If you live in Manhattan or Brooklyn it certainly does! Once you decide to sell your home, you’re probably revved up and ready to get it on the market. However, you might want to caution yourself on this approach. While you may love your décor and your home, you need to try to imagine it through the eyes of your prospective buyers, looking for short sales and foreclosures in Brooklyn. Will everyone find your pink bathroom appealing? Will those few mint green cabinet doors help you sell your home? Chances are, probably not. Think about changing those before bringing in your first potential buyers.

Why Does It Matter?

The object of selling a home is to get the best possible price for your property. However, those who were negatively affected by the 2008 housing crisis may find themselves facingthe much talked about crisis, foreclosures NYC. For these folks, selling is even more of a priority. So those who wish to sell their homes quickly need to consider the effect that those ‘small’ details may have on the impression their house is leaving. Otherwise, they may find themselves with a home that is just sitting on the market for endless months.

Even if a person isn’t trying to avoid foreclosure and sell quickly, they will have an interest in getting their property listed and sold in quickly on the short sale NYC market. The longer a home is on the market, the less money is likely to be made on it. It’s imperative to get your homes décor in order before putting it on the market so that it will move.

As it seems in NYC and Brooklyn, you not only need a strong real estate broker, you also need a lawyer and an interior designer. This is New York City living!

If you’re trying to sell your home because you’re facing foreclosure in Brooklyn, Manhattan or Westchester County, you’re probably anxious to get the ball rolling. You don’t have the time, or inclination to listen to folks blabber on about home repairs and décor projects to help move your home quickly. In fact, you may wonder just how in the world these pro-décor people expect you to afford improvements if you can’t afford your home. Good news for victims of foreclosure in Brooklyn, and New York City! You don’t have to put tons of money into updates for them to make a big wallop on the appearance of your home.

Go with Brooklyn Style Improvements if You Can

You’ve surely heard of people who do everything themselves. Sometimes, this is a great money saving tool, but it can also cost you if you don’t know what you’re doing. Take on DIY projects as your experience and abilities allow. However, if you’ve never seen an electrical wire, don’t attempt to rewire your home. Make sense?

Simple Projects to Avoid a Drawn Out Foreclosure in Brooklyn

Although you’re going to want to leave the big projects to the professionals, there are small tasks you can attack that don’t cost much, don’t waste time, and make a significant impact. For example, take a peek at your cabinet and drawer pulls. Are they dingy and worn? Take them off and spray paint them with a metallic paint. You can do the same for the light fixtures, hinges, and even doorknobs. Look around with an open mind in search of these kinds of easy, cheap projects to make your home sparkle. This is one way to find investors for the phrase, and desperate reality of short sales NYC. There are multiple ways to handle and foreclosure crisis in New York City, and the borough of Brooklyn, NYC.

Since the 2008 housing crisis, families everywhere have been devastated due to foreclosures. Families in New York City were hit twice as hard between the 2008 housing crisis and Hurricane Sandy – between these two catastrophes; homeowners in New York City have been living in despair for quiet some time now.

Many people have become depressed, and feel they have no hope for the future. Lives change from a foreclosure, and there seems to be no way out. If you are facing foreclosure in NYC, do something about it before it’s too late. Seek counseling for yourself and your family. Premier Real Estate NYC is offering free consultations for homeowners in New York City, and Long Island.

Counseling for Couples

Couples are hit the hardest through a foreclosure. Each may blame the other for getting behind in the mortgage and other bills. Poor financial decisions are the number one reason for divorce in America. Working with a counselor can help you both find ways to stop the blame and work towards building a promising and responsible future.

Children May Not Understand

Your children are affected by foreclosures and moving forcibly from your home. The only thing they are concerned with is staying in their school and neighborhood with their friends. Changing schools and meeting new people is an adjustment, so counselors can be the one they communicate their anger to.

How to Deal With Family and Friends

You may feel embarrassed about your situation. How do you tell your family and friends you fell behind so bad in your mortgage that you now must move. It’s hard enough for your own family to accept. You don’t need judgment and ridicule from outside family members. Counselors can help you deal with the pressures of explaining your situation and the negativity you’ll receive from outsiders.

Once you receive your free consultation from Premier Real Estate NYC, what should your next move be? Well, your realtor, in this case Premier Real Estate NYC, will tell you that you must ensure your home is presentable, making it seem move-in ready for buyers.

Living in your home for so long, you may have grown accustomed to its flaws. It is normal wear and tear on a home; however, buyers will look at it in another light. Here are 5 inexpensive ideas to make your home interior shine to better your chances to sell your home in a short sale.

