We avoided a deficiency judgement

The last  story for my state representative This one happened in 2011….

Judith and Sam,

Judith and Sam are friends of mine.  I was at their wedding.   Their story is a little different They only had one mortgage and it was for a mobile home on a rented lot.  They bought their home right after the marriage for $59 K… Things were going OK even thought they were paying over $900/ month for their mortgage (payment) and lot rental…Then Sam lost his job.  He was unemployed for over a year.  They did some things to try to keep body and soul together.  A paper route and a home day care business. But it wasn’t enough. Plus they had 4 children.  I heard though the grapevine that they were in trouble and I got involved.  After 10 years of owning their home they still owed $57K on it and it was worth $30 K. Molbile homes are on rented lots are different.  They are repossessed like cars but they are really homes that people live in.  All the laws to protect homeowners do not seem to apply to these people.   I asked 3 0r 4 lawyers for opinions.

I talked to the bank.  They were most unhelpful.  I tried to get them to modify the loan.  I suggested that they lower the principal and put the mortgage at 8%.  That would bring the payment down to place they could afford.  The banker kept saying that they could afford their mortgage.. They could not…  They had 4 children, the youngest a newborn.   I then suggested a deed in lieu of foreclosure The banker seemed to sneer over the phone line.   I set up a plan with a charitable group.  They had offered help with the deposit and some rent.  I suggested we needed a lawyer to give pro-bono work for a bankruptcy and that the charitable group  would pay the fees.  They could also help with the deposit Time passed and the phone rang.  It was another banker and she offered a deed in lieu of foreclosure and gave them 2 months to move out and $300.  I also had them agree not to go for the deficiency so they did not need the bankruptcy lawyer J.    Despite all of my friends problems the only item they were behind on was the payments for the mobile home.

Without the negotiation my friends would have been hit with a deficiency judgment and forced to declare bankruptcy.

 

 

Will Aishia get a deficency judgement?

Deficency judgement continued….

Aisha

In October of 2011 I showed a house for a buyer.  The owner was home.  She is a lovely lady who developed breast cancer.  She was paying her mortgage until she couldn’t work because of the cancer.  Aisha is a single mother who now has a reasonable job.   She tried to get a loan modification but her bank wouldn’t talk to her.  They tried to tack on all sorts of fees and call it a loan modification. Aisha has two mortgages.

When her home either short sales or is foreclosed on she will get a deficiency judgment for the second mortgage.  So first you get sick. Then you lose your job. Then you lose your home. Then you get slapped with a deficiency judgment for the entire second mortgage.

Losing your home to foreclosure

I was asked by my representative at the Idaho Statehouse to tell stories of hardship.  The stories are real and the names have been changed:

John

I listed the home in February 2008. It is probably what drove me to my run for Congress. It made me mad enough to run. It was a short sale with Wells Fargo. John is a school teacher.  He and his wife took out a second mortgage on his home. The home appraised for $30K more then the home was ever worth.  Five months later, his wife left him.  He didn’t know he was upside down until he tried to refinance according to the divorce decree. He tried to pay the mortgage but released that he was selling everything he owned make the payments.  Without his wife’s income he could not make the payment.

I listed the home and dropped the price to $185K.  In April I had a good offer at asking price.  The bank would not let me call in and talk to a negotiator.  In the end they rejected the offer even though it appraised for 98% of the offer.  That is very good for a short sale.  They didn’t tell me they canceled the file for over a month.  Everyone I talked to gave me a different story.  One person said it was that the second wouldn’t settle.  My client would have settled a bit  of money to make the deal go fast (we were within the 3 month window of nonpayment of the mortgage).  We upped the price and never got another offer.  My seller was so upset that he moved before the foreclosure.   The home foreclosed in February of 2009 and the bank sold the home in May of 2009 at $165K.  During the summer a company called him asking for a $70,000 deficiency judgment.  At this point I became involved again.  The company was willing to settle for $7000 but John didn’t have the money.  We went and saw a bankruptcy lawyer.  We offered the bank $3000 at the end of summer school.  They said they needed the money right then.  I explained that he wouldn’t have the money until he got his summer pay.

In the end John, who only had the mortgage against him, had to declare bankruptcy.

Disappointment

Yesterday I found a political ally has changed his views and is now working on legislation I strongly oppose.   As Democrats in Idaho we have very little influence in how our state is run.  When the Idaho’s education secretary proposed then succeeded in passing three laws that hurt Idaho’s children and teachers there was a bi-partisan outcry among the populace.   The outcry was so great that the laws are up for a vote in December.  Most of my ally’s and some of my usual political adversaries were working to change the laws.  Yesterday I found that my friend is now going to be working for the other side.  I am very sad.  I was hoping that my friend would have helped us get rid of the bad legislation.

