We Tell it Like It Is

So, I'm leaving Pete behind and taking off to Vegas this Friday. My best friend from junior high (aka middle school) is getting married on Sun and I have the honor of being one of two gals standing up for her. After the wedding, 3 of my sisters (who all live out of state) are flying in for some action in the city of sin w/me. I'm returning (likely in a beaten up state) on Wednesday night.

I love my job, but its a job that does not consist of punching a time clock and I can't use the phrase "I'm leaving for the day, see you tomorrow". We are plugged in and on 24/7. I go to bed thinking about my clients and I wake up in the morning with the same thoughts. So, its really hard for me to "unplug" when I go away.

Well, the market is alive and kicking right now for cheap homes. Our buyers are seeing their favorite listings being whisked away right from under their noses by other buyers. Good cheap homes are selling like hotcakes and its a race to see who can get an offer in the quickest. Let's get these homes off the market and help get us back to "normal".

P.S. The 5 month ordeal is over; my clients have an accepted offer finally from this short sale and we are closing on the 28th. Tomorrow, I have some other clients taking the plunge into a short sale property, so stay tuned.

Take this quiz and find out!

1) Do you have the stomach to look at homes that are absolute pieces of crap that should be knocked or burned down to smithereens rather than attempted to be sold to God knows who that smell like a combination of animal urine-soaked carpet sitting in the sun baking for 3 weeks with unidentifiable objects ground into it that could be (but may not be) disintegrated chicken wings and stale cigarette smoke?

2) Do you have the patience to put in an offer and wait up to 6 months for an answer; hearing your Realtor tell you over and over again that there is nothing they can do to speed up the process short of showing up to the bank armed with machine guns threatening everyone's lives to get an answer asap?

3) Are you fine with the fact that the seller of the home takes zero responsibility for any issues that may be in the home such as mold, asbestos, meth production, buried human remains on the property, to name a few and you must rely solely on your home inspector to find any of these issues because you are buying the house blindly?

4) Is it ok with you that you must be financially "ok'd" by the lender that the seller's agent prefers even though you are already pre-approved with a lender that you know & trust and be subjected to this other lender's pressure to use them for your mortgage instead?

5) If you needed to use an FHA loan, would you be bothered by the fact that once your offer is accepted and your home inspection went without a hitch, an FHA appraiser comes out and tells you that you are not going to be given the money to buy the home because there is paint chipping on a few areas on the house unless you pay $1,000 to hire a painter and have it all repainted before closing?

6) Are you ok with signing 50 more documents from the bank once your offer gets accepted that states exactly what the offer you submitted said but its just not good enough?

7) Are you ok with the fact that the bank takes forever to get answers and documents to you but they expect you to respond at the speed of light or else the deal is off?

If you answered "yes" to all of these questions, let's get going! You're ready to buy a foreclosed or short sale property. If you answered "no" to ANY of these, you need to think twice.

Sorry its been awhile since my last blog. 12 days to be exact. I have been in Las Vegas partying it up while Pete stayed behind to hold down the fort. He owed me though for all the times he's gone golfing! :) Real estate down in Vegas, by the way, is much worse than MN. Empty, never-been-lived in homes on the market for 3-4 yrs.

So, do I really have to talk about real estate on this blog or can I share the fabulous story that of course I've been telling THE WHOLE world about? Its a Sunday, who needs to hear about the trails and tribulations of the real estate market today.

