Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: coach, custody, divorce, friends, law, mediation, real estate, therapy
Wow, it’s been way too long since my last post…..that means that either Summer is here, I’ve been too busy with work, or my life has been so boring that I have nothing to write about. The answer lies with the first 2 options, certainly my life has not been boring!
Not a week goes by that I don’t get a phone call from a friend or an acquaintance that wants to pick my brain about either divorce or child custody. It’s strange. Why me? Am I an expert simply for the fact that I’ve been through a divorce and have battled over parenting issues? Maybe; or maybe it’s that I’m the only person they know that has been through these most unpleasant of experiences. Either way, I’ve become a therapist, a mediator, a coach and there’s a strong possibility that one could argue that I’ve been practicing law without a licence! So the question is: Should I change careers (because I should start charging for my services) or should I continue in real estate where my income has greatly decreased while my work load and stress has significantly increased??
And if I were going to contemplate a career move, which career should I choose? I’m compassionate and sympathetic so a therapist would be a good move. However, I’m also motivational and enjoy helping others achieve their goals so coaching could be rewarding too. Many would say that I’m somewhat (highly) arguementative and stubborn so the law would be a good move and may possibly help out with the income issue. Any one of these choices would work however they would involve additional education and I’m not sure that I’m up for that, mentally or financially!
So this whole post is a little tongue and cheek but I’m curious to see what my readers (most of whom are my friends) think that I should do. And this seems like a perfectly good time for a survey so let me know what you think and in my next post I’m going to tell you a story of intrigue and terror, I promise!!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bank, bankers, banks, borrowers, crazy, customer service, death, frusteration, hair, hardship, loan, loan modification, loss mitigation, owe, real estate, Realtor, short sale
Before I get started I would just like to say that I am truly amazed by my Superbowl prediction (read the previous post)! I called the point spread….just for the other team. Minor details, oh well.
I’m going bald. I’m 38 and I’m going bald. At first I thought I had a vitamin deficiency but after the conversation that I had with a bank employee today I realized that it’s not a vitamin deficiency at all. Turns out that I spend about 2 hours every day literally ripping my hair out from the roots due to the incredible and often subhuman conversations that I have with bank employees! It’s maddening and has now left me hairless.
WHY, you ask, am I even talking to these people? Well, because the real estate market has shifted and I have had to shift my business right along with it. As awful as it sounds (and it is truly awful) I have so many clients that are in either a state of financial crisis, divorce, death or all of the above! I kid you not, I’ve seen it all. And most of these people have contracted with me to facilitate a short sale, which in layman’s terms means that I attempt to negotiate with the banks on my clients behalf to sell the home for less than what is owed on the property…..and sometimes it’s a lot less.
This morning I spent 15 minutes on hold with a bank prior to even getting a human voice. This is not altogether unheard of. When I finally spoke to someone, this is how the conversation went: (the names and information have been changed to protect the innocent)
Bank: Can I have your loan number please?
Me: 2849573894
Bank: Can you verify the address?
Me: 17846 SW Whogivesadamn Street, Nowhere
Bank: Can you give me the name of the borrower and their social security number?
Me: I gave it
Bank: What can I do for you today Mr. Brown?
Me: Well, first off, I’m not Mr. Brown.
Bank: oh I’m so sorry (and they always have a southern drawl). To whom am I speaking?
Me: This is Mr. Brown’s Realtor, well actually not Mr. Brown’s because see, he’s deceased so I’m the Realtor for the personal representative for the estate.
Bank: (obviously thrown way off by my last statement) Well ma’am (southern drawl again), would you like to speak with our loan modification department…..blah, blah, blah.
Me: WWWWooooooohhhw, stop talking. Did you not just hear what I said? The borrower is deceased and you want to send me to the loan modification department? HE’S DEAD! Can you modify a loan for a dead person? Shit, you can’t give a loan to a live person but you’ll modify the loan of a dead person??
That’s right, I lost it. It wasn’t long after that that I requested a transfer to the loss mitigation department and was placed on perma-hold again, only to have the line answered by another “customer no service” rep who was kind enough to place me on hold again in an effort to get the department that I needed and she stayed with me until they answered. She was the only normal person that I spoke to, and I miss her.