So this leads us to how we handle disappointment.  In our field of real estate there is a lot of it… We have it in our personal life… We have it in our political life… So far I will admit to a pretty dismal start of my new year…

I had my suitcase full of money client where I could taste that commission check.  I had a client decide it isn’t time to buy a home.  I had a listing fail inspection and the buyer walked.  I had to pull the listing and wait for repairs.  My father had a stroke and needed help on a project.  The old dog is peeing on the carpet again and her cough is coming back.  I have no obvious clients in the pipeline…  I was handling everything but my dad pretty well.  But today I am disappointed.  Perhaps I am sad because my friend seems to be what others have said in the past… But I thought better of him.   What can I do?  I need to think.

How do we handle disappointment in our lives and our business?   Usually I just shrug it off and move to the next project…  I go to the next client but as February begins I enter is with a heavy heart.  Sometimes it is the move of one person.  Maybe it is the accumulation.  Maybe later today I will have figured out and have a new client.  Maybe I will work harder to help with the voter referendum. Maybe I will drop everything and help dad in Israel in a month or so (or just visit him and his wife).  I wish I could get paid for political or social work but alas I am a democrat in Idaho and the jobs are few and poorly paid.  There is so much that could be improved if we had more money.   I guess that is true in my real personal life.  If  I sold more houses I would have a more solid future.  So how do I handle my disappointment and get on with my life and business?

I will get through it… I usually just suck it up and get on with it.  I imagine that is what I will do today… I will go to the office and try to prospect for a bit.  Does it hurt to make public disappointment?

So if you want someone who would serve you well give me a call.  I can help with their real estate needs and I will be too busy to be disappointed and my outlook will change.

Wow it is easy to renew my USA Passport!

With my dad just having a stroke and going to Israel I sort of wanted to be able go there quickly.   I looked at my passport and noticed the expiration date of 5/2012…. That wasn’t good…. The airlines don’t always let you on if your passport is about to expire…  Also some countries won’t let you in.  By the way Israel will let you in if you have a return ticket.   I was in a quandary.. By expediting my passport there would be a 2-3 week window where I can’t travel.  I guess in an emergency I could go to Seattle (500 miles away) and throw myself at the mercy of the passport agency…So it is time to renew the passport…

So I googled the instructions…. They were really easy.

In 5 minutes I had the form printed out.  Then went for my passport photo at Walgreens.  Photocopied everything at the office.  Made an envelope of my check, the application (with my photo) and my old passport.  Then I will go to the post office and hopefully have my passport in 2-3 weeks.  Note without expediting it takes $70 less but 4-6 weeks…. In an emergency you can go to the nearest passport office (with proof of travel (ie. Airline ticket)) in less then 2 weeks) and get it in 1 day.  You do need to make an appointment.

So happy traveling… With luck my passport will be here in a couple of weeks.

Last day before Dad and Cheryll leave for Israel… And the research project.

OK I now have spent a week on Calcudos (Dad’s research project) and very little time on my business… Some of the work is finished but there is going to be a lot of work while dad is traveling.  They offered to take me but as a landlord I am loath to leave when the rent is due.   It is hard to leave in this business but if they need me I could go later.  My housemate and I have worked very hard with dad and the programmer.  Yesterday we tested the program and came up with user suggestions.  I also found an error on calculating age.  We are going to be asking the doctors to use the program voluntarily and it must be as user friendly as possible…. I can only make suggestions since I do not know how to program.  I am a spreadsheet whiz and a scientist but not a programmer.  I did succeed in getting a lot of redundant entry gone (or at least I hope I did).  I was asked why I didn’t do this 6 months ago and I said I hadn’t worked the program 6 months ago.   I have until 11 AM to call my own since I am the only one involved that gets up in the morning…. OK that is an exaggeration but they are set to meet at 11 AM and I will have been to my office and kept my coffee appointment by then.

I think my housemate has some really great ideas and could be very useful if we get to the stage that the program is making a profit.  She has already suggested grant writing.  We just have to make sure dad has control of the project.  The problem is that if something happens to dad the project will not ever move forward.  With the right resources this could help in medical practice and help hold down medical costs.   The work is worthy….

Well we will see what happens…. If I am going to get to my office today I sort of have to go NOW….

Felt like I was in grad school or back on the campaign again.

