At Home in Upland

Sword of Damocles

'The Sword' is used to denote the 'sense of foreboding engendered by a precarious situation'.  I am sure that we have all been in a situation in real estate where we feel 'The Sword' right above our heads. Move to the left, something happens.  Move to the right, something happens there too.  

My story begins with a short sale listing and how one day 'The Sword' begins to make it's appearance. Somewhat slight and barely noticeable when it first comes to visit you.  Little things begin to happen as 'the Sword' taps you on the shoulder now and then.  Says to you in a whisper 'notice me yet'?

Then it begins where contract after contract begins to die for one reason or another and nothing is ever the sellers fault in all this.  Things are out of your control.  Before you know it months have gone by and it's 6 buyers later, 20 contracts submitted and 512 days on the market.

Yep, that's right, my short sale just closed after 512 days on the market and I consider that my first almost lethal brush with 'the Sword'.  I now consider my self a full fledged survivor and here's a couple of reasons why:
  
We've had a water pipe disconnect in a heated home and scrambled to get the plumbers and the ceiling repaired before the buyers can do their inspection.  Plumbers just love their trusty saws-all don't they?

One buyer turned in a contract cancellation with 60% down saying they can no longer get a mortgage a week before closing.  Really?  You can't find one lender that will give you a mortgage with that down payment? As it turned out, all the down payment money was mattress money and had no way to be verified.  Think of a way to stop this from happening in the future!

One buyer worked as a pizza chef where one restaurant was incorporated under one name and the other was incorporated as another but both being the same franchise.  The buyer shuttled between both kitchens when needed but his salary came out of that particular restaurants coffers.  His lender said that the one job was considered part time and declined his loan.  They went to another lender and the same thing happened again.  You just can't make this stuff up when 'the Sword' is hanging above your head!

Long about 9 months into all this, the seller begins to have a nervous breakdown of sorts because this short sale of his just won't seem to end.  People are telling him that no matter what he does he is going to lose his home to foreclosure.  'The Sword' begins to hang over the sellers head too.
 
In spite of the sellers best attitudes, he then receives a cryptic email from his real estate attorney who tells him that he will no longer be representing him. The sellers attorney feels that foreclosure is eminent and decides to bail on this seller.  Another sign 'the Sword' is near because I've never heard of an attorney bailing on a seller ever in my career.

We decide to 'regroup' and start again with a fresh listing, fresh short sale attorney and the regular group of characters (seller - me) all heavily sedated.  

This time I wasn't going to give up for anything!  I was a powerhouse!  Sword or no sword, I wasn't giving up and this house was going to close if it was going to kill me.  

Today 'the Sword' and I sat next to each other in the closing room listening to the clock slowly go 'tick - tick - tick'.  It couldn't happen fast enough for me.  We finally got this contract through to closing in 30 days with a cash buyer.

I'm respectful of what I've learned and I'm sure this won't be my last brush with 'the Sword'.  Or, was this possibly the 'pit' and the pendulum?

 

Lyn Sims  ●  Schaumburg IL Area  ●  Northwest Chicago Suburbs  ●  (847)230-7324