Cholla

I am always looking for business. A couple of years ago or so I contacted a seller whose listing with another company had expired, just to see if he might still want to try to sell. Nice person - very courteous and willing to talk about what it might take to bring a buyer. His price was simply too high for the market, so we agreed that when the market improved, if he still wanted to sell, that he'd give me a call.

We talked a few times after that - and stayed in touch through my monthly newsletter.

I got a call from him in September. He'd been trying since the first of the year to get his bank to modify his loan, and they suggested that he short sale it. The house was getting a little too much for him to maintain, so he agreed that a short sale was the best solution for him - and he called me.

I listed it and showed it before we even got a sign in his yard. We had a buyer very quickly, and the seller's lender has a good reputation for efficiency, so I thought we'd have an acceptance in no time.

Well, not so much. If I'd been smarter, we might not have had the hiccups that we had. I knew from the beginning - and had told the seller's lender - that seller's income was limited to social security and a small pension and because of his income he had not filed tax returns for the last ten years. Weeks after submittion the offer and accompanying documents, seller's lender denied the short sale because the file was incomplete - incomplete because there were no pay stubs or tax returns.

It took a little doing, but upper management at the lender institution coached me as to what they were looking for by way of documentation (it's not all that intuitive as to how you demonstrate that you DO NOT do something - like file taxes) - and with only a little additional delay, we provided a complete file and the lender approved the short sale.

During the interim, the October 5th hail storm hammered the roof of the house - so the seller's insurance company got involved, and then the seller's lender had some additional requirements to be satisfied. (Nothing is easy).

But we did it - we closed before the end of December. Buyer is happy with their new investment property - and the tenant found to go with it. Tenant is happy to have a lovely home. Seller is happy to be in his new apartment, with less upkeep, and no more stress from a short sale. And once the vendors have completed the work they've committed to do in addressing the hail damage, this story will have a happy ending. Oh yeah - and I got paid.