As the saying goes its not over until the fat lady sings and I can say that now after waiting 13 long months for a short sale listing of mine to close.

While this might not be the longest time in record for a short sale to close it has become one of the best success stories of the year for me and everyone I have been involved with  over the past 13 months.

In order to get to closing we had to over come a lot of obsticles which included 4 liens and 2 personal bankruptcy for the sellers involved in this transaction.

We were able to get all liens satisfied and then had to go to bankruptcy court to get the final approval to close.

I want to thank everyone involved because without them this would not have ever closed. 

 First we had a buyer who really wanted to buy the home.

A Supportive Family who were willing to assist the buyers financially and emotionally throughout the process.

A Lender who was able to get creative with a local bank and get the buyers financing.

A Buyer agent who kept the buyers interest first and had the courage to trust this deal would close.

A Short Sale Negotiator and Real Estate Attorney who worked with the Seller to get all of the liens satisfied. I think I over heard the Real Estate Attorney say that  27  different HUD-1 were reveiwed before getting final approval from the lender. 

The final thanks goes out to the seller for trusting all involved that we could get this Short Sale approved and closed and prevent a Foreclosure on their record.

Thank you all ….

I think I have broken the record for the longest short sale ( 499 days) from listing date to close date.

When representing sellers in Short Sales you have to be prepaired for anything. In this particular sale we were up against all odds but got it done.

By we,  I am including my Negotiator Rob Jacobs, of Short Sale Pathways and my attorney Mari-Kay Zarraza. Without them I would not have closed this Short Sale. 

Thank you Rob and Mari-Kay.

This Short Sale had multiple liens and each had to be negotiated seperately. The more liens a property has the more difficult and time consuming the Short Sale can be but it can get done.

We were threatened on numerous occassions that the Short Sale was going to be denied and we were able to postpone the foreclosure date every time.

Short Sales should never take this long and hopefully with HAFA they will be streamlined. To read more about HAFA go to  the heading  “Short Sales”

Following is an email I recently received from one such client..

Hi Jack,

Things are actually going pretty well for me.  “The Short Sale was the best thing that happened ” .

I am living in my own apartment with my dog in the city. I had a hard time buying a new car because of my credit not my income but my family was able to give me a loan and I am paying them back.

I don’t have any major debts, outside of a student loan and Ihave a comfortable life within my means. Overall, things are as they should be.

I will definitely pass your name if given the opportunity.

Good luck with the blog and I hope you have an enjoyable Thanksgiving…

With limited money and VA loan we started to look at bank owned foreclosures. After visiting several homes, my buyer found a home he liked and so we wrote up an offer. The initial offer was low and included a $2,500 seller credit for repairs and another $4,000 in closing costs to be paid by the seller. To our surprise the Seller accepted our offer.

During our  inspection of the property, we found the bathroom in the basement was not up to Village Code, and had to be removed before the City would give us occupancy.  We used the seller credits in make the necessary repairs.

After the repairs were completed we had the home re-inspected by the Village and were issued a Certificate of Occupancy.

Just as we were ready to schedule a closing, we were informed by the seller attorney that a closing could not take place without written approval from the lender. After several days we still had not heard from the lender and began to worry.

It wasn’t until further investigation that we found out the reason for the delay. Citi-Residential sold all of its assets, including our loan to AHMSI.  The lender was not responding to our inquires because all of the files were not transferred over to AHMSI. They did not think the transfer would happen in time for our closing date.

This became a problem for my buyer because he was in Navy housing and either had to close or sign another year lease.  Under the circumstances it is quite natural to feel frustrated, angry, and I found it useful to direct those feelings to some action.

I got all of the names and email addresses of everyone involved in this transaction, and emailed the “Demand to Close ” letter prepared by the buyers attorney.

In my email I asked people for help. I explained I was working with a career officer in the Navy and to my surprise I received an email back from one of my contacts  saying ” I will do anything to help a  Hero ”

I said “Wow , I think I found the guy who can help us”.  So I emailed him back and said  ” Your right he is a Hero and any help you can give will be appreciated.”

To make a long story short  ” Our Hero ” got a New Home.