A Coeur d'Alene Idaho Short Sale VICTORY ~ but no smiling photos this time....
On my drive home to North Idaho from a spring break trip to Colorado I began a journey I couldn't have even imagined. Somewhere along I-25 in the middle of Wyoming I received a call from Boise agent Brian Brumpton.
"How do you feel about short sales?" he asked.
That call lead to a referral of a California woman who had two investment properties in Coeur d'Alene Idaho that she needed to short sale. She was wiped out financially - every dime she had saved for retirement.
And thus my incredible journey began.
In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined what would unfold over the next 8 months. Like layers of an onion, one bit at a time, a story unraveled of a con artist and scammers. I went about my business of simply trying to get two homes sold for my client before they were lost to foreclosure. But people, details and circumstances would appear before me, unsolicited, and peel another layer off an onion that I never asked for and wasn't interested in peeling.
The houses were a mess. One had burst pipes and inoperable plumbing, the other no functional heating system. Yet she had paid top dollar for them in their undisclosed condition of disrepair, in 2008. In fact, it is unbelievable to me that they could have appraised for what she paid for them. Unbelievable that the real estate agent that did a lousy job of looking after her best interest didn't know what was going on. Unbelievable in that I simply don't believe it. (A strong claim, I know, and I stand by it.) This particular con artist is a master of what he does. My client is no dummy, she has a PHD.
I found buyers. Lots of them. We lost them to delays for one reason or another. I posted about one withdrawal here. I lost count of how many would-be buyers moved on down the road. Times two. And every time I would turn around another piece of onion skin would fall away and the bogus lease option scam would come more into focus. Ah ha! My client was just the patsy they needed to buy the houses so they could skim the equity from the Sellers!
As the months dragged on, the saga of these homes took on a life of its own. It drained me and emotionally exhausted my distraught client. Associates of mine would advise me to wash my hands of the whole mess. She should just let the houses go into foreclosure. It's not worth how much of my time and energy it was sucking up. Just not worth it. And maybe it wasn't.
But here's the deal. I had told my client that she would finally have someone she could trust to protect her interests. That I would be there for her and see her through to the end, come what may. She had her reasons for wanting a short sale and not a foreclosure. I also had an obligation to Brian, who had referred this client to me, to do everything in my power to get these homes closed and get a referral fee to his little family. If it were just ME, was it worth it? No question, no.
Today has been an emotional day as we closed on the first house. An incredible 8 month journey that has involved a really bad dude; a large cast of complicit characters; a judge; the sheriff; phone calls to the executive board at PMI Insurance Company; frivolous accusations against me to my broker; a request from my broker for me to cancel the listings; me defying my broker and not canceling the listings; a lis pendens; grand theft; tears behind closed doors; the sheriffs department; judicial eviction of squatters; a crumbling foundation; rotted sill plate & floor joists; failed septic inspection; last minute lien; threats; obsenities and protection order discussions. Honestly, I have just scratched the surface. It's big and ugly, and it's not over.
Finally, after a series of last minute delays out of left field, including a disapproval of the final HUD, we closed on the first house. This time, there won't be any happy pictures of my client at the closing table. Today was a huge victory against overwhelming odds, but it is really no cause to celebrate. Somehow, Congratulations just doesn't work. But she is one giant step closer to closure of this horrible chapter of her life, and for that I am grateful.
We hear daily the war stories and rants about the dreaded Third Party Creditors. This story wouldn't be complete without my mentioning just how fabulous it has been to work with Wells Fargo Loan Adjustor Specialist Monique Spenard. Monique was assigned as the negotiator of the first offer I submitted. Buyers and negotiators came and went as months dragged on. When we had reached a seemingly hopeless dead end, disapproval of a short sale by the mortgage insurer, I tracked down Monique with a plea for her help. She personally took on the files for both houses, kept in communication and I can only imagine all she has done behind the scenes to bring about the impossible.
Sandy Watts is our buyer's agent and I marvel at how she has kept these buyers in the game, one contract extension after another, and another, and another, and another.... I lost count. Sandy, you are my hero!
While I am giving credit where credit is due, Heidi Simon at Pioneer Title has been a trooper. How many estimated HUDs has she done for these houses? I don't know, I lost count! I called her the other day, for a new HUD to submit with a new offer on the other house and we both burst out laughing! How is it POSSIBLE to lose so many buyers? Well, it's kind of hard for a buyer to overcome an issue like an inoperable in-floor radiant heating system when trying to get loan approval. Just sayin... We have a good offer, I expect to hear a response from Monique tomorrow. I will keep beating this horse until it's dead. The funeral foreclosure sale date is December 15, but don't count us out yet!
Today was a good day.
These stats cover the entire Coeur d'Alene MLS which takes in all of Kootenai County and surrounding Counties. You can see that current inventory levels are significantly lower than last year. If you could see the break down by price range, you'd see clearly that it is the sales in the starter home price ranges that have fueled a lower inventory this October over last. It is interesting to me to see how similar this September was to last September. 
I opened my email this morning and found a note that left me puzzled for a minute. 
Back in August, I was participating in the Local Business Challenge on ActiveRain, writing a series of posts about local businesses. It was a great challenge, and I really had to scramble to get the required number of posts done according to schedule. I don't think I got them all done, but I had fun doing the ones I did complete, and met some great people in the process of promoting their businesses on my blog. 
