Viki Benbow - The Real Estate Huntress: June 2010

Jack with 2 tennis balls and a stick!

Alan and I have two great dogs including a white lab named Jack.  Jack is a blood donor dog at Loomis Basin Veterinary Clinic in Loomis. A week ago Sunday, I was putting a prime rib on the barb – b – que at around 3:15 p.m. with dinner guests set to arrive at 5p.m. and dinner to be served at 6 when I got a call from the vet’s office begging me to bring Jack in for an emergency blood donation. He was the only donor left on the list whose blood was a match.  The vet tech said without Jack’s blood the dog in need would not make it.

Of course without hesitation, I dropped everything and started on the 2 hour mission. ½ hour each way for travel from El Dorado Hills to Loomis and the hour for Jack to give his blood. I got home around 6 and we proceeded with the dinner.  Everyone who heard about  it called Jack a hero.  I was asked the next week if I had heard how the dog was doing.  I was afraid to ask Amy, my daughter-in-law (head Vet Tech at Loomis) fearing the worst.  

Yesterday, I got this card in the mail.

We were thrilled to learn that Buddy came through with Jack's help.  Their note brought me to tears of joy.  It was so nice for them to recognize Jack, and us for our actions, and you see, "It’s not just clients we love to help"

Labels: Care, Dog, Donor, Hero, Jack, Lab, Thank You

You can't help but have noticed that, along with the Gulf Oil Crisis and the National Healthcare Bill, there has been a tsunami of foreclosures and short sales which have negatively impacted both the banking and real estate industries. In essence my business has changed dramatically over the past couple of years!

For my dear friends who haven't heard from me as often as I would have liked, I wanted to assure you that we have not only survived these challenges but have actually thrived with our efforts to help clients who have been tragically affected by this market. Following the Darwin theory of survival, we have adapted!

As you can see by the dates of my past blogs, it has been a while since I have posted one. I can honestly say that it has been due in large part to the huge volume of distressed sales we have been dealing with. We have helped over 60 families in our community avoid foreclosure. Short sales are labor intensive transactions. The average length of time to complete one has been about 6 to 7 months with two going over 18 months. In most cases, we go through 2, 3 up to 5 or even 6 buyers before we get an approval with the buyer hanging in there!

So why do them you might ask. We feel a strong obligation to do our part to help people who find themselves in a true hardship facing losing their home. Even though it was not our practice to put our clients into some of the awful loans that got us where we are now, there is not a real estate professional out there that did not benefit from a buyer's agent getting one of their listings sold and closed with one of those loans. Add to that many of our clients refinanced with predatory lenders and found that their good, fixed rate loan was replaced with a variable rate loan with a low teaser rate that lasted for about “ten seconds” before it started up. We also found that “Someone moved our cheese” and the new location was the short sale market.

We started by taking every reputable short sale class we could find and joined a network called, “Short Sale Genius.” One of the founders was the Manager of the Loss Mitigation Department for Indy Mac Bank's Heloc division. The others are a team of brothers – real estate brokers. Together working from both perspectives (the bank's and the agent's) they developed a system to negotiate with the banks. They also gave us the tools and resources to evaluate a seller/borrowers hardship, their loans and what they can probably expect. Armed with these new tools, we started listing, selling and negotiating….and re-selling, negotiating, escalating and fighting to get the short sales approved. What a challenge! What an education! I have said more than once that if this wasn't all so tragic, I would be having a blast because I am learning so much. And, after over 40 years in this business, it's pretty cool to get so excited about learning new stuff!

But short sales is not all that we continue to do. We worked with a couple of banks in 2009 handling about 20 foreclosures. We also helped a bunch of first time home buyers take advantage of low rates, low prices and this past year - the first time buyer tax credit. We have also guided clients to increase their future wealth by adding investment properties to the financial portfolios. We also helped several families through the difficult process of liquidating their parent's estates. We helped several spritely seniors sell their family home and move to Del Webb. We even sold a vineyard!

So as always, regardless of your real estate needs, I'm here for you. Folks when it comes to having someone represent you in your real estate matters and you are looking for someone who cares as much about you and your money as you do, I hope you will look at my record, talk to people who have turned to me and give me a call at (916) 973-4532. I would be honored to put my 40+ years of experience (career Realtor) to work for you and prove, experience is not expensive, it is priceless.

Labels: Fighting, Healthcare, Help, Real Estate, Seniors, Short Sales, The good fight