Erin Attardi, Realtor - Sacramento, CA 916-342-1372

If you follow me on Twitter, you will already know that I had a chat over lunch today with the Director of Training for Lyon Real Estate, Michael Gray. He told me some pleasantly surprising news...I have the highest success rate at closing short sales of any agent at Lyon Real Estate! Yep, little old Erin Attardi. WOW! Not sure just how many agents are now at Lyon, but I think it is hovering around a thousand or so. We have 120 agents in my office in Sierra Oaks alone, and there are 18 offices!

So what are the secrets to my short sale successes? I will tip you off to a few...

The first thing, is that I am very selective when I choose to list a short sale. The seller MUST have a legitimate hardship. The seller must be prepared and willing to provide ALL of the documentation (like paystubs, bank statements, tax returns) the short sale lender will require. I turn down about half of the prospective short sale sellers who contact me - most of which do not have hardships, or they indicate to me they want to help them commit fraud, or they indicate they are not willing to provide documentation. I always look to see if the listings I decline end up on the market, and they almost ALWAYS do with other agents...those short sales have little likelihood of actually closing successfully.

The second thing, is that I am really NICE to the lender loss mitigation reps I deal with. These are people who get yelled at repeatedly every day, over and over again by frustrated borrowers and agents. I joke around with them, ask them about the weather, say please and thank you, etc... this works really well!! I have convinced certain lender loss mitigation reps to give me their direct phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses. These guys actually LIKE to deal with me!

The third thing, is that I have developed a systematic method for negotiating short sales. I follow directions set by the short sale lenders really well and accurately. I am great at time management, and often find myself working with the same short sale lenders over and over again. The system itself is not one I am willing to share...and yes, I personally negotiate ALL of my short sales. I do not farm them out to a 3rd party.

I do lots of things to make my short sales successful...

Yes I am ok...I got a few emails from my regular blog readers asking if I was ok, and why I had not written anything new lately (including my 4th installment of Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment, which I will write a bit later this week). My answer? It's the end of the summer, and I have been playing! Even Realtors deserve a day or two off now and then, right?

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you will already know I took two little excursions in the last week, and both coincidentally were to celebrate my parents' birthdays.

Before I left though on Friday the 11th, I helped throw a little fundraiser for the California Association of Realtors Housing Affordability Fund (CARHAF) with the Young Professionals Council's 2nd Annual "Bowling for the American Dream" fundraiser. What a blast! This year's event had a 1950's theme...the final total is not in yet, but we estimate that we raised about $3,000 for CARHAF!

So anyway, last Monday, to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday, I got up really early and went fishing on SF Bay with my husband, dad, and brother. We caught 4 white sea bass (including a 51-incher by my brother), and 7 halibut. That was a great day! Our catch yielded over 100 pounds of meat! There was so much that although the guides cleaned our fish for us, we still ended up taking the fillets to a butcher for processing. Let's just say that if you have a good recipe for white fish, please email it to me!!

Then, first thing this last Saturday morning, my brother, mom and I flew to Los Angeles to see the San Francisco Giants play the Dodgers. Hmm...the Giants got absolutely slayed in both games we saw (Saturday and Sunday), but we still had a great time. Before we returned on Monday evening, we had lunch at this famous restaurant called The Ivy in Beverly Hills. Good times.

Back to work!!! (Un)fortunately, my summer travels are over...

Did you know that there is a paragraph in the California Residential Purchase Agreement (in paragraph 5C) that informs prospective home buyers that information is available to them pertaining to the proximity of registered sex offenders to the property they seek to purchase. The paragraph reads:

"Pursuant to Section 290.45 of the Penal Code, information about specified registered sex offenders is made available to the public via an Internet Web site maintained by the Department of Justice at http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov. Depending on an offender's criminal history, this information will include either the address at which the offender resides or the community of residence and ZIP Code in which he or she resides. (Neither Seller nor Brokers are required to check this website. If Buyer wants further information, Broker recommends that Buyer obtain information from this website during Buyer's inspection contingency period. Brokers do not have expertise in this area.)"

While I review this paragraph with all of my buyer clients when we write up offers and encourage them to check the Megan's Law website, I'm not sure that all of them actually do check that out.

Well, let me just tell you that one of my clients did check.

We wrote an offer on Friday evening, had a counter offer from the seller in hand by Sunday morning. On Sunday afternoon, while my buyer clients were contemplating how to respond to the seller's counter offer, they decided to check the Megan's Law database...they found a registered sex offender living 3 doors down from the house they made the offer on. They decided not to pursue that property and look elsewhere...

Let's face it, registered sex offenders are out there and do live in our neighborhoods...but you as a buyer have the ability to make an informed choice as you make your home purchase.

I got a call from a very nice lady this afternoon who lives a few doors down from one of my short sale listings. She wanted to know if the house was pending sale or was sold, and for how much, so she could get an idea of what her house is worth.

Since the sale was not yet complete, I could not provide her with all of those details. I asked her if she herself was thinking about selling, and she explained that she had just lost her job and was unable to afford her mortgage payment...but mentioned she had planned to pay $1,900 to a loan modification company in Southern CA that promised to get her mortgage company to reduce her principle loan balance to the current lower market value - hence her call to me to inquire about the selling price of my listing as a reference point.

RED FLAG!!

Alarm bells went off in my head. I grabbed my laptop, which coincidentally always seems pretty close by, and pulled up the CA Department of Real Estate website. I asked the lady the name of the company, and cross referenced the list of "Desist and Refrain Orders and/or Accusations for Fraudulent Loan Modification Activities." Sure enough, the company she had planned to work with was on the list. OH GAWD!!

I immediately explained to her why hiring this company was a bad idea. While there are some legitimate profit-based loan modification companies out there, many companies that promise to modify your mortgage loan will take the up-front fee and RUN. That's right - they will deposit that check, or even worse, run your credit card, and you may never hear from them again. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

Did you know that the Home Loan Counseling Center of Sacramento offers free Foreclosure Prevention Counseling??? Did you know they offer counseling in English, Spanish, and Russian? At the HLCC, you can meet with a certified Foreclosure Prevention Counselor who can explain options available to you, help you develop a household spending plan and negotiate a modification with your lender on your behalf. Services are free and confidential.

If you are attempting a loan modification and need help - please, try the HLCC first! If you are not successful in your loan modification and want to do a short sale, then call me and I can assist you there...

I am happily eating a celebratory frozen yogurt right this second...I just received confirmation from Placer Title that one of my short sale listings has closed!

If you have been reading my blog over the last couple weeks, you will know that I have been feverishly working to get an extension on a Natomas short sale that was supposed to close by August 31st, but the buyer could not perform and get her lending in time. There was a Trustee Sale set for September 8th (yesterday), and I had been repeatedly told by the short sale lender (Aurora Loan Servicing) that an extension would not be granted. Approval extensions are NOT guaranteed!!

Well, first I was successful in my bid to get the Trustee Sale postponed from September 8th to October 1. When I finally did receive that extension from the short sale lender, the buyer's lender wanted some wording changed on the approval document! ARGGH!!

I literally was having nightmares about this short sale transaction. Anyway - it closed! Seller is elated, and buyer is thrilled to be a first time homeowner at age 75! A win-win for everyone involved. YIPPEE!