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Winning the Cat Box Wars is Like Closing a Difficult Short Sale
Getting my cats to switch over to the Breeze litter box system is sort of like getting a short sale — with all of its moving and opposing parts — to close escrow. It becomes a matter sometimes of who will be last person standing at the OK Corral — who has the most staying power. Who will emerge the victor — will it be the 3 cats who have always used litter and are not exactly known for changing their preferences? Or, will it be me, the caretaker, who has to put up with a few extremely stinky cat boxes?
The way the Breeze switchover works is you have to stop cleaning the cats’ existing litter boxes and wait for your cats’ cleanliness instincts to kick in. The idea is when they no longer have a clean cat box, they will embrace the Breeze litter box. When that happens, you can remove the stinky old cat box and they should continue to use the new Breeze litter box. So, who has the most stamina? Me or the cats?
I understand stamina and perseverance. I am a real estate agent in Sacramento with extensive experience in closing short sales. Further, I have sold more than $65 million in short sales, according to the January 2014 Trendgraphix report, which is more than other real estate agent over a 7-county area. When I say that not every short sale is a slam dunk, thank you, ma’am, you better believe it.
A short sale is closing next week that had been denied 3 or 4 times — I can’t recall. I’ve been working on it for more than a year. The buyer has been waiting all of this time, very patiently. When the nearly impossible happened and we received the short sale approval letter from the first lender, we still had a battle to settle with the second, which involved more negotiation with the first lender. In the end, both lenders finally agreed to close. Each gave a little bit to make it work.
But bottom line, the agents and the buyers and the sellers all clung to the hope it would close. We didn’t lie down in the street and moan: Oh, shoot me now and put me out of my misery. And that’s why I think I will win the cat box wars. Plus, I found evidence of usage this morning, which is cause to celebrate. Oh, how a little poop excites a weary warrior!
Selling a Short Sale to a Person You Know Could be Short Sale Fraud
A potential short sale seller in West Sacramento called a few days to ask questions about selling her home to a relative. Friends told her she could sell the home to a Living Trust, which her son controls, and then she wouldn’t really be selling the home to a relative — what bunk. This type of short sale transaction could very well violate an arms-length agreement. I can’t believe any lawyer would suggest that idea, but it’s possible because lawyers are not infallible. They make mistakes. Plus, they can then charge a client even more money to build a defense. Pretty good racket. Just think: Better call Saul.
This seller said she read in some of my blogs that it’s not a good idea to try to pull the wool over the lender’s eyes because it can come back to bite you. Hard. Right on the butt. I realize people get emotional about their homes and want the real estate to stay in the family, but if you’re doing a short sale in which you have to sign an arms length agreement, it’s not worth the consequences. The lender could say it’s mortgage fraud and reverse the seller’s release of personal liability, not to mention, prosecute everybody involved.
If you want to read about what recently happened to a seller and his real estate agent regarding short sale mortgage fraud, you should read this article in the Modesto Bee. There were so many alleged wrong doings, it made my head spin. The federal prosecutors say the agent and seller conspired. Here are some of the allegations:
- The agent wrote the short sale hardship letter for the seller.
- The hardship letter misrepresented the seller’s ability to make the mortgage payments.
- The seller and agent made false statements about the seller’s assets.
- The agent and seller misrepresented knowing the buyer.
- The seller sold to the buyer, which was the listing agent’s son, as a straw buyer.
- The seller gave the buyer the money to purchase the home in exchange for the buyer giving it back to the seller.
The buyer’s agent also gave the listing agent 75% of the buyer’s agent commission, which makes me wonder — what about the buyer’s agent in all of this? Is that agent’s broker liable? What about the listing agent’s son? Sounds like a group effort.
At this point, the seller apparently has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. If the agent is convicted, she could face 30 years in jail plus a $1 million fine. This might be a good time for the agent to watch the Netflex series Orange is the New Black.
Before you judge that listing agent too harshly, consider the fact that it’s possible she doesn’t really sell much real estate and just happens to hold a real estate license, like about 80% of the agents out there. It explains why she might not know any better but it doesn’t relieve her from responsibility to have known.
The Sacramento Short Sales Nobody Wants
It’s not surprising that I often agree to tackle the Sacramento short sales that no other real estate agent in Sacramento wants to handle. That’s because I don’t discriminate. As long as the seller’s situation warrants a short sale and this agent can see that short sale closing, I will list it, sell it, negotiate it and close it. If I don’t believe the short sale will close, I don’t accept the listing. Keeps life simple.
But what I think will close and what another agent in Sacramento believes will close is often two different things. That’s because there are agents who will not touch a short sale in which the seller owes money to more than one lender. These agents do not want to work on a short sale with two loans or more. They’ve been burned once or twice by second lenders so they automatically assume all second lenders are reluctant to cooperate with a short sale or they want to blackball certain lenders, which is so wrong.
Every short sale is unique. Every short sale is different. What a second lender might do in one transaction could be the opposite in another. Any Sacramento short sale agent worth her salt knows that it’s a defeatist attitude to automatically wish for the worst.
I’m thinking the reason that agents might lose enthusiasm for a short sale is because they probably haven’t closed enough of them. According to Trendgraphix, I have closed more than $65 million in short sales, more than any other short sale agent in the Sacramento seven-county area over the past 8 years. I’ve learned a thing or two negotiating this volume of short sales. The most important is not to be overly judgmental and to deal with the facts at hand. If it’s a little bit extra work for me, so what? That’s what I’m paid to do.
