Real Short

“People have been going through hard times and I feel kind of guilty that we lucked out,” said Jena Scott. “The house we bought just a year and a half ago for $180,000 is now worth $260,000. Our Realtor says he hasn’t seen anyone else come out so far ahead so quickly.”

Jena shrugged her shoulders. “We just got so lucky,” she said.

It wasn’t all luck. Ron and Linda Jameson, the sellers of the house, were going through hard times. “I was down so long it looked like up to me,” said Ron Jameson. Ron is a building contractor and was hit hard by the economic crash.

“We bought when the market was swinging and my business was rolling, he said. “I put a bunch of remodel work into that house right outta the chute, but everything dumped right after,” he said.

Ron and Linda were selling via a short sale and would receive nothing from the sale, no matter who bought it or how much they paid. So, they could choose their buyer. They chose Jena and Jack.

“We chose the Scotts because we liked them,” said Linda. “We passed up an all-cash buyer who would have been more of a slam-dunk, but we wanted to give the Scotts a chance though they were first-time buyers with the possibility of loan difficulties.”

As it turned out, there was loan difficulty. The appraiser for the Scott’s lender turned in a low appraisal, $20,000 less than the sales price. The appraiser wouldn’t give value to Ron’s unfinished remodel work.

“It was all good work,” said Ron, “but I ran out of money and time before I reached the finish line.”

A low appraisal, especially $20,000 low, is typically a death blow to a sale. Banks won’t usually approve a short sale at that kind of discount. Cash buyers were on the sidelines waiting to jump in when this sale died, but the bank ignored common sense and didn’t look at any other offers.

“Through some kind of glitch in the red-tape process, the short sale was approved. Real short,” said Jack Scott.

The Jamesons were okay with it because they got nothing anyway. “We were just glad to have our loan debt forgiven,” said Linda Jameson.

“We bought way below value,” said Jena Scott, shrugging her shoulders. I’m so glad the Jamesons were our sellers.

That’s lucky.