Evelyn Santiago Realtor(R) Fox Valley Distressed Home Specialist

Sorry that I did not post this earlier. Last Thursday, March 12th was the scheduled date for one of my listings to go to "sheriff's sale". With a drastic price drop I generated enough showings to bring in 2 written offers and over 12 showings in less than 7 days. Over the weekend the home was shown 6 more times with a 2 more calls coming in today. Here is a quick update on what happened since my last post.

Last Thursday morning I called the homeowner and asked him to call the Lender to find out if the home had been sold. While he made that call, I called the foreclosure attorney to find out if they had gotten the famous email to stop the sale.

As I was being transferred a couple of times, I literally held my breath as the agent took the information and checked her database.....NO! it had NOT BEEN SOLD....we had another 30 days to work the short sale!

I had done what they told me was "impossible". I had stopped the sheriff's sale and had the Lender open the file for another round of negotiations.

It took me a few minutes after I hung up the phone to do my victory "salsa" dance around the office and calmly start breathing again.

Now the real work starts.....negotiating the offer.

Listen, I know the majority of my fellow Realtors are not thrilled with our current market conditions. Many refuse to work short sales, show them etc. You can put your head in the sand and hope they go away, but the numbers are telling us that they are not going away any time soon.

We, as professionals, must take control of the situation. We must educate ourselves on the process. The days of the easy sale are on hold. The buyer's that are out there are better educated, thanks to the internet on our markets - sometimes even better than us, the professionals. They want a bargain and if you are lucky enough to work with a qualified buyer you have to do the best job in helping them find the best home for their current situation and that may mean that you may have to include a short sale listing.

So stop your whining and ranting! Stop letting other's take those short sale listings because they are "soo hard....take soo long, etc." You can either embrace them and make some money off them or sit on the sideline and watch the rest of us make the money.

If you don't want them....send them my way....call me, email me, fax me if you are in the Chicagoland area....referrals are always welcomed!

I could hardly wait to get into the office and make my call to The Lender....(name not used to protect the guilty, inept, etc.). The Lender had told me that my authorization would be live in 48 hours. I heard this from the 3 service agents that I talked to on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. So I was ready...I had rehearsed my conversation...I had meditated on a great outcome and I started dialing.

The latest number I received actually gave me an extension to call so I knew I was getting closer. After my chirpy hello and exchange of loan number, address, etc. I let the agent know my name and the reason for my call. After putting me on hold twice I was informed in a firm voice that he could no longer speak with me because there was no authorization on file and that I could fax it again but it would take another 72 hrs. I told him I did not have 72 hrs since the sheriff's sale was TOMORROW and that I had 2 offers already with a 3rd being written up later today. Too bad...he says...nothing I can do....I can't talk to you no more...looks like its being sold....click...click

I stood with the phone in my ear and just got mad. I know that they have their rules but their attitude really is pathetic. So with no other choice I called the homeowner and asked him to call The Lender directly and see if he could get the extension. Homeowner told me that he had spoken to them yesterday and had faxed a bunch of documentation that they had requested giving him the feeling that they would extend it. I told him to call and then give me an update.

While I waited for that I called the "foreclosure" attorney's phone number that another service agent at the bank had given me. Lo and behold it was the Big C.....one of the largest foreclosure attorney's in my area. I was able to get through and explain my situation. Unfortunately, I got the same answer....Only The Lender can authorize us to stop the sheriff's sale. Another dead end....unless I got a judge's order to stop the sale!

I tried to think of any judges that I knew or any lawyer's that might know any judges or friends of judges. I even thought of going down to the courthouse and throwing myself at the foreclosure judge with offer's in my hands and tears in my eyes begging him to stop this nonesense.....

While I had my little fantasy of riding to the rescue I got a call from the homeowner.....the last agent told him there was no way to stop the process....they needed an offer at THIS PRICE or nothing.....Oh, and by the way....it takes 72 hours for all the stuff you faxed to get into our system....Bye!

Of course, I didnt' let that stop me. I asked the Homeowner to call back to the same number but with the new extension and ask to speak to a Supervisor and not to take No for an answer and threaten to bring his attorney on the next call if he didnt' speak with a Supervisor. After giving him a stronger script I hung up and waited......

Finally after 15 minutes while talking to a friend about the way the banks are setting up and the usual ranting and raving my call waiting kicked in and my Homeowner was on the line. Hanging up without saying good-by to my friend I picked up to hear the news.....was it over........

Homeowner happily reported that he was able to speak to a Supervisor who actually listened and told the Homeowner that he needed to pick one of the offers, submit additional paperwork and fax it all to his personal fax tomorrow. The extension for the sale was given and .....the home was saved!

Or so I thought...out of the clear blue sky I called the foreclosure attorney to make sure that they had received the message. It was now after 4:00 p.m. CDT. After getting transferred I lucked out and had a paralegal inform me that they had not received any notice from their client "The Lender". I asked her my options and she said that I was out of luck if their client did not send them authorization to stop the sale. I then repeated what she told me to make sure I heard her right and then said ''or a judge's order". She then admitted that a judge's order would be honored.

