Yes, I believe it truly is The Fall Season of Miracles!

The POSITIVE ATTITUDE for the Weary Soul group gives you the opportunity to share the miracles in your life during this fall season with a creative writing challenge . Join in on the challenge with the FALL SEASON OF MIRACLES CONTEST | Positive Attitude for the Weary Soul Group

Is it really The Fall Season of Miracles? Honestly, I think the answer is YES!

I took a short sale listing in June of 2009. I still have that listing, and what an incredible journey it has been!

From time to time, my blog has featured stories about that listing. The first time was 20 months ago! It was about my frustration with how mind-numbing maddening the process was of simply getting First Horizon to acknowledge that they had received the offer and short sale packet. That alone took nearly two months. I decided early on that first Horizon was the worst of the worst, in my short sale experience. And that opinion still stands.

As time passed, and several reasonable offers were rejected, or countered at what was way too high, I formed the opinion that First Horizon had no intention of ever approving a short sale. It seemed as if they were going through the motions so that they could say they tried - and then collect whatever government incentives there were to be had, and get the house back to resell.

When I attempted to communicate with the negotiator about the relevant comps after one ridiculous counter, his response was to close the file with the comment - Agent Uncooperative!

Time and time again we succeeded in getting the foreclosure date postponed until we reached the end of the line. The negotiator rejected our offer and said the sale would not be postponed. "Sometimes you just have to accept that it's time to let the house go," he said. No other offers would be considered, the sale would go on as scheduled.

The home was slated to go to auction that Thursday. Monday I sent a cancellation form to the MLS, ordered the sign removed and closed my file. I shredded the all but the necessary docs, and removed the file to where my DEAD files sleep. On Thursday I went to the sale only to find that the property did NOT sell, they hadn't received bidding instructions in time!

My seller proclaimed a miracle! Can we replace the sign and try to get another offer to submit? I reminded him of what the negotiator told me, but he was so insistent that I reluctantly reopened and relaunched the listing. I thought it would help him feel better until the hammer finally dropped. After all, my motto is Never, never, never give up!

For whatever reason, they weren't in any hurry to foreclose on the home and the sale didn't get rescheduled. We received another offer and submitted it. I'm not sure how many buyers we had, and lost, it would make me swoon to count them all up! At least a dozen. This went on for months years! By the time we would get a ridiculous counter to an offer, that buyer would have moved on already.

Early this past summer, when we got another counter above what the comps showed was true market value, we attempted to formally challenge the BPO. The loss mitigation department informed me that they were not going to adjust the value and the looming foreclosure sale would not be postponed. Again, we had reached the end of the line.

In another stroke of good fortune, or miracle as my seller would insist, he came up with the name and number to the assistant to the president at First Horizon. He called him and the bonded over a long conversation about the madness of the process and our dealings with First Horizon.

The next thing I knew, I got a phone call from the Loss Mitigation Department. A very irritated woman said, "Didn't someone call you to tell you that the sale was going forward as scheduled and would not be postponed?" I assured her that I had received that call. "And you STILL decided to get the executive response team involved?" Uh, huh! Oh my gosh, she was livid.

The sale was postponed and they agreed to reevaluate the value based on the comps I submitted! Halalalujah! Another miracle? While we waited for their response, SURPRISE! First Horizon transferred the loan to Nationstar! Yowza! We had to start at square one, submitting the entire short sale packet, the offer, all the financials. We did, and we also lost that buyer. Good news is that I had TWO back-up offers, although they were quite low. The counter came, lower than what the counter was just before the transfer, but the 1st back-up buyer declined to come up to their price. Miraculously, the buyer with the 2nd back-up offer agreed to amend their offer to meet the terms of the counter and WE HAVE A DEAL!

Did you catch that? We are going to get this house SOLD! For his persistence, my seller will be released of recourse for the deficiency on the mortgage on this investment property. Is it a miracle? Yes, absolutely. I don't think there is anyone, at any time over the course of the past 28 months of short sale hell, including myself, who would have thought that we would ever actually have a successful conclusion here. With the exception of my seller, who absolutely believes in miracles!