, my state; the better.
There will always be scumbag scammers especially when times get bad and that they will always find a way around the law. Now they are hounding attorneys and trying to set up shop with attorneys so they can launder the upfront fees through attorney's trust accounts.
In the end, it comes back to personal responsibility- Don't sign papers you don't understand and don't believe what everyone tells you. Scams have been around since the Genesis days and are not going away any time soon.
Kat - great informative post. So many agents are now "specializing" in short sales, it's important for them to know what they can and can't do. It's not my specialty, so when someone calls me to list one, I refer them to a real specialist in short sales. We can't be everything to everyone, and it's not a case of being the Specialist de Jour.
Sharon- we close our short sales and we take listings all over the state of Florida. What we do is we colist the property with an agent in that area who does the lockbox, mls, marketing, buyers, showings and once they have an offer, we do the short sale part and split the fee. Eveybody wins. Happy Thanksgiving.
Bill- now they try something else, there is always someone there ready to take advantage of the vulnerable.
Marzena- Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
Fernando- many states are following similar steps.