Judith de la Cruz

I've been hearing this question a lot lately, "How is your business doing?" with a lot of concern in their voice. Understandably so.

Well, I must admit I miss 2006. That was the best year ever for me. The market has indeed slowed down but it is not as bad as everyone is making it to be. I do feel that I have to work twice even three times as hard as I ever did before to generate a sale. I think that no matter what the market does, you still have to keep doing what you're doing. Housing is such a basic need, people either would rent one or they buy one.

The housing stimulus did help me generate sales. I think there will be a surge of real estate activity as we get closer to Dec. 1 deadline.

I handle both sales and property management, with about 50-50 ratio. My office is always busy. I would say that we get a lot of activity on the rentals or lease with an option to buy. I notice that there are still a lot of people that are moving into the area, either through a job relocation or just a well-thought of decision based on their research of the area. Most of them do not even know anyone here, they just heard its a great place to live with a vibrant economy compared to the rest of the nation. I am feeling so blessed to be in this market.

I see people from Florida getting IT jobs in the area. People from Maine who abandoned their restaurant business there and moving them here. They say their business is almost dead there. I have another builder from Michigan whose business slowed down to a standstill and is thinking of establishing their business here.

There is a positive flow of people coming into the area. A lot of them rent for right now as they also have a house they could not sell where they are coming from.

Builders whose prices used to be in the $400's and up have now dropped them by $100K. They are the ones who are selling homes. They changed their floor plans and their standards to make them more affordable for people. If anyone wants a new home and they want a Dec. 1 deadline, I am afraid you are getting into the last minute of making it to the deadline.

Overall, the Raleigh Durham market is still a good real estate market to be in.

Buyers and sellers may have almost all on the internet to learn about real estate but what Realtors can offer them is our opinion about an area, a home or a builder supported by facts and stats, our tools and knowledge, something that comes only with experience. This is the value we bring to the table.

"Experience is not Expensive...It's Priceless!"

The Raleigh Durham market has seen an increased inventory in short sales. I have had 5 experiences so far and would like to share them with everyone.

The first one was with First Franklin. The sellers had the first and 2nd with them. The listing sold Sept. 24, 08 and it closed 11/17/2008, the whole process took 54 days. It was a cash deal. I considered it an ideal short sale situation.

The 2nd deal was with Taylor Bean and Whitaker (TB&W) as the first mortgage holder. The 2nd mortgage was with SPS or Select Portofolio. I got an offer on it after 17 days in 10/13/08 and I withdraw the listing on Dec. 5 because I was notified that the bank sold it in a foreclosure. The crazy thing about this deal is that I faxed, mailed and certified mail them the contract and each time I follow up they said that they have not received it. I probably did this about 5 times and I had to wait for almost 30 minutes to get someone on the phone. This was with TB&W. I had no problems connecting to SPS. I could not believe that they allowed the foreclosure to happen when the deal I had was better than what they eventually sold it for in foreclosure.

The 3rd one I did was with Wells Fargo. My experience with them was very smooth. It went under contract April 28, 09 and it closed June 5, 09. The people at Wells Fargo were very nice to deal with and they were pretty quick in their response. That was a great experience.

My 4th one was with Countrywide. We had it under contract for about 45 days in April. Somehow, the contract also did not seem to make it to them. We faxed it to them, mailed but they still could not seem to see it. The buyers decided they do not want to wait any longer and backed out.

The 5th one I am dealing with right now is with Countrywide now Bank of America. This has been going on since March. I got 4 offers on the home which is now down to one. They finally assigned a negotiator back in June. They keep telling us to call back in 7-10 days for update. I have now been calling them almost 2-3 times a week. The negotiator refuses to call or email me. I was told that he is swamped and will only call me when he gets to it. The only people I could talk to keep telling me that they will escalate the process and I need to check back again within 7-10 days. I said I have been getting this same answer for the past 2 months. All they could tell me is I understand but we have no other choice but to wait. Meanwhile, they already set up the foreclosure date for Sept. 2. I was told that you cannot ask for an extension until within 5 days from that date. I asked why when they know there is a contract.They said that the foreclosure dept. is separate and they are not necessarily aware that there is a contract. They just go ahead and set the date just in case the buyer walks away from the contract or the short sale is not approved, that they could proceed with the foreclosure process. I am just hoping that they will make a decision before this date. This experience with Bank of America has been totally frustrating. I have used every possible way to convince the operators to transfer me to their supervisors but they refuse to do so. They just keep assuring me that they will send a message to someone in their system to address my concern and I asked who will look at it and they said someone who process these inquiries. I said if the negotiator dont even have the time to answer me, how much more the recipient of the email she is sending it to? I can tell that the email that she was doing was just being done to pacify me. The one thing that Im only glad with is I dont have to wait for 30 minutes like I did with TB&W. I always seem to get someone on the phone right away. They should hire more people in their short sale department. They are a total mess. They are doing a lot of people a disservice, the investor, the buyers and the sellers and us the agents. We could lose this buyer and then they will really foreclose on this home unless I can get someone fast enough to buy it before the 2nd of Sept.

I just listed a house now whose mortgage is with Aurora Loan Services. I have googled them and their short sale process and it looks like we might be in it for 6 months.

I do not blame agents for asking who is the mortgage servicer of the loan cause it could really make a huge difference on how the process will be handled and how long it would take.

I am just hoping that the companies I mentioned that do not have it together would have figured by now how they can improve their system.