In the summer of ‘04, John and Sally fell in love. Both were in their late 20's and had recently gone through difficult divorces. Life being unpredictable, as it is, put them in each other's paths about one year prior. Since they were both going through difficult times, they hit it off immediately and moved in together. They lived up north in the big city and had always dreamed of moving to beautiful sunny Florida. They both had pretty good jobs, with Sally being an LPN and John working for a medical records company, this is actually how they met, but the living expenses in their area were too high. Purchasing a home together, in the city, was out of the question.
One day, Sally received a nice brochure in the mail from a builder in Florida, Paradise Castles LLC, it was chock full of beautiful shiny pictures of Florida and had a promise that they would build you a new castle in Paradise starting in the mid 150's.
Sally was so excited! Can it be possible? Could John and I really afford to buy a home in Florida? The brochure states we don't need any money and they will pay all our closing costs! Sally could hardly contain herself and couldn't wait for John to get home, so she picked up the phone and called Paradise Castles. She got lucky and a real nice man named Mr. Needermoney answered on the second ring.
"Hello, thank you for calling Paradise Castles, this is Mr. Needermoney, how may I help you?" "Hi" said Sally "I just received a brochure from you, me and my fiancée are interested in moving to Florida. Your brochure said we didn't need any money. That sounds real good to us, since we don't have any. Our credit is a little messed up but we do have good jobs and should be able to get jobs down there pretty easily. Can you help us?"
Mr. Needermoney, is now the one who is excited, there's a live one on the phone and he has a quota to meet, "Well we do have a special going on today, in fact, we are giving Castles away to anyone that breaths. I will have our mortgage guy, Mr. Liarsloan, give you a call."
Sally is ecstatic and can't wait to tell John "We are moving to Florida!" Mr. Lairsloan calls and explains to Sally "We will have to do a stated income loan since you don't qualify on your own and John's credit....well, it sucks. But don't worry, I'll take care of everything for you. Just sign the documents I'm getting ready to send you and send them back with the fogged up mirror I'm including. No, no, no ....it's not lying, it's called a no document, no verification loan, I do them all the time. Just do what I ask and we'll get you in that Castle in beautiful sunny Florida."
Eight months later, they loaded up the truck and moved to Paradise. Life was grand! It was heaven! Their new home was beautiful and their future looked bright. Sally had found out a week before leaving the big city that her new job did not pan out but that's OK. We're moving to Paradise anyway and we will figure out what to do when we get there. Of course, when they arrived, they were surprised to find out that the jobs they were used to getting paid $25 an hour for, in the big city, only pay $15 in Paradise. Sally decided to go to work for Wally World while she waits for a better job and John.....well John just decided "I ain't working for no stinkin' $15 an hour. I'll keep looking."
They got real lucky though. They had purchased their home at the right time and by the time the construction was complete and they moved down, it had appreciated about $35,000. Not only that but they got stuff in the mail everyday from really nice folks that said they qualified for an equity loan of $35,000. WOW!! This really is Paradise. So, like any young couple in love, wanting to start a new life together, they pulled all of the equity out of their home to hold them over until Sally found a better job and John started work.
They also decided there was really no need to wait any longer for that new furniture they needed. So they bought some new furniture and really had the house looking good. The new couch was soooo comfortable John decided he would just sit there all day and play video games on the new plasma big screen. He'll have much better luck finding a good job in the spring time. After all, we have enough money in the bank to carry the house for six months and the way values are going up we can always refinance again, if we have to.
So on and on it goes.......................John left Sally in mid '06. She was too stressed out for him. The house is in her name, so what the heck...John decided to go back to the big city and move in with his parents.
Sally called me last week. She hasn't made a house payment in three months and wants to sell. She hates living in Paradise. All she has done for two years is work to try and make ends meet. She refinanced again after John left. She owes $210,000 on the house and now it's only worth $185,000 and declining rapidly. Her heaven turned into hell. And Broker Bryant can't do any thing about it. Sally's a nice person and I feel for her. But I can't help. I can't perform miracles. Her house WILL be foreclosed on. THE END
So whose fault is it? Does it really matter? All Sally ever wanted was a better life. If Mr. Needermoney and Mr. Liarsloan didn't "help" her she would have found someone else to. Would she have found you?
Are you a Florida REALTOR(R) looking for a change? Check it out. http://TTRealtyNet.com
CENTRAL FLORIDA REALTOR(r) OPPORTUNITIES
MORE INFO FROM BROKER BRYANT... THE SOURCE FOR CENTRAL FLORIDA REAL ESTATE
Copyright © 2009 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved
Tutas Towne Realty has already successfully negotiated Short Sales with the following Lenders and Investors.
