I won't bore you with the details of this deal, so I will take you to the closing table last Thursday or one of my hardest short sales EVER!
After a long process and thinking that I wasn't going to be able to sell this listing...and it was going to foreclose in a few days we finally made it to the closing table last Thursday. We still had one hang up where we needed a Power of Attorney for one of the sellers. The catch is that that seller has not been very good with his follow through.
Long story short, I got the POA and we were able to close. Another catch, the lender(Chase) would not accept a wire, they wanted check in hand the next day! (By the way, 2 loans, both with Chase.) It is now about 6:45pm and all the UPS trucks have come and gone for the day, so I had to RACE across town and try to make the last drop off at 7pm.
I didn't make it....
If you know anyone who does short sales, they don't take no for an answer.....well, that's me :) I pulled into the parking lot of UPS shipping and saw that one of the bay doors were cracked open to let in some air for the guys loading the trucks. I am in a nice pin striped suit with my famous pink tie(for luck) and crawled under this 2ft opening. Yes, I did!
I see some pepole loading a few trucks and I hold up my hand and yell, "Can I get these overnighted?" As I said that I am thinking to myself, I am going to get either shot, arressted or both. Fortunatly, I was met by a very nice guy who took the packages and took them to the right person and I was free to go.
I got into my truck and thought that was both the stupidest thing I have done and yet the smartest. If I didn't crawl under that door my seller would have lost her home to foreclosure 2 days later. We literally took this one to the wire and made it happen.
This was an exciting day, but I can still say that I have never lost a home to foreclusre yet!! I will crawl under that door again if I have to.
Matt Hodges
Matt- We do a lot of short sales and we do not take NO for an answer either! That is for sure. We sink our teeth in like a pit bull and don't let go until we have saved our seller from impending foreclosure.
Hope you didn't ruin the suit crawling under the bay door?
Hey up there in the Cherry Capital. Great job in getting the deal done the name of the game in short sales is persistance. Love the title of the blog.
Great job Matt!!! Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. I would have done the same. And good luck in the future...
Matt, you're good! You do whatever it takes to make it work. Whoo hoo!
Great job, Matt! Awesome story! Your story is a good one for seminars!
Matt,
Good for you. You can't put a price tag on that effort!
Dave
Good job for thinking outside the box with a "can do" attitude. It's amazing what can happen with determination and the right attitude. (Obviously, if you'd been obnoxious, they never would have taken your package!)
Wishing you easier closings from here on!
Lots of short sales (exit strategy to prevent foreclosures) are happening. Do any of you as Realtors know of strategies that will help these homeowners keep their homes? If not, contact me, I can show you how to make money at this, and how to gain a client for life in the process. Lots of homeowners are losing their homes, and going back to renting, while investors are picking up the properties. This only hurts the Real Estate Industry as these homeowners with their ruined credit will be out of the home buying business for many years.
YOU THE MAN -- Pink tie and all. Been there done that so many time in so many ways.. short sale agents all seem to be ex - alligator wrestles
Matt,
This is a heck of a story. Fascianting reading. Of course, it would be so much better not to jump through the hoops, but when we need to do it, we do.
Terrific job.
Kudos Matt--
I'll keep my eyes open for the guy in the pink tie next time I normally would have looked for a guy with a cape! I wish you a few easier deals in near future!
Good to hear something good about UPS, I worked there for 27 years! I am now doing short sales myself. It's never dull.
Well Matt, That's a true sign of a dedicated Realtor who loves his job. I have dealt with short sale agents who care not if the listing is sold or not. Best of luck in your future transactions and hope you don't have to crawl under a door any more.
Congrats on getting the job done...never an easy feat on short sales.
Way to go Matt - I hope you receive so much more than you have given in return!!!
One has to do what one has to do to make a short sale happen -- be it climbing under trucks, removing bob cats from a yard, removing birds that have managed to mysteriously get inside a home, or refilling a swimming pool that the short-sale lender decided to drain -- whatever it takes.
It's funny how many agents go above and beyond these days, yet just as many others lay down aftet the first problem.
It seems that even the "easy" deals arn't easy anymore. I just closed on a lakefront sale where the buyer was bringing 60% to the table and it seemed to take forever. The home and property was worth about 500K and we purchased it at 357K. Seems like a slam dumk, right?
Wrong! Since we got such a god deal, the appraisr couldn'r find comps for this price range on the water. I can't believe it :)
Good luck to everyone doing short sales as well as everyone that's not...there all difficult these days.
I truly hope that your clients appreciate your dedication and follow-through!
Does that count as the extra few steps??
Above and beyod the call of duty. This is what sellers need from us as professionals.
You go boy! Great job.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... Bless you short sale specialists!!! You are helping not only your customers but the real estate industry by moving these homes. My hat's off to you and all your efforts!
Nice story. It is like dialing for dollars. I had a deal where the buyers had some property in rural Alabama. We were trying to close in 5-6 days and they were in the mountains at a cabin without telephone access (I told them not to go). I had to verify taxes and show there were no liens on the property so I got on the phone. I called an agent first who explained that I should call the courthouse. After several calls, someone was nice enough to give me the names of a couple of local real estate attorneys. This was Friday afternoon. I finally got someone to go over to the courthouse on Monday morning and go through the microfiche (no computer system in rural Alabama) and track down what I needed. I ended up closing one or two days late but considering everything, I was OK with it. It adds to the fun, doesn't it?
Thank you to everyone who posted. It is always fun to share these kinds of experiences with all of you. I have a couple more that are panning out to be a good story as well, but I will hold off telling them until they close.
Thanks for writing this story. Most times, the customers (and the public in general) don't know what we do to close the transaction. In this case, you saved your Seller's Butt... Good work!!
It's funny, I made less on this transaction than most and it took 3-4 times longer than any typical deal, but it always feels good to help a homeowner out. Money can come and go, but I think the sellers will remember me when they or someone they know attempts to buy or sell in the future.