Real People, Real(ty) Solutions

Marla knew it had been a year but she had been in no mood to throw a party. Trying to sell her home herself and having it continually on the market had taken a toll on her mood when I’d talked to her last week. But today, she looked ready to party! She walked in the office with a spring in her step that hadn’t been there the week before when I’d listed her house. She set a covered plate on my desk. “Bless you, child, I baked you cookies.”

Never one to turn down a treat, I asked, “What kind are they?”

Her laugh-lines creased, “chocolate chip–only the best for you! I’m still pinching myself that this is all real.”

“You bet it is. The cash offer is a good one and the bank will most likely take it since you had it on the market yourself for so long. Just remember that this is a short sale and it’s not likely to be resolved quickly. Also there are no guarantees here. The bank gets to choose and they could turn down the offer–stranger things have happened.” I smiled at her. “Just don’t bring cookies every week until we get this resolved, I won’t fit it my chair if you do!”

“I’m not promising anything, child,” she held up her time-worn hand. “I’ve been trying to get out to California for so long now, my sister can’t believe it any more than I can. I knew I couldn’t just walk away from my house, but I sure was tempted a time or two. You’re really helping Bessie more than me, she’s the one who needs me to be there with her. Now it looks like I’m going to make it. I don’t mind waiting as long as there’s hope.”

Marla’s house did sell; the bank accepted the short sale on her loan. Keeping it on the market for more than a year without a sale was a pretty good indication that her property was not worth what she owed on it, so I submitted the package to the bank that owned it. Of course, she didn’t make any money on the deal but she was able to move to California to live with her sister and I ended up getting my share of cookies out of the deal, too!

Happy Houses

Slight of stature, but with an open, friendly expression on his face, Sam took a seat in my office. He waved a letter clutched in his hand at me. “Is this really true, what you say in this letter?”

Having noticed my picture bobbing about as he gestured, I knew it had to be true. I nodded. “Of course. I wrote…” I let my sentance trail off as I concentrated on the grin that spread across his face.

“You’re telling me that I can buy a house? That me and the wife can get one after renting all these years?”

I realized then that the letter he was holding was one I’d recently mailed to several apartment complexes where the tenants paid slightly more than the mortgage payment on a 3-2 home in a couple of decent subdivisions in the area. “I did mean what I said in the letter. If you can pay that much a month to rent the apartment, keep up your utilities, have the minimum income and good credit, then you can own a house instead of paying rent.”

Sam’s continued nodding as I went through the qualifications began to give me hope that his excitement was going to be rewarded. As we continued the conversation, that hope grew into sheer delight. Sam and his wife Shelley were destined to be amoung my most memorable clients–the kind of people who inspired me to get into real estate in the first place. To me, there is nothing like helping former renters know that they are investing in their future, not someone else’s!

It turned out that Sam and Shelley were in their 40’s and had been renting apartments for 25 years. They were financially stable, debt-free and stuffed into a two-bedroom townhome that they believed was the best they could afford. To keep themselves out of debt, they had developed the habit of ignoring marketing of any kind. If my letter had not been hand-addressed, they would never have opened it!

Truth be told, A+ Realty Solutions has helped a number of first time home buyers, but Sam and Shelley’s story had a fairytale quality about it that still resonates. These people genuinely had no idea they could afford a house until they got my letter. People say that it’s not likely to happen again, but if you’d asked them the likelihood of it happening at all, they wouldn’t have taken bets. And yet, it happened. It’s enough to give you hope…

Happy Houses

“Sorry about the dark, the electricity’s off,” Aaron mumbled apologetically as I introduced myself to him and his thin, perky wife, Shelia. Since it was still early in the day, the light was adequate and we all settled into the living room to discuss what these real people were going though with their house.

“Yeah, we were so excited about the house and the space when we bought this place.” Aaron said as he glanced around the spotless, tastefully-decorated room. Shelia placed her hand over his and nodded.

“We decided that whatever needed fixing, we could do—we’re young and strong. Nothing seemed impossible—all we could see were possibilities.” Her voice grew thin as she jounced one restless toddler on her knee and continued, “What we couldn’t see is what hurt us. We had no idea that plumbing could be such a problem.”

Aaron spoke up again, “Leaks in the concrete foundation ruined all the carpet. Now we’re starting to have problems with the addition. Since the weather’s been changing, we know that it wasn’t built right, you can feel the difference in temperature when you walk from one part of the house to the other.”

Finally, he cut to the chase. “Not getting an inspection’s what killed us—all of our savings are gone and we’re going to lose the house and our credit. We’re behind on the payments and nobody’s going to buy it like this.” He frowned at Shelia and began to get to his feet. “The bank is foreclosing.”

Real(ty) Solution

A+ Realty Solutions helped Aaron and Shelia with their very real problem. The bank worked with us to cut down the amount of the mortgage (what is called a “short-sale”) and we found a buyer who had the cash to invest in fixing all the problems that came with the house. The homeowners learned an expensive lesson—it did cost them their “dream—or was it nightmare?” home, but it turned out to be a temporary setback—it didn’t ruin their long-term credit or their bright future!

Real people need Real(ty) Solutions and the team at A+ Realty Solutions stands ready to help you with yours. If you’d like to contact us, click on our team signature.

Happy houses,

The A+ Realty Solutions Team