Results that Move You!

After 3 years of mostly short sale transactions, my business is turning towards more standard sales!  However, there are still families that need advice and help to stop the foreclosure of their home.

But this brings me to a funny yet sad story of one of my former client's wanderings in the nether world of foreclosure.  She would really be upset at me telling her story to anyone, let alone publish her story, so I will call her Nadine Ash.

The funny part of this story is that I tried to help her almost a year ago, and she severed our relationship after we had a RWA (ready, willing and able) buyer and bank approval for the short sale.  What's funny about that?  Well, the bank never foreclosed on her home and she, as far as I can tell, is STILL living in the home.  She has since fired another Realtor.  She came to my mind yesterday, when I received a call from a Realtor inquiring about the home - you see, he has a buyer and wants to make contact with the seller.  I warned him.

Here is my full story.  Nadine's husband, Gordo Leavenworth, passed away around 2010, leaving Nadine with a beautiful home in an upscale neighborhood.  Nadine, a former Realtor, did not have an income and was not able to pay the mortgage payments.  She however found ways around that.  She knew how to file BK on her own.  When she wasn't able to do it on her own anymore, she went to a lawyer who promised to help her with her "situation."  When he couldn't help her, I came into the picture.

We went over everything, including how short sales work, how long it takes to do a short sale, and that the bank is in control.  Nadine is used to being in control, so she stipulated that if she listed her home with us that she could cancel at anytime.  I didn't like that idea, but I do have a listing program that if any client wants to fire me, they can, as their listing is one day at a time.  Nadine's problem, though, was that she had a trustee sale scheduled, where the bank would sell her property at auction, so she had to do something short of filing BK to stop the sale.  This was August/September and she wanted to stay in the house at least 90 days after the bank approval.  The bank would never OK this, and we told her that.  She insisted that she could not move quickly, after all she was old and not 100% healthy.

Although she signed and dated the paperwork, she wanted to get the pool ready, as there were a couple issues with it.  So we listed the property within the 3 days that the MLS gives before penalties are involved, and then immediately put the status as "Hold, Do Not Show."  It took over a week to get the pool ready, but once it was good, we changed the status to "active."

Nadine was surprised that we found a buyer right away.  Once the buyer was in place, negotiations began with the bank, OCWEN.  Now, OCWEN has a reputation for being hard to deal with and a reputation for unpredictable short sale red tape.  BUT, this red tape never showed itself and the approval came within a month.  It was now October and we had a 45 day escrow, which would have the buyers in the house in time for celebrating Thanksgiving dinner with their extended family in the new home.  Nadine would have no part of that.  She wanted closing to be in January, so she started to raise a stink.

Nadine accused me of being untrustworthy.  Why?  Because I lied to her.  What did I say to her that she thought was not true?  - That Short Sales take a long time.  She said she could not move out in 45 days.  She needed 90 days.  So I lost her trust, she accused me of lying, and she wanted to cancel the deal.  The buyer had already put down $25K earnest money.  That had to be returned.  I thought that OCWEN would foreclose on her immediately.

Apparently, OCWEN did not foreclose.  It has been a year since this happened.  I found out that Nadine had listed the house with another Realtor and then canceled on them, too.  

Yesterday, when that buyer's agent called me inquiring about the house, I told him that Nadine was not easy to deal with and that he should tread lightly.  The sad thing is that she is still in the house, and that she will find a way around the system to stay there longer, taking innocent Realtors down with her.