So, I flew to Vegas last week on Fri afternoon. My best friend from junior high school was getting married and I was a bridesmaid. I was a Vegas Virgin, so the midwestern Susie Homemaker that I am was really excited to see the city of sin. Fri night (which was supposed to be the bachelorette) was unfortunately a bust, since all of us had been up since the crack of dawn to catch our flights and like old ladies, we ate dinner and crashed at our respective hotels which was incredibly geriatric. So, I really wanted to go out on Sat night to an "exclusive" night club since I've never done that before and will probably never do it again. As we were shopping on Sat afternoon, we found a postcard stuck to the sidewalk that was advertising a birthday party for Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block) at a club that night. Being (and I openly admit this) an avid New Kids fan, that was the immediate deciding factor of where I wanted to go that night. My girlfriend & I bought $40 VIP tickets online ahead of time in order to avoid standing in the long lines to get in, because that's what the cool people do, I assumed. It was a strange experience as we arrived at The Mirage because there seemed to be so much hoopla over getting into a bar that turned out to not look much different than something you'd see in Mpls. And its not like the music or lights were anything special.  I had assumed Donnie was not going to be there--just a bunch of 21 yr olds (and some older ones like us trying to act 21) wondering who the hell Donnie Wahlberg was when the dee jay screams Happy Birthday in the mic. Well, an hour after our arrival and two $10 beers later, Mr. Wahlberg arrives 2 feet away from us w/his posse along w/Danny & Joe (from the New Kids). Eeeeeek!! Are you kidding me? I could've reached out and touched them! Luckily, we didn't shreek like 16 yr old girls; just stood with our jaws on the floor speechless. We stood and watched them party about 15 ft away from us in a roped off area for about an hour and then I noticed some red-haired, blue-eyed man with a drink hovering behind us. My friend gave in to his attempts to make eye contact w/one of us and began conversing w/him. Come to find out, he was a production person for the New Kids and after a few mins, invited us up to the "special area" that we had been gazing at for half the night. So, to make a long story a bit shorter, not only were we within feet from our heros earlier that night, but we talked and danced with them as well. Even got a kiss on the cheek from the birthday boy. The camera phone only picked up dark pictures, so we have nothing to prove to the world that this glorious event occurred. But, the moment I'd been waiting for my whole life happened unexpectedly and I was proud that I played it cool the whole time. No mention to them of me being a big fan; no freaking out or crying. I just pretended like it happens every day and like it was no big deal. I did, however, freak out in the taxi on the way home. And I have the bumps and bruises to prove THAT.

A few changes in the real estate market:

I talked to a colleague of mine from M&I Bank this morning. A really great program for home buyers is likely going to be extinct as of Oct of this year. Its called the Nehemiah Program. In a nutshell, the program allows home buyers to finance their down payment instead of having to come up with the cash. So, people who have the monthly income to afford mortgage payments but don't neccessarily have the cash for a down payment can still buy a home. Realtors and consumers have been writing to our political figures begging Congress to keep this program intact. Without it, many home buyers are out of luck and they are the ones trying to buy the cheap foreclosures and short sales right now to get them off the market. Not having the program may cause these homes to sit on the market longer and they may reduce the amount of buyers out there, which is also bad for our business! My contact at M&I said that many banks/investors/sellers are going to stop accepting offers from buyers with this program even before October. This really sucks.

I admit that I can sometimes be quick to judge (I am human afterall) and I'm working on trying not to do that. There are times when God helps me along in that process, most recently, this past Tuesday. As discussed in previous blogs, the real estate world is filled with foreclosures and pre-foreclosures/short sales right now. I find myself shaking my head at the "fools that buy a home that they had no business buying and now find themselves in financial ruins because they can't manage". Well, shame on me. I was taught a lesson that had me nearly in tears in my car driving home this week and realized that I was the fool.

My buyers and I met Michael on Tuesday. Michael has until this Fall to sell his home before its foreclosed on and my buyers and I made an appointment to look at it. As previously discussed, most often, sellers are not present during showings of the home; and when they are, its a bit uncomfortable. However, from the moment Michael answered the door, we felt welcome and comfortable and he left us alone while we looked; his 4 innocent, wide-eyed children peering out at us with smiles from behind a bedroom door as we toured the home. As we completed our showing, we had a chance to talk with Michael who smiled innocently like his children and candidly spoke about his unfortunate situation. He is from West Africa and he came to the US 3 years ago seeking "The American Dream", as he put it. He said that people from his country work for years to save money to come here and are willing to drop everything and leave it all behind to live in the US. He dreamed of owning his own home to raise his family in and that dream came true a year after he arrived. With a language and cultural barrier to work around, Michael put all of his trust in the people that helped him through the purchase, assuming they were looking out for his best interest. Time passed, and his 4 children got settled in a school a few blocks away and started making friends in the neighborhood, to the delight of their father. It was everything he had dreamed of until he began to see a fluctuation in his mortgage payments...sometimes far exceeding the original amount he was paying and what he could afford. Soon, the monthly fees held steady at a high amount and he could not afford to pay it in full. He called the bank inquiring about the fluctuation and pleaded with them to work something out that he could manage. The bank showed no mercy and eventually threatened to foreclose. He realized he did not fully understand what he had gotten himself into 2 yrs ago and the people that helped him before where nowhere to be found. As I frowned at his heartbreaking story, he light-heartedly reprimanded me, saying he is grateful for having lived his dream even for a short time and there's no reason to be sad or angry. He plans to rent a 3 bedrm apartment when they lose the home and said he will not be buying again for a long time. When asked what his children think of the whole situation, he said they don't understand what is happening; they are excited to move into a "new home" and he said (in so many words) that in this situation, ignorance is bliss.