At a recent bi-weekly meeting one of our top agents was asked to speak on the short sale subject. Many of us were frustrated and he seemed to get a high number of his through the system. Well, the first thing he says is "lets just get this foreclosure stuff over with and foreclose on all the houses that are obviously going to get posted" A cheer went up from most of us. He went on to explain that if they were all forclosed on then we could just get on with the work of selling them instead of all the other BS that goes along with them. No one wants to loose their home. The loan modification program is not working, its so obvious my 12 year old niece knows this. 28% of all homes that actually get a loan modification approved are back in trouble within 3 months. So, if we just foreclose on them we can move them out of the system and get to the business of doing real deals on real homes that are going to sell without all the hassel, trouble, and legalities.
I personally have seen agents pulling Motrin out of their desks because they have just been on the phone dealing with the banks, seller, buyer and anyone else involved with a short sale. It's heart breaking when you loose a house after so much trouble. It's even worse when your buyer just dosen't want to deal with the trauma of it any longer and they decide to wait. They get emotionally drained. Now, you may have lost a client because of frustration and time. We do everything we can to keep them motivated. But, its hard to keep holding someones hand while writting yet another offer that already has 5 to 15 offers on it. No matter how you counsel your client if they like that house your going to write that offer, it's your job. So, if we get the "dead" houses out of the market then we can move on. I know a lot of you are going "thats a horrible thing to say. People do not want to loose their houses and they should be able to go through the process". I've been in the healthcare field for 18 years. Death and renewal is a part of my life. I can turn myself on. I can turn myself off. Being a realtor is like that. We are supposed to do our job without emotion, be impartial and give our clients our best counsel everyday. You can't do that if you are crying about their house. It's our job to help them get out from under a bad situation, counsel them about it, refer them to the right counsel and get it done. I feel awful whenever I need to counsel someone whose gone Tax Delinquent. I really feel for the home owner, It hurts me on a level no one will ever know. But, the truth is, if I get emotional I can't give them the right counsel. I can't help them get over it and move on. Thats when they loose the house to auction. I have empathy, not sympathy (look up the difference). So many of us need to learn to turn flip the switch. We are in a hard time, but we need to keep our heads and get our jobs done.