Mike,

It`s not that they suck in as much as the lenders don`t really have any idea what the property values are worth.

BPO`s have become a joke as i`m positive you`ll agree.

Yes, it is very frustrating and it is why my group of investors only want to talk to the homeowners. It takes MONTHS to get the lenders to agree on anything whenever you can get them on the phone.

Yes Scott, The last one that we did finally work out had 2 BPO's...I actually considered this one a success because there was some measurable progress.. Finding the situations early enough is really the key, and not trying to sell to a waiting retail buyer is the next key...thats too much hardship for them...as you know, the inventory is out there for ready to go buyers..Nice to hear from ya

Tara...Ditto my friend...ditto...I am finding that once a seller is convinced they cannot keep the property, then we can work directly with them  help save thier credit, and have plenty of time to negotiate with the lender...So basically, it only works where the present mortgage situation is already low enough to begin with..It lowers the amount of deals, but I don't need 10 a week anyway..Also, its much easier to deal after the auction..no pressure, clean titles, just bid and process the papers if they accept..Funny, after the auction...its a much smoother deal

BPO's now there is an oxy moron.  In Arizona I think they are not very friendly. The Brokers participating do so to try and list the properties. The appraisers are fighting it because they get rooked out of work, by the way they are hurting to. SO what is there to do...

Geeeees

You can say that again..  Very intense, and very draining indeed.  I hope 2008 will be extra good to you in this business.  Lu

Ken................I see the fees for BPO's down to $85.00 now, I guess the Realtors figure that will fill up a tank and a nice lunch, why not!!..I feel for the appraisers, but they are stuck in a situation here too....If they lower thier prices on a BPO, then what is the value for a drive by... I know some, and they are in great fear for their professional lives as the liability issues drag closer to actual court cases...Many were in Cahoots, and deserve to get whacked, but now the ones that remain in the trenches are stuck with the cleanup..like us

I have a client who had currently had an offer in for 6 weeks.  First position Mortgage lender signed off on the deal in the first week, but 2nd position GMAC has sat on it this whole time.  Trying to get an update, found out last week that "it has been transferred to another division in the company...and we don't transfer paperwork.  You'll have to submit it again."  And was hung up on! 

Hilarious....but very very true!

Mike, I'm now 30 days into trying to get a short sale negotiated. I haven't been able to reach anyone at all for the last 2 weeks. hardly worth my time and effort.

The odds are stacked against us with short sales...and reo's aren't any different.

Mike-  I have my loan with Option one and you are right, I am not in a short sale, I am not selling my house, but I just pray that I never have to call them for anything. I had an issue with a payment I made online a few months back and you are right, they are all in INDIA! I can not understand  a word they are saying and there is no emotion, they are reading off of a manual and keep saying the same thing over and over no matter my question! 

I wrote a post about the fun of short sales! Ah, the business we are in! Katerina 

Mike -

Short sales are very difficult - but it does take patience to get one through, and a lot of elbow grease.  Problems are magnified with a second loan, plus additional lien holders (contractors, condo associations, etc.)

Unfortunately, short sales will be a growing percentage of RE transactions for the near future - so you have to come to terms, and develop a system, to handle them - just like anything else.

Floyd Wickman has a great course and cd, with form and letter templates, to help you out.  Just took Will Weaver's course here in Chicago, and purchased the kit.  Check out Julie Escobar's AR Blog from November 10, 2007 (she is from Tampa FL) for some Q & A, as well as relevant links.

If you want to have a tete-a-tete on short sales - just let me know!

DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO

Short sales can take forever it seems like. I think I guy at the Lenders' office is afraid to decide what to do and needs to wait until his boss says OK

It certainly is a "horse of a different color" as they say. I have limited experience, but the ones that I was involved in were headaches...

What a mess we're in. If there were more business, I don't think anyone would deal with the hassles of short sales. clients should always be informed that the chances of success are not 100%, or even close. I'm glad you put a humorous spin to this. It was funny.

Hi Mike,

My last short sale took 4 months to get approved. I must have faxed that package 10 times! When the bank finally approved they wanted to close in two weeks, the buyers who hung in there all that time changed their mind. You are right, they do suck the energy right out of you! :)

Mike - Short sales?  I came.  I saw.  I conquered... Ok, just one. After that, I left. Best wishes to you, I mean it!

Mike - They certainly are a challenge.  The problem is that no one wnats to make the final decision.  Everyone is trying to pass the buck so they dont get blamed for sellin the house for too little.