Chase Short Sale,Sun Trust Short Sale, GMAC Short Sale, Wells Fargo Short Sale,Bank of America Short Sale,USA Bank Short Sale,PNC Bank Short Sale,Citi Short Sale,HomeEq Short Sale,Fifth Third Bank Short Sale,ING Direct Short Sale,GreenTree Short Sale,Capital One Short Sale,ASC Short Sale,First Horizon Short Sale,E-Trade Short Sale,Transland Financial Short Sale,US Bank Short Sale,IBM LBPS Short Sale,
Nationstar Short Sale,BAC Florida Short Sale,Real Time Solutions Short Sale,Fannie Mae Short Sale
FHA Short Sale,Selene Finance Short Sale,DTA Solutions LLC Short sale,Flagstar Short Sale,IndyMac Short Sale
******************************************************************
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc handles Florida real estate sales, Florida short sales, Florida strategic short sales, Florida pre-foreclosure sales, Florida foreclosures in Kissimmee Florida Short Sales, Davenport Florida Short Sales, Haines City Florida Short Sales, Poinciana Florida Short Sales, Solivita Florida Short Sales, Orlando Florida Short Sales, Celebration Florida Short Sales, Winderemere Florida Short Sales. Serving all of Polk, Osceola and Orange Counties Florida. Florida Short Sale Broker. Short Sale Florida.
Reserved Parking For "The Lovely Wife"...TLW...ROAR!
That's right folks. I'm back and I'm here to take up parking space :)
Hun...
Still one of the best I've seen you do. Maybe once we get me behind us you can sit down and write a dozen of so of these to hold you over :)
P.S. Every where I go today stuff keeps making me teary eyed. Must be the allergies acting up :)
TLW...ROAR!
Bryant,
I talked to Mr. Needermoney, he's now promising buyer's they can buy 20% below market and giving bus tours of properties pointing out what they sold for in ought-six! Did you know you can buy many of them today for 20, 30, 40, 50% or more less than they last sold for? He never mentions current sales.
I ask about his friend Mr Liarsloan, it seems he's "doing loan modification" for $750 up-front non-refundable fees! He then sends $250 to an attorney that sends out 3 form letters before informing the client "he tried but the bank won't budge.
I just read Mr Liarsloan's blog he's offering a webnar for a fee to teach you how to charge for loan modification services, he talks about the fee, the income, nothing about the services.
Bill
Not I. I do the unthinkable and qualify my buyer myself.
BB - Sad, sad and so true - we are the 911 real estate agents, but sometime that 911 call is often too late.
Hey BB!
This is a sad situation, and to think she put her name on everything. I always feel heartache for situations like this, maybe I shouldn't, but I can't really help it. It's too bad she didn't call you sooner.
-Lisa
BB - no doubt a tale that has been repeated numerous times in slightly different ways. Wonder if folks are getting wiser with all that has happened?
Jeff
So now we all get to pay to bailout the banks that are too big to fail.
So when we send in our taxes we need to think about what we are paying for. We are paying for John's time at home playing video games, all of their new furniture and their big screen TV. I guess that's why I was saving my money and watching TV on my old 27 incher.
Before I say anything else, let me say 2 things..
Welcome home TLW! Good to see you parking again!
BB, a genie, LOL, your head looks really good on the top of that genie.
Having said that, the story is horrible and typical. If the genie BB can't help then she is really up the creek without a paddle.
BB,
Thanks for the truly depressing story. Depressing not just for John and Sally but for the untold minion who followed the same path. In as far a your recuritment goes I would love to work with you however I don't think I could live in Paradise!
BB - Sally had good intentions but without doing any research on the job market and weighing all the risks... without a husband willing to work at the going rate of pay to stay somewhat afloat... well, I guess even the best laid plans don't always work out - even with good intentions.
Sounds familiar! Paradise doesn't always pan out for some people. It sounded good for too many unfortunately.
Everyone has to be accountable for their own decisions.
Oh, if only there was a way we could take money from people who didn't make those bad decisions and give it away to people who did make those bad decisions, things would get so much better!!
Bryant - It is so sad that this is true about so many people...
I know a couple who did this in 2003 and I thought they were crazy. They moved to an island off the coast of Florida near Miami. They lucked out and both got fabulous jobs on this little island in their specialities. There was no preplanning, they went down with no jobs, they just lucked out, and are doing quite well -- a lot better than I am -- although I have spent my life planning, preparing, and being careful.
I feel sorry for Sally and John for being impulsive, not doing their research, and trusting salespeople. However, so many people just like them, did just fine as long as housing prices kept going up and the economy continued to grow. They counted on a constant and continual increase in housing prices and their own income levels. Their thinking was flawed and they got caught short. I have some sympathy for their plight, especially Sally's, but not as much as for the ones who anticipated economic downturns, put money away, and still got caught short.
No one could have foreseen the drastic downturn that the worldwide economy took almost overnight. So many people who were careful and prudent have lost their savings and their retirement funds and are now out of work with no hope of getting back into the workforce as they are in their 50's or 60's. These are the folks I have the most empathy for. John and Sally are young enough to start over and learn from this experience.