It's amazing what can happen when you give it your all. To understand this blog please read my previous blog about my last ditch efforts to save one of my listings from the sheriff's sale.
I still don't know how this will play out but for now I have a 30 day delay to get my last minute offer approved by the bank. After I wrote the post - End of the Line...For Now I went to bed but spent a restess night doing what if scenarios in my mind. Should I have been nicer to the negotiator? Did I really have tweet about the bank? Should I really have sent the emails to the local TV news reporters?
I don't know the answers to any of that but as I sat at the courthouse in Geneva, IL (after looking for a parking space, going through a metal detector and climbing 4 flights of stairs) I looked around at the people attending the sale. From the 4 main investors bidding on the lower end homes to those obvious homeowners that really had no clue on what was happening to other realtors there with their buyers. Every seat was taken in this small courthouse.
If you have not gone to a foreclosure sale as a realtor in this market you should. It's the end of the line for many homeowners and at the same time a beginning for others. As I sat there waiting for my seller's home to be called, I checked my email and there it was.
An email from the negotiator. I could hardly read it, I was so nervous. I had to read it a few times but a miracle had happened...I had gotten a 30 day delay on the sale. It had been continued for next month! I had to confirm with the sheriff before calling anyone. I was beyond speachless since I had gone to bed last night believing the negotiator had not only denied the offer but would not be asking for a delay. I asked the lady in front of me if they had a list of the homes for sale to see if my seller's address was on it. She showed me the list and as I looked I could not find it but then I did and she had marked CONTINUED! Wow! So it might actually be true...
After another 10 or 15 minutes the sale was finished and I approached the sheriff at the front for final confirmation. After giving him the address he checked his records and yes, the sale was delayed for 30 days!!
I thanked him profusely as he looked at me with a slightly frustrated look. Imagine doing his job every Thursday, all year long.
I literally floated down the 4 flights of stairs and could hardly wait to talk to my seller. I walked and dialed his number and could hardly keep the excitement out of my voice. He was absolutely floored! He could not believe it and thanked me profusely.
I emailed the other agent to tell her the good news and started driving back to the listing to put the lockbox back on. I called the agent since I needed to know if the buyer still wanted the home. She still had not read her email so was thrilled when I told her the news. She called me Wonder Woman Agent or something close to that.
So now we wait to get the BPO and if the agent does his/her job right our offer should be accepted since we are using the latest comparables with the right sq. footage and we will find out if the bank really wants to save themselves the extra cost of actually foreclosing on the home and losing even more money 6 to 12 months from now when prices will even be lower.
I will definitely do a follow-up on this one after all what made them give me that 30 day repreive....your guess is as good as mine, but a bit of praying, visualization, tweeting, facebooking and pressure from all sources probably helped. For now, this is my early Valentine gift from the lender!
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