Janna Rankin Scharf, GRI, CLHMS, SFR - Coeur d'Alene Idaho Short Sale Homes for Sale
Coeur d'Alene Idaho Short Sale Success Stories - By the Skin of Our Teeth!
Any day that I have a chance to notify a client of mine that their Coeur d'Alene short sale has successfully closed, is a GOOD DAY!
Today is such a day, another Coeur d'Alene short sale success story and happy ending. I can breathe a sigh of relief to know that I have succeeded in the challenging job I was hired to do nearly a year ago - to bring about the best possible outcome for a weary homeowner fighting valiantly to avoid foreclosure.
When our official approval letter finally came on this one, it only gave us two weeks to get it closed. That HAD to be a mistake, and I was sure that I could get our negotiator at EMC Mortgage to issue an extension once notified. Typically, approvals come with a 45 to 60 day period of time to close. It is impossible for a bank to complete the mortgage application process, fund and close a conventional loan in just two weeks!
But it wasn't a mistake, the investors of this loan were weary of postponing, and would not agree to another postponement and the scheduled foreclosure sale date would remain. Say what??? He did say that if it looked like things were progressing and it was likely to close, we could probably get a few more days, to keep him posted.
Holy Moses, PROBABLY? A FEW more days? We all got to work at lightening speed doing everything that was within our power to do. I have to give much credit to a competent buyers agent who understood that time is of the essence and responded to my requests immediately.
So many things had to go RIGHT, there was no room for error if this was going to turn into another Coeur d'Alene short sale success story. We waited and waited on the appraisal, a BIG thing that was beyond our control. It finally came in on the LAST day of our window to close, and it was good news! The house appraised, no repairs needed, no red flags waving at the underwriter. I felt like I was in a marathon sprint, and called our negotiator. And got his voice message.
We were now officially out of contract. The mortgage loan couldn't move forward without a new approval letter extending the closing deadline. I finally got through to our guy, and he agreed as promised to extend the closing a few more days. SERIOUSLY? That was the best he could do. But then it took two days to get the letter, while we were at a standstill waiting for it. Geesh.
Meanwhile, the gang at Pioneer Title were working at warp speed getting everything in place and ready to go. My sellers are out of state and had to sign docs, once they were able to be generated, and get them back, for Pioneer to be able to send EMC Mortgage the final HUD-1 for approval 48 hours BEFORE our time ran out. It was Crazy Town trying to make this all happen.
Meanwhile again, the folks at HomeStreet Bank in Seattle were working some kind of miracle. Honestly, if you understand anything about how this all works, you know how truly astonishing it is that we pulled this off. We got an update from the senior loan officer at Home Street on Friday. We were down to the wire for meeting mandated time lines, and things were not looking so good. In part, his message read, "We've got you covered. I've got the hottest smoothest rolling processing/doc/funding format in the industry." And you know what, I think he just may be right about that!
Docs were FedExed out to my sellers on Friday. They received them, notarized them and turned them around in time to be received on Monday morning. Phew! Everything else that had to happen on Monday and Tuesday went off without a hitch (which in itself is noteworthy) and word just came that we have funded and CLOSED!
Those of you who work short sales know that even as wordy as this is, it is the Reader's Digest condensed version of a much larger story. I like to give credit where credit is due. This absolutely could not have had a successful conclusion without a skilled team working together.
First of all, credit goes to both the buyer and seller here. It is all too common for our requests for documents, signatures or other necessary information during a short sale to be met with a little bit of foot dragging. In our case, both sides responded immediately whenever asked, and it made all the difference in this short sale success story. We would not have met the deadlines otherwise.
Next, I can't say enough about how important the escrow and closing officers at the title company are in a successful short sale transaction. Heidi Simon and Kimi Dennison at Pioneer Title accomplished something amazing this week!
Adam Stoecker at HomeStreet Bank, WOW! I don't know how he pulled it off, but he truly did work some kind of loan processing miracle!
I will even give a shout out to Keith King, my negotiator at EMC Mortgage. In spite of the ridiculously inadequate amount of time he gave us to get the deal done, he gave me access to his personal phone line and he was very pleasant and straightforward. I know he was under a lot of pressure, his department having been restructured and he received dozens (hundreds?) of other people's files to work in addition to his own. These frazzled negotiators don't have an easy job, a little kindness goes a long way with them.
Today is another short sale success story in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Closure for another seller devastated by the mortgage meltdown and plummeting property values. He can now leave this chapter behind and move forward into recovery knowing that he achieved the very best possible outcome that was available to him. Congratulations doesn't really fit here, it's not a cause for celebration in the traditional sense of a real estate closing. Nevertheless, it is a very good day for him and he is happy and relieved.
And I am sitting here marveling at how we succeeded in pulling this off without a second to spare, by the skin of our teeth!
This proves my top secret theory for success in short sales: Never, never, never give up!
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