I got some really sad news today. I've been working with a seller on a home in Daytona Beach for 9 months, in a short sale situation. The husband died a very sad and painful death. The wife took care of him until that day. She wasn’t able to work because of his needs. She went home to be with her family as she had no means to support herself here. She has been looking for work out of state since July 2008 and hasn’t found a single job. She lowered the price and lowered the price. True, it's a fixer but at a price of $59,900, an investor would have plenty of room to improve the property and rent it out for more than mortgage payments. It's a single family home with land underneath it - not a condo, no maintenance fees.
So we found a buyer, and it's been in escrow about a month. Today the seller's lender told me foreclosure is tomorrow. They won't wait for the sale to close.
There are always two sides to every story, but it seems to me everyone noq loses in this transaction: the seller, certainly, who will have a foreclosure on her credit history; the buyer, who had made a commitment and moved forward with plans to purchase; the lender, which will have the cost of foreclosure, the liability of an empty house, and one with repairs needed; and - of course - the realtor, who worked hard to put a deal together. After 9 months of reducing the price, does the bank really think it can sell it at auction for more than list price and recoup their legal fees and foreclosure expenses too?
Real estate transactions in Daytona Beach will be largely short sales and preforeclosures for some time to come. I would hope sellers would be honest with their realtors from the beginning and throughout the listing about their financial situation. And I hope lenders can be more sympathetic and realistic in the future. Isn't that the foundation and purpose of the national mortgage recovery plan, to help the borrower?
I'll go on to my next listing and next escrow, but the seller in this transaction won't be able to walk away from her credit record any time soon, and will probably always wonder what her life would be like if the bank had just given her a little more time.
Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
p.s. If you want to see what homes sell for in the Home Acres community of Daytona Beach, use this widget to search for properties for sale, courtesy of RealBird:
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