Like most internet saavy Realtors I belong to a number of housing portals and whenever a consumer posts a question I get notified. The question was not that difficult and various other colleagues had answered.
The consumer wanted to know what his options were in the following scenario:
Before they got married his wife had bought a townhome at the top of the market and they had just seen a home that they wanted to put in an offer - it was a foreclosure that needed a lot of repairs but other than that it was just what they were looking for. He wanted to know if there was a way for them to buy the home despite the fact that his wife could not sell her current home because the mortgage owed was more than current market value and they were unable to rent it due to HOA rules.
I gave a quick answer to have the wife short sale the home since she was unable to sell at current prices and unable to rent to wait for prices to come up. He could then buy the new home on his own if he qualified for it. Posted my answer and logged off.
I always like to follow the thread after I post an answer and next time I logged on I was floored to discover that another agent had told the consumer that my answer was unethical and that him and his wife would have to "bite the bullet", stay in the home because they did not have a qualified hardship. Oh, and yes, please call her for the only ethical advise.
I was taken aback by her response. So I rebuttaled the answer stating that although there are certain acceptable more common hardships (loss of income, job loss, divorce, death, medical) but the banks take each situation on a case by case nature and that only the bank could make that decision since they were the ones that held the mortgage and would suffer the loss- not the Realtor! With strategic defaults going on and banks accepting short sales for a variety of reasons, I took umbrage that a fellow Realtor would call my advise unethical.
Part of my answer included the line - "as Realtors, our job is to facilitate the transaction and give our client's choices not to make moral judgements". A mortgage is a financial instrument. The banks do not use a moral compass when they foreclose on a home - they make a financial decision.
I even took the time to send the Realtor an email telling her that I was upset that she would use the term "unethical" when she did not know me or had not expanded her training to understand how the current short sale environment was.
Several days later I received an internet lead from my website. To my surprise it was the consumer who had posted the question. He admired the fact that I stood up for myself and that I did not make a moral judgement about their situation without getting more details. He was glad that I was honest and upfront about their situation.
I have now been working with him and his wife on finding another home since the original home they put in an offer needed more repairs than they wanted to invest in.
So to those fellow Realtors that would like to keep moralizing - go ahead....and thank you for sending me more business because you are driving consumers away from your narrow views. Trying to make another Realtor look bad does not always work and you will only end up making yourself look bad.
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