I hung up upset that the "Lender" had not sent the email to the attorney to stop this. What could I do....my only choice to find the homeowner's wife and have her call the "Lender". I tracked her down and pleaded that she call the "Lender" to get someone to send the necessary information. She did and was told that they did not have the paperwork. The homeowner had left without sending the signed offer, hardship letter, listing agreement directly to the Supervisor!!! She informed them that I could send most of the information except the HUD-1 to them but I needed the direct number. After being transferred several times and asked the same questions over and over they finally found someone that was able to give her a direct fax number so I could send the information and the email could be sent.

I waited patiently for the Mrs. Homeowner to call back and as soon as I had the number faxed everything to them including my 6th attempt at the Authorization to Release Information.

I had don all that I could to try to stop the "sheriff's sale". It was up to the Universe to take the final step. I would find out tomorrow if the home had been sold at 9:00 a.m. or saved one last time.

As promised in an early post I am letting you know the outcome of my attempts to stop a sheriff's sale with only a day left.

It was not pretty, but with the lender doing everything possible to prevent me from submitting the offer that I had received I was able to coach the homeowner to escalate our request when all our other calls fell on deaf ears. From the foreclosing attorney to the various customer service and loss mitigation agents that refused to take responsibility and instead told us it was impossible to do we were finally able to reach a supervisor that had some common sense and allowed us to submit the paperwork that I had at 6:15 p.m. without homeowner's signatures (husband had left for work - 2nd shift - wife didn't know how to retrieve from computer) and the paperwork that I had at my office. No promises were made since by that time the foreclosure attorney's office had closed but with urgent calls left on voice mails and strong emails sent by the lender apparently the attorney was able to pull the home from the 9:00 a.m. docket at the county courthouse.

Needless to say the homeowner is thrilled that I was able to do this but in reality without his help WE could not have done it.

Now the real business starts. Negotiating the offer, making sure all the paperwork is in order and we can close on this within 30 days.

Stay tuned for further updates as they occur. But remember, nothing is impossible unless you tell yourself it is. Become a solutions and problem solver instead of a sales person. Solve problems, look at the opportunity and you will come out ahead.

I lowered the price on another of my short sale listings and already have another showing tomorrow and so the saga continues.

Embrace the change and keep on smiling!

Murphy's Law is alive and well especially when you end up doing a short sale with a family member. Twas the summer of 2008 and my sister's oldest daughter and her fiance were ready to start looking for a home. Being that I am their Aunt they had no other choice but to come to me or be written out of my sister's will. Well, as most Realtors know the hardest client is a FAMILY MEMBER!!!

As long time Fox Valley residents all we had to do was narrow down the choices to what town to start our search. Aurora was out because they had been renting in one of the smaller towns around the 2nd largest city in the state.....Yes, Aurora is the 2nd largest city in IL....not the favored sister town which everyone knows that starts with a N...... and is always in Money....but its tougher, worldly sister...Aurora. Hey, I grew up in this town, went to school, got married, divorced...got married....divorced and went into real estate in this town..so I have a soft spot for it. But I digress.

Narrowed down to a smaller town....Yorkville....Plano....Montgomery....Oswego...I guess I showed quite a few homes to my niece all summer long but nothing was hitting the emotional buttons. Late fall andI was getting a bit worn around the edges and my niece was starting to think that all the builders did their shopping in the same big builder's warehouse because the homes were looking the same.

Then the magic moment arrived and we found IT....she knew the moment she walked into it and I knew my job was almost over. She was "In LOVE"! The perfect townhome....OK she wanted single family but after looking at some in her price range she was a bit underwhelmed. Barely 3 years old, sleek, with a great floor plan, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage, a large kitchen and best of all a large loft perfect for a 2nd floor family room. Now, the hard part or the good part depending on how you view it started.

The home was a short sale! Agh! I was excited....I saw opportunity...great price and possible loss of income. My niece was in love and all she had to do was show it to her fiance since he was the one buying it after all. So we thew some other homes in for a weekend showing....all the almost right ones and kept our fingers crossed. After spending about 2.5 hrs seeing homes in the greater Auroraland area.....we saved the "perfect" home for last. We held our breath as we told him it was a pre-foreclosure. All he saw was that it was 5 minutes from work, had a 2 car garage and then when he walked upstairs and I heard him talking about putting his 50" plasma TV on the wall....I knew we had him! He felled fast and furious.

Now my job really started! Contract signed, price set.....about 30K less than asking and the wait started.

I won't bore you with the long details but let me make this SHORT....contract signed 10/10/08.....offer verbally accepted late November, closing set for early December, cancelled due to formal acceptance, rescheduled for last Friday in December, cancelled due to HOA lien, rescheduled, cancelled due to loan hiccup (another story...don't get me started), rescheduled 1 more time and finally closed January 9, 2009. Closing at 9:00 a.m. disbursement .......4:55 p.m. Enough said!

We had more drama during this time than a segment of Oprah, Jerry Springer and Ellen put together. But as they say....all is fair in love and war....and as my niece's fiance.exclaimed..Who came up with the name "Short Sale????...because there is nothing short about it!"

They are thrilled that they waited because the home is well worth it. They have equity built in and would not have been able to afford buying in this neighborhood when the home was built. They are in the same school district...minutes from his job..minutes to expressway and Shopping..10 minutes from my sister and 10 minutes from ....their favorite Aunt the short - "Short Sale" Realtor(r),.