Just closed a short sale last month in which well-meaning buyer’s agents predicted disaster. They didn’t want their buyers to make an offer on the home because they thought the roof needed too much work. You know what? The roof never came up, and it sold FHA. The home inspector did not find any problems, either. Agents also thought the home was priced too high, yet it sold for a little bit more than its original list price. Other agents complained that the short sale had two loans and would take too long to get approval, if the second lender agreed at all because some agents had a bad experience with that particular lender.
The facts are we accepted an offer on October 18th, and we closed escrow on December 23rd. We had short sale approval from both lenders before the end of November. Plus, the seller pocketed $3,000 through the HAFA short sale program at closing. Everybody was happy, except those naysayer buyer’s agents who did not go to escrow due to ignorance.
Not All Short Sale Homes in Elk Grove Should Sell as a Short Sale
The number of Elk Grove short sales are declining
Why would a homeowner in Sacramento or Elk Grove do a short sale if the homeowner didn’t have to? That’s a question that’s been plaguing me because from a logical point of view it just doesn’t make any sense. What kind of real estate agent would railroad a seller into short sale status if that seller could sell as a regular traditional sale and not take the hit to her credit report, much less her emotional state of mind? As a Sacramento REALTOR, we are all required by the Code of Ethics to do what is in the best interests of our sellers.
To be fair, railroad might be a strong word. An agent might be completely clueless, I suppose, or an agent might be tempted to take the path of least resistance, that which seems easiest to her. Selling a home on the edge of a short sale as a regular sale can be tricky and complicated, but it can be done because I do it. Fast appreciation from spring of 2013 has turned many would-be Sacramento short sales into equity sales. It makes my heart break when I see a home sold as a short sale within a few dollars of being a traditional equity sale. It makes me wonder why a little more money could not have been squeezed from the sale, and why nobody tried to do it. It is laziness? Ignorance? Or, does the term railroad apply?
Take this homeowner in Elk Grove, for example. This is a guy who wanted to put his home on the market last fall because his wife was losing her job — a typical story in today’s real estate market. They called because they wanted to hire the best Sacramento short sale agent they could find. The problem was the home was cluttered, not that it needed to sell as a short sale. OK, every room was filled to the brim just about. Bedrooms filled with boxes. It was like a person came home from the grocery store to unpack the bags and just never put anything away except stuff that needed refrigeration.
The sellers were told to move out and into their rental property. Once the home in Elk Grove was vacated and the carpets were shampooed, it would show very well. The sellers were fairly well positioned to salvage credit and make a tidy profit. Instead, shortly thereafter, the sellers hired a “friend of a friend” and sold the home as a short sale . . . and a fixer, to boot. Later, the sellers sheepishly apologized to their first real estate agent and admitted they had probably done the wrong thing; they had panicked.
What’s done is done. No need to say anything negative about their present real estate agent.
My mother always said if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Of course, our REALTOR Code of Ethics requires it, too.
Bank of America and HAFA Short Sale Credit Report
Stepping foot on a public beach with seagulls for the very first time is daunting if all you worry about is whether a bird will poop on your head, but that’s the very thought that ran through my mind when I first walked along the ocean in California. Same thing at our resort on the Florida Gulf at Marco Island — although there are a lot more birds and fewer people. Fewer people in a resort around Christmas time means we are not forced to make a reservation for dinner, which was a huge drawback at Four Seasons and the Fairmont in Hawaii.
When a person is on vacation, a person wants to relax and not be subject to stupid rules and regulations with unnecessary restraints on time. A person expects the resort to anticipate her every desire, like this Sacramento short sale agent tries to do for her own clients. A person wants the leisure to make decisions if and when decisions are necessary. Clocks? Who needs clocks? Cellphones? OK, I do carry my cell. My house sitters could call with an emergency and one of our cats could be choking. Or I might need to identify a bird we just spotted using my handy dandy Audubon bird app. Or I might need to know if there is a Pinata party planned for tonight on Plants vs. Zombies. Important details.
I called a client on our first night at Marco Island to let her know that her short sale in Roseville had closed. She is fighting with Bank of America because the negotiators at the bank don’t seem to realize that the guidelines for HAFA short sale credit reporting have changed. My seller is so polite and nice. When the negotiator told her she needed to put her on hold while she discussed the situation with her supervisor, my client acquiesced. See, I suspect the negotiator used this time to go down the hall and buy a Diet Coke.
I would have demanded to speak with the supervisor myself. Tell ya what, I would have snarled, I’ll hold and you go get the supervisor. We sent a copy of the guidelines to the negotiator. We copied the guideline verbiage and cited section number. We sent the C.A.R. memo about credit reporting for a HAFA short sale.
Because I am not a lawyer, I can’t really fight with the bank at this point. This is a fight my client will need to undertake herself to make sure the reporting is done correctly. In a HAFA short sale for which there was no foreclosure proceeding started, the guidelines say the short sale must be reported to the credit bureau as Paid in Full. Not paid in full for less than agreed. Other Bank of America borrowers have had to fight this fight after closing, but they have won, and I have full confidence that my former seller will win as well.
Photo: Marco Island, Florida, by Elizabeth Weintraub
