There's No Place Like Home

In the world of a Sacramento short sale agent, there is no such thing as a normal workday. Every day has its little frustrations. People may make promises that they don't keep. Other people might be unreasonable and demanding. I may explain 10 ways from Sunday how to submit an offer to a buyer's agent, yet the offer arrives incomplete. It's just another day in the neighborhood. I let this stuff roll off my back and focus on the big picture, on what's important.

My focus is the people, my home sellers and home buyers. Today, a Sacramento short sale seller is scheduled to close on an escrow that has been dragging on for 9 long months. He will finally be able to let go of the past and move on with his life. His focus is on his children, wife, friends, family and his own clients, the people who are important to him. It's not the SMUD lien for dual pane windows that was attached to his home and would have survived a foreclosure, which we managed to get released. It's not the fact that he tried to sell this home for several years without success. And it's not the fact that he tried for months to do a loan modification but was denied.

He gets to start over, keep his credit relatively intact and enjoy the peace of mind that comes when a new family is starting its beginnings in the home he left behind. When the new buyers get the keys tonight, their faces will be brimming with smiles and their hearts filled with hope.

With any luck, also today an Elk Grove short sale seller will be putting his past behind him as well. His escrow was supposed to have closed last week, but the buyer's lender kept popping up with more loan conditions. The latest demand was a request for an addendum that clarified the ZIP code. Apparently, the buyer's agent wrote the wrong ZIP code on several pages of the purchase contract.

The seller of this short sale was never delinquent; his payments were current. Yet, it took us 3 months to go from listing the home to closing. However long, the wait for short sale approval is rarely an enjoyable experience for either sellers or buyers. 90 days is still a long time.

I wrapped up both of these transactions last night and settled in to watch a movie with my husband. Netflix sent us the new Blu-Ray version of the Wizard of Oz. Now, I've probably watched this movie 100 times over the years; it's one of my all-time favorites. So, when I received an email with an offer attached, I got up to open my email and my husband paused the movie. Hey, it's not like I don't know what happens in the movie. But my husband paused it anyway.

It was certainly a far cry from the days of waiting through commercials on a black-and-white TV. Watching Dorothy and Toto on the big screen in vibrant color is astounding. In fact, we spotted things in the movie that we've never seen before such as the bricks in the yellow brick road were clearly defined and, for some reason, in the scene where Dorothy and the Scarerow discovered the Tin Man rusted in the woods, there was a large stork or blue heron flapping its wings in the background. Near the apple trees, a toucan rested on a branch over Dorothy's head. Made me think about Fruit Loops.

But Dorothy's quest to go home also made me think about my sellers and buyers. We all want a place to call home, a place where we feel loved and secure. So, today, 2 families are leaving their homes and 2 other families are moving in. The buyers will be overjoyed and the sellers relieved. And several years from now, those same sellers will most likely call me to help them buy another home, and I will watch them click together heels of ruby slippers and go there. After all, there's no place like home, is there?