I have never done a short sale, but it sounds like I don't want to get started!

Hey Mike,

Very entertaining read! I absolutely understand your frustration with the short sale market. The wholesale mortgage market is not much better to deal with these days. On a positive note, I may have a solution for you. I met and now work with ForeclosuresDaily.com. We have hired a team of former bank short sale loss mitigators that now work on the flip-side. All they do, every day, is prepare, submit and close short sale packages for our customers. I have a feeling that I can provide a service that will benefit you in this declining market. Contact me anytime!

To your fortunes in foreclosures,

Jared Schmidt

I handle short sales in Camarillo CA ...  After working on a plethora of transactions representing both buyers and sellers, I truly understand your frustrations.  They should change the name to "Long Sales" as far as the buyers are concerned...

My limited experience with short sales has not been positive and I can't imagine why an agent would put all their eggs in the short sale basket.  I'm more than happy to take on a traditional sale and have my buyers stay away from short sale properties. Half the time, they are not really a better deal.

What about the buyer's representation in short sales? How can we represent our buyer clients if we do not know the answers to few major questions: 1) who is the seller and decision maker in a short sale? Title is held by one person, decision is made by another one(s); 2) who is liable for condition of the property. As Is condition means not better and reasonably not worse than at the time of making offer/inspection; 3) what about the home inspection and other continigencies and walk-through provision (that's again about the conditionof the property after eviction). And few more regarding utility bills, especially water bills, title insurance, etc. I agree with Mike Norvell, Sr.: NO retail buyers in short sales! We have no ability to fairly represent them.

Until the goverment quits bailing out the mortgage companies, it is only going to get worse. The good Loss Mitigation Consultants who work for the banks are overloaded. In the past they were efficient because they didn't have as many files. Mortgage companies are now hiring individuals who don't know how to do the job. 2 years ago I could get all short sales negotiated and closed in 45 days. Now I'm praying to get a response within 45 days.

Banks are sending a messge that they would rather loose more money by letting the properties get foreclosed.

I tell buyers be wary of foreclosures. My research has shown that many in my area develop expensive foundation issues because the sump pump has been off for a year or more and many have poor drainage.

Trying to negotiate a Countrywide short sale is like getting 4 root canals and your mouth wired all at once.

www.DowellTaggart.com

On another note, I was contacted by a Realtor in California on a referral basis wanting me to represent her seller client here in Arizona on a short sale. I am soooooooo dubious. It isn't that I couldn't do it, it's about the time and energy involved. Have any of you dealt with a short sale on the seller's end?

The banks are overwhelmed, under staffed, under trained and just don't have their act together on handling this foreclosure crisis.  The crazy thing is they created this entire mess by lowering loan guidelines to basically nothing.  Anybody that wanted to buy a house could and now we're all paying for it.

If you know anyone interested in real estate in Orange County CA I'd be happy to pay you a referral fee for sending them my way.  Feel free to check out my website for Orange County market insight at http://www.zensellshomes.com/ or my blog at www.zensellshomes.com/blog.asp.

Lu Kalaj         Lu...thanks for your reply..I sincerely hope 2008 is very good to all of us who have chosen to stay in the business..

Kent Simpson REALTOR®,   ahhh the beauty of dealing with the second mtg....they should be pleased YOU are making the effort...at auction, they get squat....we really are not appreciated here..I am still looking for answers..thanks so much for your comments

.....Cody   you are one awsome agent...wish  I had that confidence level to put that on my tag line..

Bryant Tutas........BB...It upsets me that someone of your experience is having issues, how then are we mere mortals to attempt to succeed where you have had difficulty....But, we are getting some done..the secret of closing several a month is to have 20 in process....AAAAHHHhhhh...

Michael A. Caruso...we have done OK with REO,,in fact our best deals are from some REO...they seem to be more realistic by now...and we dont deal with retail buyers until we have a solid deal...not worth the headache!!

Short sales do have and take stress to another level.  Makes you question your list and sale abilities.  But then I remember why I am in that niche ~ to help the homeowners and no one said it would be easy.

Tara's investors as most other investors do not want to deal with the agent for more than the short sale requirements.  They are looking for a lower price and it is IF(ie) to say the least if the lender is going to fall for an investor wanting to purchase property at rock bottom.  Dealing with the homeowners direct is a risky business unless you know how to follow all the rules of the state on the foreclosure process. That is something that will sneak in on ya and you won't know what hit ya.  And it totally knocks the real estate agent out of the box of making a dime.