Clean Your Light Fixtures

Have you ever just looked up at your light fixtures, especially the globe lights? How do bugs get in there you wonder? Well, turn the light off and once it’s cooled down, grab a ladder and carefully take the globe down. Dust the bulbs or replace with energy efficient bulbs, if you have them. Clean the light fixture cover with hot water, let it air dry, then replace.

Clean Heating Vents and Registers

Grab your vacuum hose and brush and start cleaning the vent and register areas. If the dirt and dust is bad, grab a bowl of hot soapy water and a cleaning brush to clean it thoroughly. You can remove the covers and give a deep cleaning if necessary. You might think this information is not valuable, but for a homeowner in hardship, anything and everything helps.

Change Switch and Electrical Socket Plates

Most plates can be removed and cleaned in hot soapy water. For those plates that are not, you can grab new ones at the dollar store. Decorative plates can add a touch of décor to your short sale NYC home.

Clean Up the Stove

Clean the inside and outside of your stove. Allow oven cleaner to sit for a few hours and then clean. If the drip pans are grungy, you can replace them for about $3 each from your local hardware store.

Make Your Hardware Sparkle

Door knobs, door hinges, and cabinet hardware can sparkle again with brass or glass cleaner. Touch up around your entire home.

A foreclosure in any city, especially in New York City, feels almost as if you are being pushed from your home. In your new home, it will take time adjusting, and you may not be in the mood to decorate. However, the best thing to keep your spirits up after a foreclosure, and start your new life, is to unpack and give your new home the best look you can. Each of the following tips are renter friendly.

Change the Lightening Scheme for Each Room
To help save on electricity costs, place low wattage light bulbs in each room. The lower the watt, the more restful the room will be.

Add Flowers
The right flowers can make a room feel alive or romantic. You can purchase faux flowers if you don’t have much of a green thumb. Otherwise, you can add green foliage around the home, such as palm leaf plants. The windowsill or the corner of your counter makes a great place for a small herb garden and can save you a few dollars.

Purchase Remnants
To give old furniture a new look, you can purchase remnants to cover your pillows, make a decorative tablecloth, or add décor to your draperies. Remnant carpeting is also available and can help spruce up a room.

Create Creative Storage Space
You may have had to downsize after your foreclosure. So make the most of your space. Instead of a regular end table, place small bookshelves together and store items in there.

Make a Work Of Art
If you no longer have an area to keep your buffet, consider hanging a few plates on the wall with wire plate hangers. Soon, you’ll have a place for them again. Create an illusion of more space by hanging mirrors in various rooms. If you have vases, gather up a collection by the fireplace or corner of a room for a dramatic effect.

Add a Splash of Color to the Wall
As a renter, you aren’t always able to paint. So, grab some painters tape and make shapes on the wall such as squares, rectangles, or even long vertical or horizontal lines.
Believe it or not, a good real estate company can help you and your family in a number of ways when it comes to avoiding a foreclosure or dealing with a short sale. Contact Premier Real Estate NYC today for a free consultation and see what rights you have as homeowner in New York City.

If you are thinking of trying to rid yourself of the burden of debt through a short sale you should read this article; trying to do it alone is not a good idea. You should reach out to a short sales specialist, like Premier Real Estate NYC, or a professional real estate agent, preferably one that specializes in short sales in New York City. Here are three important questions you should ask to ensure they know what they are doing and are right for you.

Questions #1: What is your short sales experience?

Make sure to ask this question non-inquisitive, as you don’t want to offend the short sale agent. A short sale in NYC can be very complicated and delicate, and many fail. The two main reasons are because the home never qualified for a short sale, or someone failed to keep the paperwork in check. A seasoned short sales agent should be able to go in depth as to:

• How many sales they have closed
• How successful their bank offers have been
• A realistic timeline of closing
• Will stress to you the importance of getting paperwork in, completed, and on time

Questions #2: What type of information would you need from me?

This is often a good test question if you are not comfortable with the answer they gave you regarding their short sales experience. The bottom line is that they will need everything from you. A financial package should be requested from the lender. Each lender has a different package, so there is not a generic one. This package will include basic information such as bank statements, tax paperwork, paycheck stubs, hardship letters, amongst other things.

Questions #3: How long will this short sale take?

This is another good test. Many new real estate agents are trying to get any deal to close. They will say whatever it takes to land a client. So, if an agent tells you they can strike a deal with your lending institution in under a month, turn away. Short sales take time and there is a lot of paperwork involved. A month is highly unlikely.

For more information and to receive a free consultation, contact Premier Real Estate NYC.

