Trying to get a deal through in this market can be murder!

To say the least, this has been quite a year... All of the turmoil in the market almost guarantees a new challenge or problem to overcome almost daily, and has created a market only the strongest will survive. 

This year, we have had multiple deals fall out for various reasons. A few have been for financing, and they have all been at various stages of the transaction.

A couple have been at the very beginning, because the program is no longer available when the short sale approval is received... To right at doc's when the verification of employment reveals that the borrower is "contracted" not "employed", which didn't matter back in the stated income days.  And of course there have been the deals that have fallen out for low owner occupancies and litigation being filed by the HOA.

Then there has been good old MOLD that turned up during a physical inspection, one week prior to close.  (The walls have since been ripped out, all the remediation work has been completed and 3 weeks later, we still might be closing that one!)

And there are the buyers that just don't seem to be serious buyers... We work our a**es off, getting the short sale approvals, keeping the agent and their buyers informed weekly, only to find out that the buyers have "changed their mind" when we receive the approval.  I could understand a little more if it was taking us 2, 3, 4 months to get the approvals, but the last THREE have been on deals that we have had first AND second lien holder approvals in UNDER a month!!  It's frustrating to say the least.

But just when we thought we were facing it all, or it couldn't get any more difficult, last week rolled around. On another short sale transaction that had been a challenge, we were finally getting close. We had the approvals from the first and second, but the second (CHASE) wouldn't release the lien without retaining their rights to pursue a deficiency after close.  On the previous Friday, we finally resolved the issue and they would release their rights to pursue a deficiency judgment after the close.  Monday rolled around and we spent all day trying to get in touch with our client to no avail. 

Tuesday came around and still no luck... Just as we were discussing the file and how to proceed since we couldn't get in touch with our seller, another agent anxiously came up to us and broke the news...

"Did you see the news this morning?!?!" she asked...

"No, why?"

"****** (our client) was arrested for MURDER!!" she exclaimed

You can only imagine our shock. It turned out that he was arrested Monday (explained why we couldn't get a hold of him) for Murder charges on a 14 year old cold case! 

Trying to explain to the buyer's agent that our deal may be falling out was a real interesting conversation to say the least. Since that point, we have been scrambling trying to keep this together. We have been in contact with family, have had a specific power of attorney drawn up that is in the process of being notarized from jail and we still might get this one through!

This market is crazy right now and it unbelievable the amount of work it's taking to get a deal through and the number of problems we're faced with. I continue to wonder what next! But the great news is the business is out there and there's a lot of it if we're willing to work for it.

I'd love to hear everyone else's battles that they're facing right now! I know we're not in it alone, but some days you just wonder if anything's going to go right!