Short sales do have and take stress to another level.  Makes you question your list and sale abilities.  But then I remember why I am in that niche ~ to help the homeowners and no one said it would be easy.

Tara's investors as most other investors do not want to deal with the agent for more than the short sale requirements.  They are looking for a lower price and it is IF(ie) to say the least if the lender is going to fall for an investor wanting to purchase property at rock bottom.  Dealing with the homeowners direct is a risky business unless you know how to follow all the rules of the state on the foreclosure process. That is something that will sneak in on ya and you won't know what hit ya.  And it totally knocks the real estate agent out of the box of making a dime.

Nestor & Katerina Gasset.....hello Kat...one day I will be surprised and it will be Nestor I am talking os nice to!!Anyway, I have read all of your posts, including the short sales..I really believe it will be better soon, and those of us who have a handle on it will do very well...God Bless Kat!!

Dean Moss ...Oh yes Dean, we had better be prepared for the ones to come..I will check out the post from Julie as well,,,it seems that everything I learn is helping me...mainly I am learning when to back off and just start sending cash offers...the ones that respond to that make up the biggest percentage of our closed deals from short sales..

.Richard Lecinski....thats basically it Richard, always someone waiting for approval...hey dude...imagine we screw with them a bit...take them all the way down to the wire and then play hard to reach on our end...

I read your post and formulated a comment so long that I had to write my own post about it...anyway, I hear you, I have a most challenging one right now.

On the plus side, in working on short sales I feel like I'm getting excellent use of my Sociology degree... 

Al Maxwell ...A horse of a different color??? WWwwwwhat color would that be ....I would say a crappy shade of brown...thanks for commenting!!

Karl Burger   if we don't put a humous spin on these things, we will soon be talking about Realtors the way they used to talk about Postal workers..how would that be...can you see the headlines..Seller goes Realtor and takes loss mitagation department hostage for losing his short sale pacakage again...  Nahh doesn't have the right ring///we will have to work on that!!

Suzanne Sands Rule # 1 is never sacrifice a ready and willing buyer on a short sale package...I don't have the link data, but I have seen supposedly real numbers showing over 60% FAILURE rate on short sales...and if you are with OPtion One (in a million) its much higher than that

I work with short sale in an effort to help the homeowners at least save a portion of their credit, but looking at the numbers I see that bank sale REOs are extremely high, so it look like there is room for me to expand my niche!!! Start helping buyers and hopefully get some REO listings. And do short sale listings as they come my way.

Marzena Melby....My first two went so smooth I was really wondering what the commotion was....I am dealing with investors with cash, they are not wanting to go thru all these hurdles for a maybe...

P. Timothy McDonald..hey..in our market, the faster they make a decision, the better it is for them..our area is loosening up due to the investors stepping in, and the amount of investor purchases are making an impact on the local comps...straight down...Our strategy is based on declining values for 2 more years, and we will continue to purchase into this market with this in mind..

Emily Lowe ...Emily...I would strongly suggest you team up with someone on your short sales that has doen it before...experience in what the process is may keep you from some of the frustration shown on this post..It can be done, but find the lenders who want to work it out...If not, next...and then just flood them with cash offers for the property.....

Mike, I've tried to set up new cell phone service and the call centers are all in India. I can only imagine dealing with these short sales has got to be incredibly frustrating. Best of luck to you.

Great post and I feel your pain especially with Option One they are really difficult to deal with and even harder to understand. Some of these banks are not getting it and they are losing millions in the mean time. I have found some banks are doing a good job of getting these things done like CHASE. In the future I will definetly avoid some of the more difficult banks so not to wast any of my time. If it takes 60 days for a response to a short sale by the time the offer is accepted or counter offered the client is no longer interested or found a foreclosure for a much better deal.

My last two most horrible short sales involved Chase. They were doing great until New Years. For some reason their customer service has gone down hill. In one negotiation, I have had the contract faxed 8 times. When the file travels from one department to the next, they only transfer their paperwork, not the contract.

Chase was on the top of the list of good banks to work with until recently.

 www.DowellTaggart.com

This is an area where many institutions are completely lost and struggling for solutions.  There are many times problems with values and the lack of the decision-making ability by even managers if you can get hold of one.

Institutions have an affirmative obligation to not depress the market conditions.  This was a lesson learned from the FIREEA era.  If you start a snowball of accepting deflated values, then any other properties in that general vicinity will be adversely affected.  Many institutions hold title to other properties that can be adversely affected via a bad decision or a too low value.

