Short Sale, Part 3: intercession from St. Joseph

As I have described in my previous couple of posts, my condo development is extremely screwed up.  Add to that the housing market still being as depressed as it is, the thing I was most worried about when it came to getting out of the condo was that I’d never be able to find a buyer.  I thought that I’d for sure end up needing to do a deed in lieu of foreclosure, also called a consent for foreclosure, which is an option available when a home is on the market for more than 90 days with no offers.  A deed in lieu would be far worse for my credit than a short sale, and I certainly didn’t want my credit to take any more of a hit (it was SO good when all of this started – 800 or better with all 3 credit reporting companies!).

As it turned out, finding a realtor was the most challenging part of the process initially.  I knew that short sales were in a league of their own, so I wanted to go with a realtor who had a lot of experience with them.  After calling a few people I thought might have leads but ended up not, I starting digging around online.  I left messages with a couple of different realtors, and since Matt was first to call me back, he got the job.  He’s been great so far.

After our initial contact, he was able to come by within just a few days in order to take pictures and have me complete all of the necessary contract paperwork.  During that meeting, the market comparables he brought over for me gave me a new outlook as well – units in the development were actually selling!  In fact, in the past eight months, ten units very similar to mine had sold and five more were under contract.  There were only three or four others on the market, so I felt that I had a good shot, and boy, was I right!

Before I go into the timeline of all of this, I need to explain the whole St. Joseph statue thing.  I’m sure that some of you are familiar with Catholicism know that just about everything has a patron saint.  On that note, it makes sense that St. Joseph, the carpenter, is the patron said of homes/home sales.  There’s long been a belief that with St. Joseph’s intercession, a home that has not been selling will move more quickly.  My family believes in this whole-heartedly since St. Joseph helped both my parents and grandparents; after their homes had been on the market for months with no offers, they each buried St. Joseph in the back yard and the homes sold within just a couple of weeks.

Wait, what?  Burying St. Joseph in the back yard?  Yup.  The trick is apparently to find a small statue of St. Joseph and bury him it the back yard, upside down and facing your home.  So that it doesn’t get too dirty, it’s nice to put it in a plastic bag as well (the statue I am borrowing is small enough to fit into a snack-sized ziplock bag).  I was cautioned by several people to bury him in a good spot, that since I was in a condo I didn’t want him selling the entire building, so I buried him about a foot off of my patio facing my unit.

 Now, there were at least a couple of people who looked at me like I was crazy when I told them about this phenomenon.  Well, ye of little faith, here’s how getting it sold went down: 

-Saturday, June 30: realtor comes over, takes pictures, I sign all the paperwork

-Monday, July 2: unit is listed, showings are immediately being scheduled, I start calling around for a statue.  I learn that Oma has lost her statue, so I call mom, who works at a Catholic church and is able to find one quickly.

-Tuesday, July 3: I pick up the statue and go straight home to bury it.

-Thursday, July 5: my realtor calls to tell me that two offers had come in the previous day.  He’s going to check them out and he’ll get back to me.  He mentions one is far lower than what we’re looking for.

-Friday, July 6: Matt calls me with an update - the people who made the low offer have reneged, but that the other offer is not only pretty darn good, the potential buyers are planning on paying cash.  They also know that since it’s a short sale it’s likely to take several months to go through, but they’re willing to wait.  Matt asks me if I want to accept (hell yes!), and by the end of the day both they and I have signed the contract.

Hot damn!  I couldn’t have been more thrilled that I got to that point so quickly.  Thank you St. Joseph, and I hope you don’t mind staying buried until closing (short sales have a much higher chance of falling through, so I’m not taking any chances). 

I think I’ll end there.  Although I knew what I was in for, it’s gotten a lot more frustrating since.  I have, however, given myself kudos at several points along the way – were I not so detail oriented and diligent in my follow-up, I’d be several weeks behind where I am now.  Matt actually commented on it at one point, but that’s another story for another day.