Lela Hankins, CDPE, CRS, e-PRO, GRI

I handled my first short sale early in 2008 when tackling them was first starting to be a needed skill for Realtors. My listing hadn't started as a short sale, but as the market dropped rapidly in San Diego County, it became evident quickly that the sellers would have to sell the home for less than they owed on the property. There were 2 lenders. I was diligent and tenacious in my approach, and we did get the short sale approved and closed. My sellers were able to avoid foreclosure and move on with their lives. I will never forget the tears of joy my client had when I walked into her work and told her we finally had verbal approval from both lenders and it looked like we were moving forward. It had been a long process, and I think we were all exhausted emotionally and mentally by the time we finished. My clients were surprised when my husband told them how much sleep I'd lost worrying over the transaction. My clients are more than just numbers to me, they are people with life events and challenges who sometimes need to explore other options.

This year I took the CDPE course offered by Alex Charfen. At the RE/MAX International Convention in March, RE/MAX founder, Dave Liniger had touted the Certified Distressed Property Expert Courses...."The CDPE designation is one of the most important and timely educational products I have seen in over 40 years in the real estate business," said Liniger. "I will do whatever it takes... to get as many agents as possible through this course so they can help homeowners, the economy and our country." I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for Dave and his insight into the industry.

I bit the bullet, paid the price, and signed up for the course and then fully engaged in the instruction. By the end of the class, I felt it reaffirmed some of the knowledge I had, and yet also added new insights. I now had some more effective approaches to add to my arsenal of weapons to expedite and streamline short sale transactions.

On July 3, I submitted a complete 111 page package to Wells Fargo for approval. By July 6th, they had ordered a broker price opinion, and by July 8, the agent was onsite to conduct the BPO. Yes, I almost fell out of my chair when I received the call that the agent would be onsite to do the BPO! Within 5 days of submitting a package? That's unheard of!

I have every confidence that the skills I learned from the CDPE class will put my short sale packages at the top of the heap and expedite the approval for my clients. I've heard that Wells Fargo has promised a 45 day turnaround on all short sales. Hopefully, with agents becoming more skilled at giving lenders exactly the information they want to process a short sale, and with lenders getting up to speed on the process themselves, we can all make this current market work.

The class also gave me many options to offer clients when they are having trouble making their payments. Foreclosure doesn't have to be the only option. Sometimes an owner can work out a loan modification -- although the odds seem stacked against that from what I've heard in the trenches. Sometimes a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure works. Generally, a deed-in-lieu works best when there is only one loan on the property.

For some, with a demonstrated hardship, a short sale is the solution.

In all cases, an owner must look at the tax and legal implications. In some cases, a foreclosure will be the option that is the best fit given the entire picture. However, no owner should assume that a foreclosure is the only option until they have thoroughly looked at the risks and benefits of each pathway.

For Realtors, short sales are a process that requires, skill, tenacity, some patience, strong negotiation and organizational skills, and a knack for working with an asset manager on the phone in a far away location. Without question, it always requires a positive outlook and solution-seeking approach when dealing with lenders.

For owners, it also requires patience and the willingness to expose your entire financial postion to your agent and lenders. The paperwork required is signficant.

For buyers and their agents, it requires patience too. I tell my own buyers, We want to work with a listing agent that will submit only the highest and best negoitated offer to the lender and who will submit a complete package the first time." I don't want my buyers exposed to a never ending prolonged bidding process with an unknown lender entity that may take 4 to 6 months to collect and review offers.

At one time, we didn't encourage our buyers to view or offer on short sales. But now, as more agents are becoming experienced and good at successfully closing short sales, we interview the short sale listing agent before we recommend whether a buyer move forward with an offer. If the agent appears savvy and solution focused, we're there. If not, we encourage our buyer to keep looking!

It was almost a year ago we started working with Darren and Shona. They were newlyweds looking to buy their first home. At last count, we had shown them over 60 homes in North San Diego County. I may have lost track on a few. If I was out of town representing Women's Council of Realtors, my husband, Steve, would show them homes. We wrote several offers along the way. Sometimes with as many as 20 other buyers competing for the same home. Their price point is a fast moving section of our market. Finally, we found another house that would fit their needs. It was a bank owned property built in 1971, complete with shaggy, smelly dirty green shag carpet, outdated wallpaper that looked like it could be Christmas wrapping paper, and linoleum that I'm sure is the same pattern that was in a house I lived in in Mississippi in the late 60's. Oh,yes, there was some red carpet upstairs, a mural of a forest (often seen in dentist offices) stapled up in the living room. There was also a special wallpaper (apparently superglued to the wall) in a study-like room that looked like it could have come from Disney's Haunted House. You could say it was a house that required vision. We wrote an offer. It comped higher than list price, and we encouraged our clients to offer higher than list price. It was a multiple offer situation, and the bank came back and asked for "highest and best." We ran the numbers again, looked at monthly costs, and put their most reasonable and best foot forward. They got the house!