This is especially true when they look at their portfolio stratified by neighborhood

I thought I'd respond while I am on hold with Indy Mac.  Everything you said regarding Option One I have experienced with Indy Mac.  Not to mention I am up against a deadline called forclosure.

It really does depend on the Bank.  Some are better than others.

I think it would be great to have a Real Estate Short Sale company set up to handle all the banks short sales.  That way realistic BPO's and Appraisals would prevail.

I don't know how many short sales have I put offer in and six months later the bank is willing to talk.  Makes me wonder are banks really as desperate as everyone says?

Just wait a few months, when backs get really backed up --- stay the course...

Yes, short sales are a PITA but well worth it when they are closed.

I closed 2 short sale houses last week & I have another ready to close for today.

No, they weren't easy but alas, they are negotiated & I can move on to the NEXT.

One tip I learned: Tell them you are trying to close TODAY (given everything else is completed on the file). They don't like to move on them until they are put under the gun knowing it is closing.

Of course it would be nice to not have to deal with them but at least in our current market, they are highly prevalent. And I feel good helping people move on in hardship situations & seeing great people move in to care for the homes is a great feeling as well.

Great. post. Thanks for the Heads up. All the best to you.

I don't know if anyone has worked with Homecomings financial but they are a dream come true. You get 1 contact including their direct phone, direct fax and personal email address. Files get the attention they deserve and they understand the game. Now if other banks worked this way we would all have no qualms doing short sales.

Jared A Schmidt    jared... I currently use the service, but need to expand it to cover other counties...I will contact you...i have thought of providing this wevice myself....I have a few retired attorney friends that could add the credentials as well

I love the concept of the name change, Barry Shapiro, maybe we could call it coming up short sales taking a very long time, maybe....

Chelle Gassan..I would have to disagree 2000% ..the reason we go after short sales is there is an additional 20-40 thousand dollars on the table...in addition to the commission...What I complain, maybe a bit too loudly, is how difficult they make it...My eggs are in this basket because i work with cash investors who pay the buyers agent commision, pay to fix them up, and then pay me to market the properties. While it frustrates the crap out of me, I cannot argue with the difference in how we get paid...

Svetlana Stolyarova   In our case, we are the buyer, or the buyers agent... I do not bring in a retail end user until the properties are cleaned up and ready for sale...I don't believe in making buyers wait around..if you have cash, or ready to buy credit,  you have my complete attention...  SO in a nutshell, we don't advertise our short sales for a made up maybe maybe not price.. who needs this aggrevation.. If youbid with us as an end user, we want to make sure the property is ship shape and ready to go (buy)

Chris Dowell   I have to agree with all you said,,,this is no place for someone looking for a deal...home inspections are a must, and conditons are subject to change on a moments notice...We were working one that had vandals come in one night...we adjusted out bid by 40,000 after we went back to look... the lender should have took our bid 2 weeks earlier....now, with all the damage, the lender is not sure who is paying the damage, actually asked me to "HONOR" the previous offer,,,,,,

Teri Ellis  sure have...just get the seller out of the home, short sales and owner occupied or  tennant occupied is a no go for us...of the two, give me tennant occupied...Owners tend to get very irrational the closer it gets to the auction date...They will in most (99.9%)cases get no money, so its mainly a mental attitude I would be looking for...If the seller is facing adjustable arms, then they have zero to little chance of catching up and staying caught up....better for them to move into a more affordable home and start over...

Zen Ziejewski   i don't get out to CA much, in fact never in the lst 51 years, but you never know...real Estate is local, but frustration with this situation is seemingly national

I definitely assumed that you had heard of my company if you are really heavily involved in foreclosures and short sales around Central Florida. I can absolutely add new counties for you. Give me a call toll free at 888.718.4605. I look forward to talking with you!

Jared

That definitely does seem to be the consensus....that short sales sucks. I am sorry you have to deal with all that.

Mike...

Can we all say "Short Stick" :)

TLW...ROAR!  

Short sales are much work and not for the faint of heart. But I'm guessing that in Florida that may be the best shot at doing any business right now.

And I willingly signed up for a course in short sales next week!  Yikes.

Hi Mike - Just wait until the lenders come back to you and cut your commission. Short sales and foreclosures make up about 20-25% of the Las Vegas market, but with all of the additional paperwork, delays, frustrations and uncertainties, I refer them to someone else.

