I am once again listing another “pre-foreclosure”. Well, it actually starts with a seller who is hoping beyond hope that we will magically time travel back two or three years to when their house was worth what they now need to sell it  for.

I tell them the truth(ain’t gonna happen!), but bear with them as we list it for a price that would satisfy all lien holders, even though they would walk away with nothing. That is their first adjustment. The days of a big check at the closing table to help fund their move are gone.

Then after about a month with no calls to even see the property, they will usually move to Phase Two: being willing to drop the price and fill out the Short Sale paperwork. The denial is over and now it is time to start trying to deal with the problem head on. Seeing if we can find a buyer who is willing to pay enough (and wait forever!) to satisfy the bank and let them out of their mortgage.

Phase Three is when we have a contract and after three or four months of frequent calls to numerous people at the mortgage company we feel like we are losing our minds from lack of follow-through and attention. Why is it so difficult to make a decision about this offer? Because it is complicated, that’s why. The lawyers are now involved, the Loss Mitigation team, the second mortgage people (there usually is one….that’s why this is so difficult in the first place), are there going to be tax ramifications?

Trying to make a decision as to where to move your family, when to surrender the property, what  will it do to your credit, will you have to go bankrupt? This is where the family is caught, between a rock and a hard place, for maybe months or even a year of this process.

All I can do is offer comfort, encouragement, keep them up-to-date on what’s happening (or not), and always have a shoulder to lean on for various venting needs against the more than occasional idiots they will encounter, and be a person who understands what they are going through. In the midst of it all is a lot of self-recrimination for getting ourselves in this position in the first place…. I guess that’s why I am able to empathize. I am in the same boat. Anyone else need a bucket to help bail?