Since I network with dozens of short sale experts, the conversations always begin with examples of their successes then take an abrupt turn to discussing their near misses, almost had, and down right complete losses. Of course I throw in my stressful experiences and it all makes for fun and laughs at happy hour. So, I thought I’d share a few of my most notorious short sale deals.
This one still bugs me and it is the, “Tale of a 1st and 2nd Mortgage …Inverted.” Let me explain. The larger of the two mortgages was recorded seconds after the smaller mortgage. Both lenders claimed to be in first position and neither would budge. Try as I might, I simply could not convince the intended 2nd mortgage lender that they were subordinate to the 1st and they would accept no less than the full payoff. Although the lender with the larger loan was willing to discount their payoff significantly, there simply wasn’t enough spread to make it a profitable deal. LESSON LEARNED: Sometimes clerks in the recorder’s office drop their stack of documents on the floor and pick them up randomly.
Have you ever had a short sale that was an investment property? In most cases it is no different than any other deal but sometimes … those tenants can be a bit ornery. We all know the short sale process. You meet the seller, present the contract, gather their documents, submit them to the lender, get the BPO … let’s stop right there. That is the point where those tenants halted all progress. These particular tenants weren’t leaving without a fight and employed multiple pit bulls to enforce their stand. When the BPO agent showed up, she was met with clear and decisive resistance from a pack of K9s eager to take a bite out of our profit, if you know what I mean. LESSON LEARNED: Bring steak bones with you to BPOs to distract the family pets.
“Hi, I got your letter about wanting to buy my house. I’m in foreclosure and am interested but there is an auction scheduled on Monday so I don’t know if it’s too late to do anything.” Those were his exact words to me on the Thursday before the auction at 3:15pm. It is important to know that we’d sent this seller multiple letters in the previous months and he had every opportunity to call us. Instead he waited until the last days before the auction to contact us. I jumped in my car, met with him that afternoon and had the offer and full package submitted by 8pm that night. I didn’t expect to get anywhere with it but the next day I got a call from the mitigator asking if I could close by the following Friday. The lender not only postponed the sale but granted me two additional extensions. We finally closed and made a very hefty profit due to an amazingly discounted 2nd mortgage. LESSON LEARNED: never assume it is too late to put a deal together.
These are just a few “nail biters” that I’ve experienced. If you’d like to see some additional tips on working short sales, take a look at a few videos that we’ve put together. You may also visit, www.MikeBridges.info/agentvideos.
To your success,
Mike Bridges
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