"Hell Hath No Fury Like A Realtor Scorned"

Did I ever get an earful of comments by Realtors in response to my post of October 5 (see below). Some were almost venomous. One actually threatened to "tattle" to Ginn and the mortgage companies. That's OK. I'll have my 9 year old email back this realtor.

Unfortunately, the advise that most investors are receiving is coming from either a realtor or the bank itself. The bank is not exactly your friend here, if you haven't figured that out! Sadly, sometimes your own realtor isn't either.

I spoke to a Ginn friend the other day who embarassingly confided to me that he was so desperate to get out of his Ginn lot several months ago, that he was talked into bringing $400,000 to the closing table just to get rid of this headache. It was his life savings. He had tried a short sale, with no success, and was finally led to believe that this was the only way. Unbelievable, right? Wait, there's more. The bank told him that they were doing him a favor, inasmuch as the deficiency was actually $440,000. To add insult to injury, he actually received a 1099 earlier this year for the $40,000 that the bank had so magnanimously forgiven!

Another investor complained that he had thrown an additional $10,000 into the marketing of an auction of his property, and nothing sold at the auction. Question. Even if he had received a fair market value bid that was, let's say, $200,000 short of the mortgage, did he or his realtor actually know what the bank was prepared to accept in order to consummate the short sale? The answer is No. So what's the point? (I mean other than trying to make some money for the auctioneer and realtor, that is.)

It is bad enough that a purchaser was conned the first time. And, let's face it, these investors are, for the most part, probably more sophisticated than most. But I just can't bear to see them taken advantage of again, especially when it means throwing good money after bad. Read the papers. It's time to stop the bleeding!