A couple of weeks ago a gentleman called me.  He was looking for a specific model of a home in a specific neighborhood.  I did a search of the neighborhood, came up with all of the homes that met his criteria and sent out a letter to the owners asking if they had an interest in selling.  The very next day a woman called me and said “Yes, she would like to sell her home”.  But it would be a short sale.  I went on to foreclosureradar.com and checked out the property and it was in trouble.  I asked her if I could see every piece of paper that the bank had sent her in the mail, via FedEx, and taped to her door.  She did not have it because she had given it to her agent.  Then things got a little murky.  I continued to ask her questions

“Is your house on the market?” No. 

“Did you sign a listing agreement?” Only one day.  “Huh?”

I ran the property on the MLS and it was not on the MLS at all.  And I began to wonder “How would he short sale the house if it wasn’t on the market?” 

This out of area agent put this house on an out of area MLS for exactly one day back in July.  What he was doing was advertising the house on craigslist looking for a buyer.  He got one, did a one day listing and asked the bank if they would take the offer.  He was all about double ending the transaction, not doing what was best for the client.   If this guy was ethical or knew what he was doing he would know that banks want to see short sales on the market for a minimum of 10 days.  The “short sale” failed because the bank rejected it.  The family said the bank wanted $600k.  I doubt that was what the bank said.  I know the house is worth $525k.  I work that area.  I know every house that’s sold in the last year off the top of my head, more if I think about it for a moment.  This out of area agent did this family a huge disservice. 

But it gets worse.  I had checked for a Trustee’s Deed since that was all I could do without any of the paper work.  As of last Friday there was none.  On my way to the appointment last Wednesday I asked my title company to do one more check for me.  One of my old friends dated the property down by hand and found the Trustee’s deed recorded on Monday.

I had two choices.  One was to call the homeowners and say “Sorry, I can’t list your property because you don’t own it any more”.  Two was to drive to the appointment and compassionately explain to them that the Trustee’s Deed had recorded and they didn’t own their home any more.  I sat in horrible traffic for an hour to do the latter. 

I could see in the woman’s face that she simply wanted to cry so I tried to move as quickly and simply as I could through the explanation.  Before I went to Keller Williams I worked for one of the biggest REO guys in the area.  I knew what was going to happen next to this family.  I took the time to explain that someone would come to her door and offer her money to move by a certain date.  That offer should be at least the amount of two months rent in her property.  If she had any questions about that process, I would be available to explain it to her. 

I’m not going to make a nickel on any of this.  But it’s the right thing to do.  I just wish the out of area guy had done the right thing.  This family should have been able to short sale this house under HAFA.  It should have been relatively simple.  Yet he got in the middle trying to make a buck for himself and this family has now been foreclosed on.  He is what gives us a bad name.