Yesterday was a strange day of playing with antibiotics and formularies…. Then I got to play with spreadsheets as my father, myself and my housemate worked hard during the sabbath…. Our programmer is very religious and we had until past sundown to get the work done…. It gave us a long patch of time and we accomplished the tasks that was set for us.  During this time I fielded a couple of real estate calls and even looked at a property for a client.  I never thought I would find real estate a welcome break…

All this work was done around my dining table.  We could spread our work out and use all the computers…. This seemed like a big research meeting or some of the campaign discussions we had during  my run for Congress… I made dad buy pizza since everyone who was likely to cook was busy in spreadsheets.. Finally the sun came down and eventually our programmer called us…  He was fresh from his day of rest while we were tired and testy…. At around 10:30 PM  I could not concentrate anymore…. The words went in one ear and out the other as if I had a hollow tube….  Finally I told him (remember Dad had a stroke 9 days ago) that we were all very tired and had been working since the morning…  Now it is time to test the program….  I want to make sure the results are consistent with standard medical practice.  I am hoping my dad the doctor will be with me so I do not have to look everything up in a drug guide…I have such guides but I am tired… ‘

It is very important that this program is ready for the start of the study.  It would be very embarrassing to my father to arrive in Israel and not have the program ready.  I have very little control of the actual timetable.  I can just push here to see that our tasks are complete.  My housemate will make a tutorial for the doctors in Israel.  Somehow it never occurred to anyone to this… Maybe she should be a project manager if we can ever get funding or sell this.   Meanwhile my husband played on his computer all day ignoring us…. He did go get the pizza though.

While I do this work I do not prospect and it will hurt business.  Someday I will prospect again…

Found a great investment but cant interest anyone….

Sometimes as an agent we find a cash cow….. A property that has significant extra value in price or a great rental value…. I found one such property…. It is 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bath 1152 sq ft.  in Boise at a negotiated shortsale of $73000 plus closing costs.  It is even possible that the owner would like to stay at the home and rent it.  Whether you are looking for a home or an investment this is it.  The value is $100,000 today if you turned around and sold it.  I have been in it and wrote an offer on it in October.  It is a nice home for the money.  If you want to see it give me a call.  This home is near the Boise Town Square.  It’s not my listing but it is a good one… I am even thinking of making an offer.  I called my buyers but none of them are ready to move on it.  To bad because it is a very nice home for the money.

I am working on my dad’s research project for a bit.

Well between the time lost by my dad’s stroke and the fact that he leaves for Israel to start a scientific study in Israel I decided to help him.  I at least understand the scientific and computer jargon that it is needed.  I think I might have  saved a lot of embaressment by mapping the actual labortory studies to the US Jargon…..  It is nice that this 50 year old brain still can do a bit of science…. So instead of contracts and listings my microbiology text and medical dictionary sits by my side….

I am embarressed to say that I have spent years avoiding being part of the work (this is a pet project with a chance for success but no money unless he suceeds and can sell it)…  Until I prospect things will be quiet.  I do not know if I would be usefull traveling with him.  The deadline for the start of the study is fast approaching and there seems a lot to do on the programming side…Dad and his wife leave on Tuesday… I am very worried that at the moment he is not up to this.  He is only 8 days from the stroke and he tires easily.  I had to argue with him about the bug mapping and it was only my persistance that won the day.  Usually when I argue with dad I lose. SOmeone without any medical or scientific training would have given way.

So I need to contact my hot leads and see what they want… I have a 10 AM appointment (no sale there with a former client) and then Calcudos takes my time until Tuesday.  I think if I go, I want to leave after the first of the month.  I might be able to accomplish more remotely then I can with the rigors of travel.  So things will probalby be quiet on the blogging front.

Quiet time for me right now….

Quiet time for me right now…. (edit/delete)

Well the real estate market is a funny animal.   Sometimes you are so busy you don’t know where to turn.  You are running around and falling in to bed late.  Then it gets quiet for a bit… I am in one of my quiet bits… Perhaps the two are related… When you are running around you do not have as much time to prospect.  With prospecting brings clients… When  it calms down you prospect again.  Ideally you never stop prospecting so the pipeline never slows… The quiet time is a bit convenient (except for the lack of sales) since my dad is recovering from a stroke.  It isn’t that I haven’t been busy…. I had the busy start of the year… The buyers with cash in the suitcase.  I also had a pending fall on inspection… I have a buyer who wants what I cannot find… So it is quiet…. I hope to get busy but we will see… So now it is a quiet time for me right now…. Give me patience…. Maybe I should work on my 2011 taxes and prospect.

So if you want to buy a home in the Treasure Valley Call Debbie Holmes.  She is a great agent with some time on her hands….