Short sales- helping distressed homeowners in Anne Arundel County

Let's face it. When you hear "Real Estate Agent" the first thing you think of is not "humanitarian- a veritable Mother Theresa". When I tell people I teach special education, I might get that kind of response, but not when I introduce myself as a REALTOR.

I have never been so on fire to help people sell houses as I am after completing the CDPE course. I've had several people I know go through the foreclosure process over the past 18 months. In each case I tried to help them, but I was not well informed on the process of a short sale, let alone the pitfalls and consequences of foreclosure or bankruptcy. As aresult, I wasn't convincing enough, they had false hope that they would somehow be able to stay in their home, and now they're all renters.

Sure there's the excitement of the prospect of successfully establishing a business in a segment of the market that is far too large (up to 10% of ALL homeowners are at 30 days late on their mortgages right now?) to be called a niche.

But I'm downright emotional about the prospect of actually making a difference in the world! Not just getting a young couple into their dream home- that's great, too. But to see another young family in crisis, hopeless, fearful, seeing no way out- and to know that now I have the tools to prevent them from becooming another statistic, to give them real hope (not empty promises)!

I feel the little boy in the story throwing star fish back into the sea after high tide. The adult asks him why bother, when there's so many star fish lying on the beach that he can't get to in time, what difference is he making? And the boy picks up one more, and says, as he tosses it into the surf, "It made a difference to this one!"