Tuolumne Meadows and a Rocklin Short Sale

One of the things about hiking in the wilderness is it gives one time to reflect. With me, though, I tend to think about my Sacramento short sales. Other people might reflect on the purpose of life, why we are here, where we are going. But I think about why so many people seem to believe that discharging mortgage debt in bankruptcy makes that debt go away, because it doesn’t. It’s secured debt. This must happen because some bankruptcy lawyers don’t fully explain to clients how real estate works. Or, maybe these lawyers don’t understand real estate?

In the case of a Rocklin short sale that just closed, I think the lawyers were betting on a foreclosure. When a foreclosure takes place, title is involuntarily transferred. But if the bank doesn’t foreclose, title will stay in the borrower’s name. Not to mention, the other twist, if a second mortgage is discharged through bankruptcy, only the liability is discharged; the debt remains until it is released. Enter the short sale solution.

Try explaining to an energetic and knows-he-is-right borrower that his debt is still there. It’s hard to say yes, your debt was discharged, but your obligation still exists. Those are words coming out of an agent’s mouth that make no sense to them. Because, gosh darn it, their lawyer said it was discharged. You know what? I am not a lawyer. I’m just a Sacramento short sale agent who will do your short sale for you if you want to do it.

That Rocklin short sale was a Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale. The bank had called the borrower, and it was the bank who explained to the borrowers that foreclosure had never taken place. Yeah, 3 years later; they still owned that home in Rocklin. The bank did not want to do a deed-in-lieu, either. It wanted the sellers to do the short sale, and it would pay the sellers to do it. The sellers found this Sacramento short sale agent. I’ve closed a lot of Cooperative Short Sales through Bank of America, and I knew exactly what to do.

We faced a few challenges. There was that slight problem of the water being shut off. Oh, and no other utilities, either. Did you know that Placer County will place a temporary water meter on the property for $300? A temporary water meter will allow a home buyer to do a home inspection. The sellers chose a VA buyer. Buyers who obtain VA loans often get the short end of the stick when trying to buy a home because sellers and some agents tend to believe that VA loans are nothing but trouble when just the reverse is true. Why is that? Why do we say we honor our veterans and then do the opposite thing by rejecting their purchase offers?

That’s what I was thinking about yesterday as we hiked to Elizabeth Lake in the Tuolumne Meadows at Yosemite National Park. It was straight up for 2.3 miles. Totally silent. You could pause on the trail to catch your breath — it’s over 8,000 feet in elevation — and hear a sound in the distance. It is a low hum, and sounds a little bit like freeway traffic, but you know there are no roads nor freeways nearby. Then you realize it is the sound of the wind through the tree tops. If you stand still for a few more minutes, the gust of wind heading your direction will arrive and blow through your hair. You’re connected to nature. There are no cellphones, no computers, no bank negotiators, no short sales.

Then, an older fellow comes bounding down the path, wearing a button-down shirt, shorts and hiking boots. He’s talking on his cellphone about his prostate. Discussing his doctor’s diagnosis and at least acknowledges the existence of other people within earshot by telling the person on the other end of the phone that complete strangers are now privy to his medical condition. My first thought was you can’t get away from them. My second thought was who was his carrier? Why does he have service and I do not?

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, Elizabeth Lake, Tuolumne Meadows