Last week I had one of the most monumental closings of my career. It was not the most expensive house, it was not the trickiest deal. It was the LONGEST deal I have ever worked on....I closed escrow on a short sale that I had been working on in Lafayette for almost exactly THREE YEARS. Yes, you read that right: 3 YEARS!!!! You might know what a short sale is: a homeowner is underwater with the loan on their house, they want to sell, but it isn't worth what they owe on it. They list it for sale, find a buyer, and hope that the bank will take the buyer's offer and forgive the Seller the remaining balance on the loan. Unfortunately, banks were not so very equipped to deal with the landslide of short sales that have ensued in the past 3-4 years....so the process is a little, shall we say...RUSTY????
The poor folks that bought this house were both janitors- a couple with three kids. They owned a home in Concord, and were swindled into buying this home in Lafayette by a shady Mortgage Broker/Realtor who convinced them that they could afford a $900k house for ONLY $500 more a month than they were paying to live in Concord. (LIES!!!) Sweet deal!- they thought. Of course we'll do it!---- Fast forward 1 year into their new life in their new beautiful home...life is great until they go out to get the mail and their Mortgage bill from Countrywide tells them that their monthly Mortgage Payment has just DOUBLED! And just like that, their beautiful life in Lafayette was gone, and they moved right back into their old home, which they were just getting ready to sell. (yes, they were actually carrying two homes/loans somehow) And they needed to sell fast.
At that point, (early 2007) the real estate market had tanked, and their $900k house wasn't worth $900k, $800k, or even $700k. It sold, finally, after 3 years, for $625,000. Mostly because the grueling process with the bank took SOOO long, the various buyers that had bid on this home did not want to hang in there as long as our last buyers did (1 year and 4 months- that is how long the buyers waited to finally move into this house- can you imagine the patience???!).
So, after going through 3 different buyers, getting the short sale approved with the bank 3 different times, we finally, finally, put this deal to bed last week. It was one of those deals that I never thought I'd actually see the end of because there were so many hang-ups...and to see it close gave me hope for almost any impossible-seeming deal out there, and gave me a wonderful sense of closure...finally.
That poor house on Denise Lane that sat empty for 3 years is now being lovingly cared for (much to the neighbors' glee, you can imagine!) and the new owners- I'm sure -feel like they got a heck of a deal thanks to their patience and hanging in there with the bank.
It is rare that a deal takes this long- though short sales do take 3-6 months/1 year, not unusual...but just to describe to people this deal that took THREE years....seems almost unbelievable...but is true. Very glad to be done with it, and very glad it is off my radar so I can focus on my other clients!!
No comments:
Post a Comment