Rob and Kelly really needed my help on their Long Beach Short Sale. They had bought their Wrigley area home in 2005. At the time, Wrigley was considered one of the up and coming areas of the city. Their home had three bedrooms and two baths. Although a little bit smaller than what they were originally looking for, it was a good value for the market. With three daughters, they figured once they outgrew the house, they could move on to a larger one. What they hadn't counted on was the market. By the time the kids were starting to really complain about space, the couple was almost $200,000 upside down on their mortgage. A short sale seemed like a great option, but their situation was hardly worthy of being considered a "traditional hardship".

Typically, hardship requirements for short sales are limited to job loss, medical incapacitation, divorce or death of an immediate family member.Thank goodness they didn't have to face any of these kinds of situations! Everybody was healthy, employed and relatively thriving. That still didn't change the situation that they now had two teenage girls sharing a room, and the neighborhood that was once "up and coming" now seemed to be more "down and going". After hearing one of my radio commercials, Rob contacted me to set up an appointment. We spoke at length about their situation. I informed them that, although there was no financial hardship and negotiators would probably not take too much sympathy on their elbow room issues, we could look into trying to illustrate the changes in the neighborhood as a necessity for the move.

Being a large city, Long Beach has some areas that really move up and down with the economy. As such, foreclosures and short sales in Long Beach are fairly common in the current economic climate. Being one of those areas, Wrigley is no exception. Crime rates in the surrounding community have increased, and we presented a hardship letter that included records of the police records that were available online. In the letter, we detailed the fears that Rob and Kelly had for the safety of their young family and their desire to move to a safer neighborhood. After about seventy-five days of processing, the short sale approval came in from both Wells Fargo and Chase Home Finance. They closed escrow at the end of July 2010, received full settlement on both mortgages and shed almost $600,000 of debt!

I am especially proud of this particular Long Beach Short Sale, not just because my team was able to help this wonderful couple out of their difficult situation, but also because other realtors would tell them they wouldn't qualify for a short sale. My team of certified professionals intimately understands the short sale process. While other real estate companies farm their negotiation duties out to third parties, we have a full-time negotiation staff right in our office to make sure that our clients get the benefit of our knowledge, experience and diligence. If you're upside down on your mortgage, really need to sell your home, make sure to get in touch with a short sale specialist. Your friend, brother-in-law or cousin that just happens to have a real estate license will get over their hurt feelings a heckuva lot sooner than your credit will recover from the foreclosure that results from a failed short sale!