This was a matrimonial sale involving a fixer upper and a short sale. It checked virtually every distress box there was.
Due to illness and job loss, the home had fallen into rough condition. It needed quite a bit of love. The roof, the interior, the mechanicals and even the outside needed renovation. It was priced to reflect the condition, and at that price point it was under water. It was one of the least expensive listings in a higher cost area, and interest in the listing was higher than we had even hoped. The offer that was accepted by the seller was $100,000 over the asking price.
That’s encouraging, but it was still upside down and a short sale approval was needed. It took 5 months to close after contracts were fully executed, but in the short sale world that was fairly quick.
The takeaway for me was that the sellers were under considerable stress over the course of the transaction. The dissolution of the marriage, the sadness of leaving a home they had for nearly 20 years, and the overall stress of the sale was all they could handle. We had to spend a lot of time on the phone and in person helping them navigate the process.
Like many other sales of this type, we had more than one agent involved from the team to make sure that all bases were covered on behalf of the seller clients. Another agent from our company brought in the buyer, so all parties had a designated agent to represent them. Our short sale lawyer did her usual stellar job on that end as well.
One of the things seldom mentioned about short sales is the challenges some sellers have finding new housing after they move. Short sale sellers have credit that has suffered, and purchasing is virtually always out of the question. That leaves renting, and of course landlords are nervous about leasing to someone who has a low credit score. We have to make a case that the client can perform, and that the issues that caused their difficulty are no longer present, or that their rent is more affordable than their prior mortgage. These clients were indeed able to find their respective next homes.
The only thing that would have made this more difficult would have been acrimony between the divorcing sellers- thankfully that was not the case.