Hey Mike,

I saw the writing on the wall early on in 2007.  The Lenders caused this problem because they didn't know what they were doing to begin with.  With the Secondary lending market offering loans to anyone who could fog a mirror, the lenders created a huge problem that snowballed into a major catastrophe.  It will hit all of us savvy homeowners in the pocketbook with bailouts down the road.  (Just like the ole S & L fiasco of years past.) Now , the Lenders are just as LOST as before, and have no clue on how to fix it.  Since you have a bunch of goof balls running the show, you'll continue to have little, if any, cooperation from anybody.  Nobody knows anything, therefore "nothing" is passed on to you in the way of useless information or none at all.  The "India connection" just adds to the problems.  Thanks to the Lenders for "Outsourcing" that!  It would be nice to talk to someone who speaks English as their First Language!

I am now in the Medical Field having purchased a business listing in our office.  With the market headed downward and buyers drying up faster than a desert tumbleweed rolls along, I decided to hang my hat with a non-MLS Broker for awhile and build another Stream of Income. All is going well.  We are expanding into the Internet soon.

Mike, I wish you Good Luck with your endeavour to follow the Short Sale Market.  There are easier ways to make a dollar.  Just check out the Internet.  There's lots of opportunity out there.

See ya 'round the water fountain!

Everything you said is sooo true.... W

Worse, I had one all set until the 2nd Mortgage people wouldn't negotiate because they knew they could control the entire process!!!! We lost the sale (3rd set of contracts) and the house went to Sheriff Sale - everyone lost in that deal!!!! Shame.....

If Washington wants to really help - set up a communication system between mortgage holders and new buyers... difficult to even find out who has the loan!! Much less, can they actually negotiate it!!

Great post!  Hope all works out well for you!

Oh, what a great post! I agree! I have been dealing with one myself and at some point you just want to say, fine take the house.....tie up more of the money you don't have because your people don't understand how to work things out! I don't feel sorry for them. First they loan the money and then when people want to pay, just need to re work the loan..... you get stuck in a loop or in a full voice mail. I could scream for my clients!

Thanks Mike~

I had to call Countrywide on my account.  First question I ask "where are you located?'  First call I made I got Roger.  Where are you located? Raleigh.  He couldn't help me.  Transferred me to another department.  Voice said this is Roger.  I said Where are you located? India he said in perfect English dialect.  I said Then your name is not Roger is it?  We talked a little longer and I said you know what Roger I don't want to talk to someone in India who has no clue what our economy is going through in America.  I want a warm and fuzzy American to talk to so I am calling back.  He said Did I do something wrong.  Was there a communication problem?  I said no actually you speak great English better than most from India.  Next call..... Wow, sweet female voice and I knew right away I was going to get what I needed.  My question: Where are you from?  TEXAS.  We became best friends and I got satisfaction.  BUT you know she told me..... Our company only hires the best people in India.  They are so smart and really know what they are doing.  Our company sends Americans over there to train them and they are trained very well. ------ Now it seems to me that if they are so smart and trained so well that this lady should wonder which day they are going to hire someone over there and fire her over here.

When I did title searches three years back, my work started being sent to India.  They could sit over there and access our registeries during the night while we were sleeping and have the search done when we started our day over here.  They got $6.00 for the same search that I WAS getting $75.00.  Only thing was they could not search our courthouses for liens so the title companies started sending title searchers requests for courthouse searches at $20.00. 

Was told by a TOP PRODUCER rep today that if you have to call their support department you will get a live American.  That's a great selling point.  Shame that our country has come to this. 

ONE OTHER RANT:  Who says that banks are not in the real estate business!!!!!! Bless you all that do short sales.  I have a client here with investment property in FL that Chase Bank was going to work with but WACHOVIA holds the 2nd and refuses to work out their loan.  Wachovia employee was RUDE to my client and screamed no way we are going to accept this offer.  So I hope that Wachovia gets NOTHING when it sells on the courthouse steps because they are stopping the short sale.

Hopefully the banks get up to date and start helping us help them. It's a lot cheaper and beneficial for the banks to approve a short sale then letting it go to foreclosure.

Paul Francis Las Vegas Short Sales

Yeah, it sounds like it's not worth the time as in the one foreclosure we did a very long time ago.  It's just too hard on the Buyer to make it worth their while.  Not even taking into account our time.

In California, a real estate agent can't represent an investor buyer in a short sale.  Well, you can, but you need to be bonded, and there are no bonds in California for this.....great catch-22

If I have buyers with loads of time on their hands and don't get emotionally involved in just one house, then I will include short sales in properties to look at, but would not recommend one that has just been listed as my experience is, it can take 4-6 months from when it first is listed as a short sale. 

