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The Butterfly Effect on a Sacramento Short Sale
I received approval yesterday on a short sale in Roseville, and it was a long time coming. This was one of those deals in which the bank refused to believe that the seller had a hardship and we had to approach it from a different direction. This attitude is what separates this particular Sacramento short sale agent from other short sale agents in Sacramento, among other characteristics. When I believe in a transaction, I will fight it to the death, and I’m not talking about my demise or my sellers’.
See, I realize that the seller is typically right. If the seller has a hardship, the seller has a hardship. If the bank doesn’t agree, it’s because the information has not been either received by the bank or was interpreted incorrectly by the bank. Sometimes, it’s as Paul Newman put it: a failure to communicate. Just because the bank said no is no reason to give up. Especially if the seller has a case, and a documented case at that. Sometimes, you can change one little thing and it alters the entire outcome.
Now, you may not be a fan of Ray Bradbury, but a science fiction story he published on the day I was born pops into my head. The story is A Sound of Thunder, and over the years it’s been referred to as the Butterfly Effect — about a guy who goes back in time to kill a beast and royally screws up. The hunter is warned not to step foot off the path lest he change history. As these stories go, the hunter did indeed step off the path and he squashed a butterfly, which explained why history was altered upon his return. It was a different world. Some words had vanished, people behaved oddly and there was some new guy in office at the White House.
And that’s what can happen in a short sale. The Butterfly Effect. You’re not going to take Fox News off the air, but you can go back in time and rewrite a hardship letter or submit missing documents, and you can start over. You can change the outcome by fixing a mistake. You do not, I should point out, “start over again,” as that would be redundant. You only start over. If you say start over again to me I will want to whack your head with a ruler and scream at you about whether your slept through your English classes, but I will refrain. Because I know you did.
However, if you’re a seller in the Sacramento area who needs to do a short sale, call this Sacramento short sale agent, and I will do my best to close it for you. I am not agent who simply lists short sales. I am a Sacramento short sale agent who is hell bent on closing short sales.
The Wii Perfect 10 Exercise Game
This Sacramento real estate agent is a firm believer in shades of grey, and I am most certainly not talking about you-know-what book. In fact, I have not read that book. I’m in the minority, I fear. I probably should read it, if for no other reason than to know what other people are talking about. However, I am writing today to say there really are no shades of grey when it comes to learning and knowledge.
It’s pretty much black and white. There are 2 ways to learn. From a third party or from yourself. Let me tell you, learning from a third party is much preferable yet so few of us learn our lessons that way, myself included. Yup, I’m a “let’s stick that fork in the wall socket again because I cannot believe what just happened” kinda person. OK, maybe I’ve evolved a bit since I was five. In any case, I am hoping that my readers can learn from my tragic experience with the Wii Fit Plus Perfect 10 exercise game and not make the same mistake.
I regularly workout with the Wii Fit Plus. It’s pretty cool, and it means I don’t have to leave my computer, get dressed, drive down to the gym, workout, come back home again, and waste all that time when I could be helping sellers and buyers to sell or buy a home in Sacramento. I can simply get up from my desk, turn on the flat panel TV, pick up the Wii and step on the balance board for my 30-minute workout. It’s a quick break. Good way to deal with stress generated by Sacramento short sales as well. And if I have to pause to answer the phone, that’s doable.
What I didn’t bank on was what could happen by changing my workout routine of ordinary push ups and leg extensions. Ooo, I thought, what is this Perfect 10 exercise game? I’m telling you, don’t do it. Oh, sure, Wii gives you a warning that says don’t shake your hips too hard, and you think to yourself, how could I possibly shake my hips too hard. I know how to shake that booty, and I’ve been doing it for years. OK, maybe I haven’t been shaking that booty for 20 years or so. This particular Wii exercise game involves swinging your hips to the left or the right, forward or backward, to bump a ball. The screen presents you with 3 or 4 balls, and each ball has a number. Your task is to add up those balls to the number 10. You get 20 screens, and it is timed.
This is not something a person who was born during the Eisenhower years should be doing unsupervised. Yes, that is the problem. I was unsupervised. At least I didn’t hit my head. I’m hoping I can walk again in a few days.
Selling Sacramento Short Sales in December
I will see you four Bank of America short sales and raise you one Wells Fargo short sale. Selling Sacramento short sales is like playing poker and winning all of the time. So far this December I have closed 5 short sales in Sacramento, six if you count an intense client whom I referred to a Sacramento short sale agent better suited to handle the more colorful characters. Before the month ends, another 6 of my short sales will close, bringing my total for the month to seven Bank of America short sales, three Wells Fargo short sales and an SLS short sale. That’s not a bad December for December being a relatively slow month, even without a partridge in a pear tree.