Going through a foreclosure in NYC, or even a short sale places a tremendous amount of financial pressure on homeowners. You may have to find a new home, change your child’s school, place items in storage, or have a longer commute to work.

One way to find a bit of financial relief is holding a garage or foreclosure sale. This is a way to put money in your pockets, especially if you prepare ahead of time.

Sell Your Items to Save for a Rainy Day
The internet makes it easy to sell your valuable items across the United States. Sites such as eBay and Craigslist allow you to take pictures of your items and buyers can bid on them. Save the money you have made and keep it for a rainy day.

Eliminate Excess Storage Fees
The more items you place in storage, the more space you will need. You can incur a high monthly storage facility fee. You can decrease or eliminate your need for storage fees by selling your larger items.

Have Money to Help You Move
Once it’s time for you to move, the money from your short sale moving sale can help you with moving costs or utility connections. Everything will be moving so fast, you otherwise may not have had time to save your money to do so.

Premier Real Estate NYC helps homeowners prepare for foreclosure, contact us today for a free consultation.

A short sale is an agreement between you and your mortgage lender that you are eligible to sell your home for less than you owe, it doesn’t mean you are 100% free from that balance. You could have a tax liability for it. Premier Real Estate NYC is one of the few real estate companies in New York City that helps homeowners understand their rights in a foreclosure.

Prior to the 2007 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act and Debt Cancellation, the balance was normally taxed as ordinary income. This seems to have come just in time for the 2008 housing crisis. However, since this act, your debt could be forgiven. Here are the 6 steps to file your debt cancellation during tax time.

Step 1: By February 2nd, you should receive the Form 1099-C – Cancellation of Debt, from your lender.
Step 2: Download the IRS Form 982, Reduction of Tax Attributes Due to Discharge of Indebtedness.
Step 3: Complete the beginning of this form, including your name and tax identification number.
Step 4: Check the box on line 1e: Discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness.
Step 5: Complete line 2: Total amount of discharged indebtedness excluded from gross income. Here, you will use the information from Box 2 on the 1099-C form.
Step 6: Attach your completed Form 982 to your federal tax return.

There are a few caveats of which you may be responsible for some of that difference from your short sale NYC. Don’t believe you have a pass from filing this on your taxes if you do not receive your Form 1099-C. This may have been submitted to the IRS. So, either report it yourself or contact your lender for the copy. This will help you avoid a tax audit or receiving an automatic tax bill from the IRS.

Once the 2008 housing crisis hit, there were so many pets left behind to defend for themselves. It’s hard for families to leave their pets behind, yet they may have had no choice. Families were struggling with finances, feeding, clothing, and housing their families. An additional mouth, their pet, adds on to the stress. Many homeowners in foreclosure look towards a company like Premier Real Estate NYC to assist them with all of their troubles during a foreclosure.

Also, renting is an issue. Many landlords want a pet deposit and monthly pet rent of $25 and upwards. So, is bringing your pet an option for you after you find yourself in a foreclosure in New York City?

It depends if you do have a close connection with your pet. If it’s just yourself and you can find a friend or family to keep your pet until you are stable, do so. It’s more difficult if you have children though. Moving from your home after a foreclosure in NYC is stressful and confusing for children. They may find more comfort in having their pet with them.

If you find a pet friendly home, try asking to sign a longer lease with the landlord as a bargaining chip for a lower monthly pet fee. You also could offer a higher pet security deposit, which is refunded when you move out. You can also ask a company like Premier Real Estate NYC to offer you a free consultation.

If there are no other options, try finding your pet a suitable home or take them to an animal shelter in hopes of an adopting family falling in love with your pet.

Since the 2008 housing crisis, 2012 has shown us a promising future. Foreclosures and short sales in NYC seemed to have been on the decline, as with the entire country. However, it seems that now, it’s not the case.

The state of New York is third in the country with a high number of residential mortgages in foreclosure or delinquent. 2013 marked a record high of NY homeowners losing their homes. There is one main reason for this – a backlog of delinquent mortgage loans. According to the   February RealtyTrac report, New York has increased their scheduled foreclosure auctions, up 77%. There are increased bank repossessions and default notices being issued as well. Foreclosures NYC activity has a 40% annual increase in activity.

According to the February RealtyTrac report, New York has 10,880 owner-vacated foreclosures. That’s the 2^nd highest in the country, with Illinois preceding, and New Jersey and Ohio following behind.

So, what does this mean? Until all this paperwork is straightened out, and homeowners start to look towards help from reputable companies such as Premier Real Estate NYC to help with pre-foreclosure issues, the foreclosures NYC trend will continue.

Find out more at Premierrealestatenyc.com