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Seriously, you haven't made a payment since 2008?!? Reality Real Estate

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Real Estate Agent with The Mode Real Estate Group DRE # 00935148

Seriously, you haven't made a payment since 2008?!?

Ok, now the fun starts….

This was definitely not a normal day or week in my life. We received a call from a homeowner whom we had been talking to for the past 3 or 4 years. She had owned her home for 42 years and was seriously behind in her payments. She had no idea what to do…of course, we had spoken to her previously about this. She stopped making any payments in 2008 and the bank threatened foreclosure. The bank even filed a Notice of Default. She was able to get the foreclosure stopped with a bankruptcy at that time.  Fast forward, 9 years…and we have another Notice of Default but now a Notice of Trustee’s Sale also.

 

Why the bank waited 7 years after the bankruptcy was dismissed - I don’t understand, but this time it
looked like the homeowner was in serious trouble. The sad thing was that she had about $100,000
equity in the house AND unfortunately she had waited until 2 weeks before the trustee sale date to call us. We had to move quickly! So Bruce, my business partner, and I went out to meet with her that afternoon. We knew we could sell the house quickly and we had to, but we also needed to close escrow prior to the sale date. This left us with only cash investors. We priced the home below market value (we had to for a very quick sale) and got it into MLS immediately.

Within 2 days we had multiple offers, cash and ready to close. Buyers just needed to complete their inspections. At the same time, seller was contacted by the bank to possibly do a loan modification. She did not think this would work because her income was so limited. We had suggested that she go ahead and complete the paperwork for the bank. She did so and called the bank to make sure they received them. At this point we were about 8 days away from the Trustee Sale.

Seller accepted an offer from a cash investor that was to close in 7 days…the day before the Trustee Sale. Buyer started doing their inspections – home, roof, and pest. We knew there were some problems as the home was original and about 50 years old, seller had not done any work recently or even probably in the last 20 years…lots of deferred maintenance. We did not expect however for the pest to come back at nearly $15,000! Termites were found in the subarea and they had been there for a while!

This brought on a new round of negotiations with the buyer. We came to an agreement and the seller
still was going to walk out of the house with about $80,000 in her pocket! As long as we closed on time.
All this time she was talking to the bank daily about the loan modification. She didn’t seem to have
much hope that they would grant it. It’s important to note that once a Notice of Default (NOD) is filed
on a property, that the seller can back out of a transaction, prior to the sale being completed; this is part
of our California Association of Realtor’s NOD form.  We got down to 2 days prior to the trustee sale date, buyer and seller, were making appointments to sign their escrow papers to close escrow and the seller received a phone call from the bank letting her know that the loan modification was approved! She had to go on a trial modification program, where she must be on time for the next 3 months of her payments. They added all 9 years of back payments onto the loan balance and dropped her interest rate! She said it was a Christmas Miracle!

Now all I had to do was let the buyer’s agent and the buyer know that the seller was going to be
cancelling. Not a fun call to make and yet the agent was so gracious, letting me know that the buyers
were very happy for the seller that she was going to be able to stay in her home of 42 years! Buyers
completely understood…what a relief. And what a relief for the seller. She didn’t have to find a new
place to live. Bruce and I were genuinely very happy for her.  This is the text message I received from her on Christmas Eve…

"Good morning, Lori. Not a day has gone by with me thinking of you and Bruce. I truly thank you again so very much. I’m still on EDGE, until I get the FINAL PAPERS. I did send my 1 st payment by UPS. I’ve been busy trying to keep my nerves in check. I did put some XMAS decorations out for my 3 year old grandson and he got a kick out of them. I used to do this a lot, but hadn’t for some years. I will be in
touch before the New Year. YOU AND OUR FAMILY HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. PLEASE GIVE
SAME TO BRUCE AND YOUR TEAM."

We are very happy for her. We not only stopped her from losing the house, but were able to keep her in
it for at least some time to come. And should she decide to sell her home at a later date, she knows who
to call!

 

Stay tuned for more recent adventures in real estate!

 

 

Posted by

Lori Mode

Lori Mode, Keller Williams Realty - Elk Grove

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Lori Mode and Bruce Durham, Elk Grove agents

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About the author: The above Real Estate information was provided by Lori Mode.  Lori can be reached via email at Lori@ModeREGroup.com or by phone at 916-405-5737. Lori has helped people move in and out of Elk Grove and surrounding Sacramento areas for the last 37 years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

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