You Might Pay a Price for that Short Sale

You either like snakes or you don't. I'm not fond of slithering. I once came across a snake in my yard when I lived in Minneapolis, and I grabbed the garden hose and sprayed it into oblivion. My sister, on the other hand, loves reptiles. She keeps frozen mice in the freezer for her snake. When it comes feeding time, she drops the frozen little ball into warm water to thaw. Then she blow dries the mouse with a hair blowdryer.

If I had a snake, it would starve.

I'm not willing to go through that much work to raise a pet snake. It's a price that snake lovers pay. My sister swears they eat only mice, and her snake won't eat the mouse if it's not warm.

Same thing with a short sale. Before a seller embarks on a short sale, he or she should take personal inventory. Decide whether it's worth the inconvenience, stress and demands. Doing a short sale in Sacramento is not necessarily an easy path. As a Sacramento short sale agent who has closed hundreds of short sales in Sacramento, I try to foresee and eliminate hassles for my sellers, but it's not always possible to head off every single problem.

When you sign up to do a short sale, you're agreeing to a series of compromises. In this particular real estate market, it means buyers and buyer's agents will stomp through your house. They might line up in the yard to get in. Your phone will ring off the hook. It's a seller's market in Sacramento. We have dwindling inventory and a lot of buyers. When I tell sellers they will be in escrow within a few days, they stare at me like I just grew a second arm out of my head. I can tell they're thinking, yeah, right. Especially after they call a few days later to apologize for that skepticism.

Banks will demand documents from you and threaten to close the file if they don't get those docs within 24 hours. You will be at work without access to documents, but you'll still be expected to provide them. BPO agents will expect immediate access to conduct an interior inspection. They don't care if your baby is sick and you're under-the-weather, too. Collection agencies and banks will call at the worst times possible to demand payments. They'll be rude and obnoxious.

If you're working with an experienced Sacramento short sale agent, she will gather documents in advance from you. She will quickly put your home into escrow and change the status in MLS to stop the calls; put an end to the madness. She will help you to choose the right buyer -- the buyer who will make it all the way to closing so you won't end up like your neighbors with a sign in the yard for years as that home is sold again and again and again. She will do her best to make your life as comfortable as possible during the short sale process. But she can't guarantee zero discomfort. That's the hard, cold truth.

However, like with childbirth, the pain quickly dissipates upon short sale approval. And by the time you're ready to buy again, the home you buy could very well be a short sale, too. You'll probably have empathy for your new seller.