VICTORY! Closed a really complex short sale today!

Today I closed the MOST COMPLICATED short sale I have ever worked on. Which is pretty remarkable considering that during the Great Recession, I closed more short sales than I care to remember and most were pretty difficult transactions. 

For short sale aficionados, this one had a first mortgage, a second mortgage, a PACE/Ygrene lien, about a decade of IRS Federal income tax liens, many years of unpaid utility liens, and a creditor judgment lien. All these liens had to be negotiated and settled/satisfied in order to close. 

I listed this house in November of 2019, and due to all the moving parts, it was really challenging to line up the pieces. The first mortgage company kept pushing the property into an online auction process, which just unnecessarily ate up a bunch of time. The second mortgage was charged off a decade ago and I had to track down what company even owned the debt. New liens popped up mid-transaction. And we went through 4 buyers who got frustrated with the process, did not want to make additional repairs caused by squatters and vandals, or did not want to pay an increased price as required by the lienholders...each time I had to start the negotiation process over. I had foreclosure sale dates postponed probably 8+ times. In fact, another foreclosure sale was looming and scheduled for June 2nd. 

Transactions like this one take SEVERAL HUNDREDS of man-hours. And teamwork. I am so thankful for Tricia Loughran with Chicago Title for helping with some super important pieces of this. 

Short sales are not common in today's market. But what will happen in the future? Please tell me which fancy algorithm can close a complex transaction like this one? Spoiler alert: they can't. 

So with all this, I am drinking a celebratory beer tonight! Cheers!