The Excruciating Pain with Pinellas Short Sales

Pinellas Short Sales cause excruciating pain.  Trust me, the Pinellas Realtors we meet all agree.  There’s childbirth, tooth extractions, Strep throat, getting a needle in the eye and the heartache of getting dumped by the girl in high school at the Senior Prom.  None hold a candle to the pain of buying a short sale. 

Can it be done?  Yes.  Yet this Palm Harbor Realtor has had it with these absurd lenders and their downright cruel practices with Realtors, home buyers and the sellers so desperately in need of help.  

The short sale “negotiators” at these banks act like they are God and to hell with the rest of us.  They keep us on the fence for months, toying with our emotions, hopes, dreams and livelihoods - playing take away – off and on – like twisted control freaks. 

Oh, this is too long of a post, and DON’T READ FURTHER unless you’re interested in buying Bay Area Tampa Short sales and have the patience of a saint.  This is just this week’s activity on a few of our short sales…..

• Tonight we obtained approval on a Palm Harbor short sale after 10 months with BB&T, after running through 4 buyers and countless painful hours of negotiations on numerous levels, on a home that was stripped of $75,000 worth of assets.  The homeowner we originally set out to help, bailed long ago, and we now represent the HOA who foreclosed on the title in an attempt to get their past due fees back.  The HOA lost money as did we as the jerks slashed our commissions and dues down to nothing.   Yet we are more relieved to just have the pain stop.
• Monday we closed a Palm Harbor short sale where the other agent was so unresponsive to us and his buyer that our team managed the transaction doing both agents’ work with an out of state lender from hell (friends don’t let friends use out of state lenders).  The buyer was beside himself at the end – just relieved beyond belief the pain was finally over.  This lender, HSBC, was actually fairly quick to respond, yet the seller had to come up with cash at closing to make it happen.  He didn’t care, he just wanted the pain to end.  The buyer had to pay for all sorts of unanticipated repairs prior to close.  By the end, he was so exhausted with the process that he just wanted the house, he didn’t care if he had to spend extra money.  They cut our commission, too.
• Yesterday we got a Wells Fargo Clearwater Short sale approved.  We ran through 3 buyers in 5 months (the first two lost patience), the Seller has been beside herself for months as Wells Fargo ignored us completely until just last week.  We even managed to get past the issue of the mold that grew in the condo because the air was turned off.   The buyer is so relieved that the agony of waiting is over. 
• Tonight, we learned after 9 months of negotiations on a Palm Harbor short sale with  BofA (formerly Countrywide) that was just approved last week, that they sold the 2nd mortgage two months ago (and oh, they just realized it) and that the approval didn’t mean squat.  We have to start all over.  The pain I’m feeling knowing I have to tell the sellers and buyers this tomorrow morning isn’t fun.
• This week, after 9 months of negotiations on a Westchase Tampa Short Sale, with a flood in the house and mold remediation construction along the way, we got word that just maybe they would approve the sale if we could close by December 31st.   And Bank United wanted to know if we could do it?  After 4 months of waiting with this last buyer, we jumped through more hoops and told them yes we had found a way to make it happen.  And now they have dropped off the face of the earth and aren’t returning calls or e-mails.  The frustration and uncertainty is akin to Chinese water torture.

Are you a buyer looking for a short sale?  Are you out of your mind?!  Or do you have the patience it takes to get the home of your dreams?

Why do we do it?  At the end of this day, I remind myself that we do it to help our homeowners in distress.  I sleep good at night knowing that. 

And with a 100% track record thus far (we’ve had every short sale we’ve ever listed approved !! knock on wood) – well, quite honestly, it’s an accomplishment we’re proud of.

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