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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!
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.
You Can Keep a Short Sale Off Your Credit Report
There are short sale sellers in Sacramento who do not know that if they fit the guidelines, it is possible to do a short sale, be current on your mortgage payments, and NOT have a short sale show up on your credit report after closing. In fact, there can be no ding to credit whatsoever and a seller can go out the next day and buy a new home, if she so desires. They don’t know this because a) their Sacramento short sale agent doesn’t know it, or b) their short sale agent doesn’t want to bother with it because the agent just wants to close the deal the fastest and easiest way possible.
Everybody knows that if a seller is in default, that short sale has a greater chance of being approved, even if there is no hardship. That’s the easy road for lots of agents with short vision. They tell their sellers to stop making mortgage payments so they can do the short sale, but that is not always necessary.
Granted, I don’t have a lot of sellers who fit the parameters to be current, but when it’s a possibility, it’s often worth it to give it a shot. I have to do what is best for my sellers — as hokey as that might sound to some of you, it’s the truth.
Sometimes, it doesn’t work out. When it doesn’t, then the alternative is to go into default. Of course, the bank won’t tell you that. The bank will almost always never directly say that a seller needs to stop making her mortgage payment. Think about being a shareholder of that bank. Do you want that bank telling customers to go into default? No, you don’t. A bank will instead say there is no hardship.
You will look at the hardship letter you wrote and say yes, there is a hardship. What is wrong? The key is the seller is not in default. Stop paying at that point and, when the seller is 30 to 60 days in arrears, that short sale will most likely get approved. But if you want to try to do a short sale while you are current, hire a smart Sacramento short sale agent who knows how to do it.
A Sacramento Short Sale Lifespan
For the first time in my life, which is almost since the dawn of humankind, MLS has not immediately loaded on my computer when accessed. I have an internet connection. MetroList is just not responding. It won’t open in Safari nor Firefox. It partially loaded in Firefox and then quit. There is no joy in Mudville; it’s trouble with a capital T that rhymes with P and stands for poop, and the Grinch has stolen Christmas.
We count on things in our life to always be there for us and never change. To work when we expect them to work. But that’s not how life works. Stuff goes wrong. People let us down; they die.
But Sacramento short sales can go on practically forever. I have a few I’ve been working on now for more than a year. A short sale doesn’t die. It doesn’t blow up. It doesn’t just go away and, in some cases, the short sale bank won’t even file a foreclosure notice. It’s not having the Notice of Default filed that can keep a short sale alive and pumping out blood long after the arteries have been sliced.
This is the little known secret that agents don’t realize. Once a bank says NO to an agent, many will give up. Not this Sacramento real estate agent. I keep on pushing until either the seller collapses from exhaustion or the bank says: All right, you got it. Here is your short sale approval. Few sellers are outright rejected in this day and age. This is not 2005, Dorothy.
If you want to work with a Sacramento short sale agent who has closed hundreds of short sales, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. I really doubt you will find an agent in the Sacramento Valley who knows more about short sales.
Success is Focusing on the Joy
Sometimes, people tell me that my blog is just what they need to read for that particular day, and I hope today’s blog is that inspiration for some of you. Today I want to talk about focusing on the joy.
One of my Elk Grove sellers called yesterday after putting her home into escrow to personally say thank you for the wonderful job of negotiation — which was appreciated by this Sacramento real estate agent. Everybody likes to be appreciated. I am especially thrilled when my clients are thrilled. It makes what I do meaningful and worthwhile. It also validates that all real estate agents are not the same, something often overlooked in this industry.
There are those in the public who believe all agents are identical to each other, and therefore, we should all be paid as little as possible, because they sadly believe that what agents do is something a trained monkey can do. It’s an insulting attitude toward agents, but I can’t help what other people believe. It’s also craziness. Get this, I have had a former client once ask me to cut my already approved commission and yet spend more money to sell his challenging and overpriced property. They don’t get it. No matter what we do, we can’t force them to get it. But we can spend our time instead focusing on the joy.
Downer and negative attitudes, well, that’s OK because there are plenty of sellers who work from a different framework. It’s human nature to gravitate toward people who like and trust you. How do companies attract loyal and dedicated employees? They treat them well, show respect and value their contributions to the company. How many companies do you know of nowadays that do that? They don’t denigrate and expect an employee to perform well. ‘Cuz employees will quit and walk off the job.
Except real estate agents. Real estate agents take more abuse than most because there seems to be more of it going around. Tempers flare. Unreasonable demands made. Particularly near the holidays. Fortunately, I don’t encounter rude or demanding people very often and, if I do, I manage to stay clear. My sellers are delightful; I’m happy to say. It gives me great pleasure to call them with good news. I spend my time focusing on the joy.
Like this morning, I was able to call a single mom and let her know that not only is her short sale approved by both lenders, but she’ll receive $3,000 at closing, and we are closing the day after Christmas. I have one more Happy Thanksgiving call to make this morning as well, to say the nervous buyer has finally emerged from underwriting and his loan will close. This is a special business for those of us who harbor the right attitude and surround ourselves with fabulous people.
Successful people tend to concentrate on focusing on the joy, what brings them joy. Happy Thanksgiving.
