A career in real estate is littered with moments of relaxing freedom, but counterbalanced by the occasional 80 hour 7 day weeks. In spite of this, there is abundant control, the long weeks are only long if I choose them to be. I think I’m liking this.

The biggest challenge I have dealt with is trying to battle the constant possibility of burnout. In most idle moments, my mind begins to scream that I am not doing enough, that I need to do more marketing, organizing, or networking. I think I am starting to gain control of these outbursts and its good…

Here is some very valuable information regarding the local real estate market in Fort Wayne/Allen County.  I always tell homeowners, “Do not listen to the news.  Call myself or a local Realtor to get market information.”  Here are the stats comparing each month from 2007 through 2009.  Let me know if you have any question or would like to find out what your home might sell for in today’s market.  It only takes a few minutes and I don’t charge for it.

Number of Homes Sold

Average Days on Market

Average Sales Price

Fort Wayne Realtor Bill Willcutts

Building Relationships

Homes in Fort Wayne

Fort Wayne’s Real Estate Source

Buyers and sellers should carefully select a realtor. I hope this story will demonstrate my commitment to my clients and how important it is to choose a good agent.  I doubt the buyer is even aware that this fact, but due to a lack of action, the buyer’s agent almost lost the home for his buyer.  I listed a home for Sandy who was in financial trouble and needed to sell her home to avoid foreclosure.  With my experience investing in real estate and negotiating with banks, I am one of the most qualified realtors to help Sandy.  However, something happened the day of closing that I certainly didn’t expect. 

            You must understand that the transaction is what’s called a short sale.  Short sales are very time consuming and many times do not close.  A short sale is when the borrower is in default on their mortgage or soon will be and must sell.  However, the home will not sell for what is owed to pay the lender in full.  Without going into much detail, the process to successfully negotiating and closing is frustrating, tedious, long, riddled with paperwork, uncooperative banks, and final approval usually involves multiple companies.  Sometimes these transactions take 6 months to close.  I’ve attended 3-day seminars on short sales and it is similar to trying to align the planets of the solar system. 

            On this transaction I not only had to negotiate with the bank, but once we had an accepted offer, we discovered a Federal Tax lien had attached to the property.  This resulted in dealing with the IRS, which I’m sure you can imagine how easy that was.  While negotiating with the IRS, the buyer walked away and found another home. 

After finding another buyer, negotiating with the bank and the IRS, we get to closing and the Buyer’s agent informs me that the washer, dryer, and window dressings have been removed from the property.  It was agreed upon in the purchase agreement that these items were to remain with the home.  My client had moved out of the home months earlier, signed the paperwork two months earlier, and forgot exactly what she had agreed to.  Two weeks prior to closing Sandy mistakenly removed these items and the buyer refused to close until the items were placed back in the home.  Under the circumstances, there was no way to post pone closing.  We had to close that day and the bank had to receive their payoff that day. 

It was 11:30 AM and I had to get these appliance moved, close the transaction, in time for the title company to wire the payoff funds by 3 PM.  I contacted another agent in my office and he was able to help.  Myself and Jared Christiansen, another good agent,  helped me move the washer and dryer back into the second floor of the home.   We moved the appliances, closed the transaction, and everything worked out. 

I later found out the day of closing that my client discovered the buyer, 5 days earlier, was trespassing and doing some move-in cleaning.  The buyer’s agent knew for 5-days that there was a problem and instead of making a simple phone call, he waited until we’re sitting at the closing table to inform me.  This is obviously irritating for me, but if I had no way to move those appliances, he would have lost the home for his buyer.  Granted, the seller made a mistake, and an honest one.  However, a simple phone call would have fixed the problem and would not have jeopardized his clients purchase. 

This is why it is so important to carefully select a realtor.  Even if we never work together, when you do need a realtor, do yourself a favor.  Meet with multiple people and conduct an interview.  Get a feel for their character; find someone you feel comfortable with so that it’s a good fit.  Here’s a question to ask yourself, “Would I be able to handle this person giving me bad news.”  Sometimes things go wrong and it’s not your agents fault, but its the agent’s responsibility to tell you.

Fort Wayne Realtor Bill Willcutts

Building Relationships

Homes in Fort Wayne

Fort Wayne’s Real Estate Source