Bank REO's, so far, have been good.  Ones I've worked on have received quick decisions.  Much better than a short sale if you've got the choice.  Prices are set and deals are good.

I feel bad for a regular seller trying to sell in a neighborhood that has a few short sales.  I see the listings and think "bait and switch" as the listings can be priced $50k-$100k less than regular comps.  They are priced to induce multiple offers that can all be thrown at the lenders and say "see, sorry, but this is all we can get" - let's make a deal.

And how many buyer calls do we get when they see this wildly discounted pricing as the MLS doesn't readily show on the public end that it's a short sale.  So now the phone calls and the emails are - "gosh this seems like a really good price.  Is it a short sale?"  Sigh.......yes it is. 

You gave me a nice chuckle this morning.  We were visited by an Option One rep last summer who gave us cute little squishy cow figurines as a promo gift.  Where is that call center at??  Oh, I sold the cows at my yard sale this fall when I moved into my new home.  Find your reps number and burn up his/her phone and fax.  Keep chugging away......the situation is here to stay for a bit.

I enjoyed the comment about Option One and solving unemployment elsewhere.  Short Sales take patience and tenacity...

LOL Mike.  I'm not a huge fan of Option One.  Though, they became masterful at doing loans that common sense wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

Mike:

I agree with you. Working with a lender in a regular deal is sometimes a pain. With short sales you do not have any idea what could go wrong. Does the Seller qualifies for a short sale? Will the appraiser of the lender in question will come back with a much higher value? Will the offer be good enough? Is there somebody in charge of short sales at the lending institution? When will they give you an answer? Will you still have your Buyer after waiting and waiting?

Isaac Bensussen-www.besthomesinlajolla.com 

Institutions have an affirmative obligation to not depress the market conditions.  This was a lesson learned from the FIREEA era.  If you start a snowball of accepting deflated values, then any other properties in that general vicinity will be adversely affected.  Many institutions hold title to other properties that can be adversely affected via a bad decision or a too low value.

Wow...in my humble opinion,,,you by far have the very best answer...I decided not to answer any more until I did a bit of thinking along these lines....

Excuse me Ntiske....but I had my head up my rear end thinking about how this huge crisis was only affecting me and the timetable I had for closing deals......I was in very serious conversation with a very experienced Bank of America Vice President who attends the investor/leads group this morning....it seems he is never asked this very pointed question....the amount of homes in any area that are under mortgage is about 91%.  The devaluation of too many homes in a neighborhood accelerates the devaluation of the balance of the neighborhood. Simple math, simple concept, very complex results...And the slowdown of short sales is the only tool the banks have to slowly stretch out the agony....My new theory will take a bit More work..but it make sense to me now........thanks for the star...WOW, a featured post for  a moment of frustration.....Something else I did not notice..My wife is proud of me

Endea Thibodeaux...I ageree ,,,some are better than others,...I cant begin to compare how I hve been treated at different lenders...

Bronson...they will apporve no loan before its blown

Rosemary Brooks ...While on paper, and in my heart, I want to help save them all, I am a more of a realist...we can't...

Just when I start thinking about taking on another short sale, you come through with a HUGE reminder of why I quit doing them in the first place.  Thanks for the post!

Short sales are very painful and you are right they suck the life right out of you. It is like dealing with something that you can never really communicate with that takes forever. Everyone working on them seems in the same boat.

Lisa Bosques, Assoc. Broker/Mktg Specialist ..I went and read your post.. good job

Jared A Schmidt...Jared...I will try to get thru today...I have a closing and a brake job to deal with  I don't know which one will kill me first..either way, Im heading for the wall

Endea Thibodeaux.....Some are better than others...but I am comingot realize the very local impact of allowing them to fall at once..

"The Lovely Wife"...Broker Bryant's...Wife!.....short stick...short  stick...short stick..there did I pass the test??  thanks for stopping by!!

Wayne B. Pruner, GRI  ...Its not the only way...thats the part 2 of my post...Investors who are tired of the stock market are really looking at the real estate market...they have cash and don't need a positive cash flow

....I am not sure a course will help...but it can't hurt..I have learned more here on AR, and in the trenches, than I did from 2 courses I took...Best of luck to ya....

John Novak ...I am a bit too hard headed for that...I believe I can find a way to operate a system that will work..with the thousands of properties in foreclosure andthe thousands more coming..I see a business potential

Don Lowe ...Hey Don!!! the last house I saw you at was in