After I had been funneled through the phone system for the zillionth time I finally connected with Gayle in Loss Mitigation. While there I was able to explain the borrowers dilemma (remember, he’s dead) and then I requested her requirements for a short sale package given these circumstances, citing that I actually had offers to present to them. Amazingly enough Gayle, a woman who undoubtedly takes these calls all day long attempted to read the requirements from a script. I know this because if she had heard me tell her that the borrower was deceased, she never would have asked me to have my client present a “hand written hardship letter”.
I laughed so hard I peed my pants. What was I going to do, have his body exhumed and take his lifeless skeletal hand and hold a pen in it, ever so delicately, and beg it to come back to life in an effort to write a letter to the bank to explain why he couldn’t make his payments?????????? Seriously people, get a clue!
Obviously fed up with me and my attitude and not knowing what to do next, Gayle suggested that I simply send a copy of the death certificate. I obliged.
So do you see where I’m at? It’s not a good place, and that was only the first half hour of a very long day. I’m riding full steam ahead on the crazy train and I was just promoted to engineer. There is only one positive that will come out of all of this madness: since I’ll have no hair left I should be able to save about $100 on my cut, color, and style every month! Can anyone recommend a good wig shop?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: attitude, career, economy, housing market, job, job loss, life, money, real estate, work
So BFF J and I had a bit of a heart to heart this afternoon. It seems that earlier today she received her “pink slip”. This was not altogether unexpected as she’s been working on contract for a large trucking company, and we all know how well trucking companies are doing in this less than stellar economy. She’s not too upset about it though and I envy her for that. Most people haven’t been as smart as she and her husband when it comes to finances and she doesn’t have to work so she’s among the lucky few. I spent some time crying the blues about the real estate market too. The funny thing is that I’m still working, I’m just not making money!
So when I started selling real estate in 2003 the housing market was actually pretty slow, by “normal” standards. It gradually improved and by 2005 I could hardly keep up with the work load. I was a complete idealist, I was in the business to help people make their dreams of home ownership come true. I know that sounds sappy and Saccharine but it really is the truth. In the height of the market, somewhere between 2004-2005, I was writing a crazy amount of contracts on homes for clients that would stand in line or draw lottery numbers or even over-pay for a house! Nowadays I’m fortunate to write one contract a month (for a buyer) and I’m lucky to see an offer on a home. Oddly enough I’m working less but netting about the same and here’s why: in a boom only about 25-50% of my offers were accepted and today they all get accepted because everyone knows how rare it is to actually see an offer.
The gradual downward progression from optimism to pessimism usually doesn’t happen overnight and mine has been no exception. I think that it really began with my first sale related to a divorce. Prior to that all of the sellers that I had worked with were either relocating and/or moving on up….happy reasons to move! Shortly after the first divorce clients, the second followed and then the “downsizers”; clients that were looking to downsize their existing home and get something smaller, for a variety of reasons but usually financial. Then came the “job loss” clients. We were still in a decent financial market, housing prices were stabilizing and I could still help these people get out with equity……..they were the lucky ones. The “job loss” clients were followed all too closely by the “short sellers”, which is where I find myself today.
The “short sellers” are the most depressing group of clients that I could ever hope to NOT work with yet this is where I find myself today. See, the “short sellers” have NOTHING (for the most part) and many of them are in divorce…..the ultimate double whammy! These are people that (more than likely) at some point had equity in their home but the problem is that the market has dropped so dramatically that their homes are no longer worth what they owe on them. AND to make matters worse, for a variety of reasons they cannot afford to stay in their home.
Do you see my decline? So I went from helping people live the co-called American Dream to helping people throw it away, get rid of it, destroy it, and pretty much trash it. Don’t get me wrong, many of these people have made very bad choices that got them into the bad situations they’re in, but many of them are still making those same bad choices and they just want a free ride.
So therein lies my dilemma, my sour attitude toward a career and business that was once my passion has affected my mental state to the point where I do not want to be a Realtor anymore. To make matters worse, I’m not the only one. There are a tremendous amount of Realtors getting out of the market and I can understand why! To a certain extent I’ve reached survival mode, which sucks. I do not work well in survival mode because it’s all about making money and making money is not my passion, that’s just a bonus 
So BFF J and I are trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. She sees her pink slip as the golden ticket to finding her passion and an open gate to several self-fulfilling opportunities (my words, not hers). I see the down market and my steadily worsening attitude as an invitation to begin anew, attempt a new adventure……….or I could crawl into a hole hoping that when things get better someone might come and take me back to the party. Well, one can dream and one can survive. Either way I know that wherever we land it’s where we’re suppose to be…………right?
