Wow, gotta know that I love referrals as that means my clients love me, right?
So I completed a successful short sale transaction in April for a couple. Last week, they referred me to another couple who owned a condominium in an adjacent town. Coincidentally, I had sold a condo in the same complex (and liked the area so well, I considered making the move across the Bay myself.) [To digress, I regrettably invested in a TIC in San Francisco (more later) and was fearful for my cat's safety (he might have chased a goose into a pond!) and truly loved San Francisco too much to move. (The affordability of the East Bay is still enticing, hence my vicarious thrills with many first-time buyers.)]
Back to my story...I asked some questions and ran some quick comps. These young ladies had paid $450,000 for their two-bedroom, two-bath condo in July of 2007 and the most recent sale was for $240,000. Can we all say YIKES!?!!?!!?!??
The good? news is that their mortgage will not adjust for 6 more years and they did get 100% financing. I say that this is "good" news as unlike my other Richmond short sale (still in escrow 3 months later), they are NOT losing any down-payment money. The reason for the short sale is that shortly after the purchase, one of them became pregnant--and they had TWINS!! More yikes! A mortgage is tough enough for two incomes but when that becomes one income and the family doubles, it is even tougher.
What I am continually learning as I meet more short sale clients is that each one has a tragic story of a job loss, savings lost, family issues, etc. It is sad that good people--and maybe even some not so good--are LOSING their homes. (So far, all of my clients are good people with big dreams and bad timing)
And where is the help that these people are supposed to get? I don't get the "bailout". Let's give the banks more money to loan people who maybe should or should NOT buy a home. (WHAT?) Banks get money--does anyone else see what is wrong with this????? (And then of course, there is the fact that no one equates spending $3000 a SECOND in Iraq with our failing economy here. My Dad told me that each American's share of the national debt is $450,000!!!. Ooops, digressing again.)
Why doesn't the government BUY DOWN the interest rates of each person who has a mortgage? Or pay off 10-20% of their loans--NOT re-finances--but purchase money loans--so that people can afford the mortgage that they have AND keep their homes!!!! I don't get why we are trying to get more loans in our economy--yes I DO want to sell you a home--but what about the people who are being foreclosed on right now--the people with the financial problems? Why is nothing being done DIRECTLY to help these people?????
I could go on but I would only be getting more pissed off so I will rant again sometime!
