First post in over a week...Happy Story!!

The end of May was a stressful one! I had been working to negotiate a short sale on one of my listings, and finally got approval from both lenders involved on May 16th - yay! The problem? The lenders required that the close of escrow be by May 30th!...actually let me correct that...they wanted their sale proceeds wired to them and in their possession by May 30th, so really we needed to aim for May 29th. YIKES!

I had been in close communication with the buyer's agent the entire 45 days I had worked to negotiate the short sale, and I had the feeling that the approval was on its way. Around May 13th I told her to get the buyer's loan officer on the phone and polish the loan application, do another verification of income and assets, etc. When I called her on May 16th and told her we had 13 days to close the transaction, we both panicked.

In the last 6 weeks, with the massive increase in pending sales and solds in the area, many real estate industry related companies (lenders, title companies, etc.) have gotten backed up. They had been operating lean and mean for a while, but the sudden spike in sales overloaded many of these providers. The buyer's agent confirmed both of our worst fears...the buyer's loan officer said there was "no possible way" to underwrite and fund the loan in time.

So what's a Realtor to do? I called my go-to loan officer, Marlena Olson with Vitek Mortgage Group. If anyone could get our crazy timeline accomplished, she could. Within an hour of contacting Marlena, her assistant, Kelley, had taken the buyer's loan application over the phone. I emailed over the purchase agreement and preliminary title report. The next day the buyers and Marlena met in her office. The appraisal was ordered and completed immediately. The full loan package was submitted to underwriting.

In the meantime, I contacted the title company - Placer Title, to make sure all of those ducks were in a row. There was no margin for error in completing the buyer's signing and the seller's signing, receiving funds, going on record at the county, and wiring the funds to both lenders so money was received on May 30th. Janine Romney and Kim Meidinger went above and beyond to make sure all was correctly coordinated and all the correct paperwork was in place.

Like some miracle - loan documents arrived EARLY! The buyers signed on the afternoon of Friday May 23rd...basically a week after the process started. The sellers signed on Tuesday, May 27th (Monday was a holiday). The loan funded on Wednesday May 28th and went on record with the county that afternoon.

Job well done by all...truly a team effort to get this transaction closed. My clients were elated to have their house sold. They buyers were elated that they were able to move their children from a busy street to a cul-de-sac.

...a happy ending!