Most people who do a short sale can choose when to list their home as a short sale. Since there are historically fewer numbers of people who are willing to cross the desert barefoot and without water to do a short sale, it’s better to put a home like that on the market when there are larger numbers of buyers available. There will be larger numbers of buyers in January than in December.
Yes, I realize there is no inventory in Sacramento. As such, I am careful to keep my fingers out of its hot oil when I gingerly drop a home for sale into it and step away from the stove. After it’s a golden color, I scoop it up and let it cool on paper towels. If it’s not cooked all the way through, I cook it longer on one side, even if it’s a little browner, because people only see the golden side when they eat it. I’m pretty darned organized.
I’ve got my real estate predictions for 2013 completed. I expect to list a lot of homes in Sacramento this coming January and February. Probably not enough homes to meet the pent-up demand. Interest rates are extremely attractive, under 4%, and the government announced it intends to keep rates low until unemployment dips to 6.5%, which will be a very long time. But when it comes to a short sale, people can decide the best time to list a home, and that time is not around the holidays. Selling during the holidays is not really necessary for most people. Which means this Sacramento short sale agent can take a vacation. Yowsa!
Don’t think I am going hogwild off the beaten path, though, I am bringing my laptop.
Sacramento Short Sales are Like Snowflakes
You can do all of the research in the world online and still come up with the wrong answer about a Sacramento short sale. That’s because no two short sales are identical. Short sales are like snowflakes. Each is different from each other. Sure, you can try to categorize them and say, oh, a Bank of America FHA short sale is so bad it makes you beg for a bullet between the eyes to put you out of your misery, but that wouldn’t necessarily be true. Sometimes, you might trade having your guts stomped on by King Kong.
Yet, this Sacramento short sale agent continues to list B of A FHA short sales because I am an optimist. I’m one of those glass-half-full people, and I especially am happy if it’s half-full of champagne. I toast you Bank of America, for your FHA short sales and the opportunity it presents for you to overcome this monster of an obstacle.
So, while you can partially classify a short sale by the bank and the investor, the condition of the property, location and appeal of the home in Sacramento, and the seller’s particular hardship all play an important role in the short sale. You can tweak any one of those factors and conditions, and it will change the outcome of your short sale. Throw into the mix a second loan, a Fannie Mae investor and any kind of financing that was not purchase money, and flip that switch on the blender — turn it up high, so high that the contents blow off the lid and that icky, gooey mess hits the ceiling and drips back in your face. How does it taste? Yuck is right.
Here is what some Sacramento short sale sellers will hear this month: It’s OK that the buyer walked because we’ll find another. Yes, it looks like some little thugs and thugettes ripped out the AC unit in the yard. Fannie Mae wants a higher price than an appraisal will support. But a good Sacramento short sale agent will persevere, soldier on, and drag that short sale kicking and screaming to the closing table.
The moral of this story is if you have a question about your short sale, you should ask your Sacramento short sale agent. Don’t go looking for answers online because what you will find is somebody else’s nightmare, and you probably won’t stumble upon your own situation. Each short sale is different. Unique. It is a snowflake.
Short Contingent vs Pending Short Lender Approval
What’s the world coming to when you can’t make idle threats anymore? Like, you can’t tell a guy you’re gonna hit him in the head with a shovel and bury his body in the desert without some jury awarding him $20 million in punitive damages. Even if he is a porn guy, or soft porn or whatever. Criminy. And you can’t threaten to burn down somebody’s house at a City Council meeting, either. Whatever happened to freedom of expression? Huh? Why can’t you just talk off the top of your head? Vent a little? It’s like words have meaning or something, and people take you seriously.
We need to go back to the days of Joe and Curly and Moe. When you could just poke somebody in the eyes with two fingers and nobody cared. Maybe zing a pie of whipped cream in a face.
People get frustrated. That’s pretty much a given. It doesn’t take much sometimes. Take Sacramento short sales for example. Buyers are very frustrated when they read listings in MLS that are a short sale. MetroList has attempted to clear up the confusion by offering two status choices after an offer has been received. But the problem with MetroList is a buyer can’t see the change when it’s active short contingent. That status modifier is hidden in the bottom right corner of the listing the buyer receives.
Agents don’t much understand it either. I know because as a Sacramento short sale agent some of my listings are listed as “active short contingent” and some are listed as “pending short lender approval.” Short Contingent means we have an offer. It also means we are open to back-up offers, and we might already have a few. An inquiring mind should call and ask. Bear in mind that a true back-up offer incorporates a purchase agreement addendum. No PAA, no backup. And a seller is not required to sign a back-up offer. Pending Short Lender Approval means we don’t want any back-up offers, and there are no more showings.
If you’ve got a gripe with the way Active Short Contingent shows up in MLS for a buyer, take that gripe to MetroList. That’s who your beef is with. It’s not with this Sacramento short sale agent. And watch where you walk. There are banana peels on the ground.