Of course, then followed home inspections, in-between inspections, more photos, furnace repairs, appraisals, having the police kick transients out of the property, and waiting for the bank..........

They got the keys Friday before Memorial Day weekend. We checked on their progress this weekend. The old flooring and wallpapers are gone. Bathrooms have been expanded. Non-load bearing walls have been opened up. With the help of their Aunt Amanda, new paint colors have been expertly chosen. Floor coverings have been picked, and the home is taking shape! The nasty shower stall is gone and replaced with a hand-tiled masterpiece created by Darren. Family members have pitched in and put their heads through walls when needed and hung drywall (remeber the superglued wallpaper!). It's a work in progress, but you can tell that a tremendous amount of love from the extended family and Darren and Shona will make it a wonderful home to behold.

They had a special gift for Steve and I this weekend. It is a gift I will always treasure. In the center is a picture her parents took on Memorial Day weekend -- Steve and I standing next to Darren and Shona. They are holding the SOLD sign. In the shadow box around that picture are, you guessed it, a snippet of the green carpet, the wallpapers, and that geometric 60's linoleum.

Even though San Marcos is just 40 minutes north of downtown San Diego, it still has some of the charm of a smaller hometown. Now, we have a wonderful farmer's market in town every Wednesday from 3pm to 7pm. I had a chance to enjoy the market yesterday -- the first thing I noticed was the smell of freshly popped kettlecorn and the aromas wafting from the taco/quesadilla/tamale stand.

There was stands filled with so many tempting garden treats - fragrant strawberries, green beans, wax beans, cucumbers, beets, radishes, lettuce of all kinds, avocados, honey, carrots, tomatos. I also stands of gourmet cheeses, certified organic fruits and vegetables, beautiful sunflowers and mixed bouquets.

There was a clown creating all sorts of sculptures out of balloons, some candles and jewelry vendors, some exotic lotion displays.

Next time, I think I'll plan on having Wednesday night supper there! Join us for a wonderful treat of smells and tastes -- at Cal State San Marcos any Wednesday afternoon from 3 to 7!

Recently, I had a chance to team up with a fellow blogger to interview him about blogging. Jeff Dowler, who has been blogging for about two and a half years, will be teaching a webinar at our local Association. I was asked to be the interviewer for the 5 minute podcast. We had a great time doing the interview and were successful after only two takes. When you have the right mix of people in the room, that are positive and forward looking, there are no limits! Ken DeMarco, the staff technologist, did a marvelous job editing. To get a preview about the upcoming webinar for Realtors about blogging, check out Podcast.

It was one of those rare Saturday mornings when I was taking time off to cook a meal for a family gathering (you know the kind, when the in-laws are coming) when I had an urgent call from my client -- "Lela, someone showed up at my house at 7:30 this morning saying that they had sent in their money and wanted the keys. Then another couple showed up at 8:30 and said the same thing!"

We had my client's home listed on Craig's List as a property for lease -- complete with photos and text. Some creative and fraudulent soul had copied our information and re-posted it on Craig's List for $800 a month less! Obviously a 4 bedroom/2 bath home for $1300 a month sounded better than one for $2100 a month.

Apparently, once the unsuspecting victims answered the ad on Craigslist, they received this response:

We notified Craig's List at abuse@Craigslist.com of the fraudulent listing and within a few hours it was gone. We filed a police report, but didn't have the names of any victims. The deputy gave us an incident number and told us that if more people showed up to have the occupant of the house ask them to stay until the sheriff could get there and take a report to help them get the money back they had sent off to Nigeria or some paypal account or goodness knows where. However, we have noticed that every few days, the fraudulent ad is being re-posted to Craigslist.

When I brought this up at caravan last week -- another broker said listings her office which had posted in the MLS for sale (NOT on Craigslist) had also been copied, and re-posted on Craigslist as being for lease.

According to the deputy we met with, once anything is posted on the MLS or on Craigslist, it is in the public domain. It's easy for the bad guys to copy the information and re-package it to suit them.

Solutions? We've notified Yahoo.com of the phony email address this guy is using and are awaiting their response. Craig's List has been cooperative at removing the ad every time it's flaggged, but I am disappointed that it isn't filtered out before re-appearing. We plan to let every listing client we have know what to do is someone shows up at their door with the song and dance "we sent in our money, where are the keys?" We may need to take the further action of making sure none of our listings are showing up on Craigs List in ways that we don't intend for them to appear (by regular review). We've also reported the incident to IC3 which stands for Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

For this property, we also have made sure that it has our signs visible and flyers outside with the correct lease amount. Having correct flyers onsite has directed several calls to me that were "I saw this on Craigslist for $1300 and now your flyer says $2100, what's going on?"

Let me know if you have seen this in your area and what solutions you may have........