I just fired myself as a Listing Agent for a short sale & I feel wonderful!

Perhaps we've been spoiled by listing vacant REO properties with complete autonomy, but last week a referral came for a Short Sale opportunity and I visited the property on Saturday. Since the property was occupied by Tenants, we made an appointment with the owner to meet us there. After meeting with the tenants, I discovered that there is a lot of un-finished and sticky business between the tenants and the owner where the owner owed them money!

Compounding the problem was that the owner was presenting the tenants as possible BUYERs of this short sale. However, he wanted us to be less than candid when it came to ALL the implication of the Short Sale and the potential for Foreclosure. It become as clear as Montana sky that the owner wanted to avoid paying the bank while collecting rent from un-suspecting tenants for as long as he could.

I started to get that un-easy feeling that one gets after talking to used-car sales reps!! I needed to take a long hot shower and see if we wanted to ANY part of such a client! Luckily, the answer was a resounding NO!

I emailed him Sunday morning and thanked him for the opportunity and reminded him that any "MATERIAL" information has to be disclosed to buyer regardless of their current interest in the property and we can NOT risk our license and reputation to be part of a deceptive campaign to milk his tenants for rent. Most importantly, California now has tenant laws to protect them during foreclosure and we wanted no part of anything illegal and fraudulent.

After I fired myself as his Listing Agent, I felt fantastic!! I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders! Granted times are tough and I could have assigned the day to day interaction to another agent in the office; something didn't feel right. So, I fired myself.

Have you fired yourself lately!? Please share what caused your early exit?

Water Boarding or Dealing with HOA managers?! Which would you prefer?!

We are starting to enjoying the Water Boarding treatment we get from our HOA managers who despite cashing our check for documents, refuse to even acknowledge that they have received our order!!

Some of them don't accept online payments or credit cards which creates a lot of delays. I guess setting up an account with PayPal would be too inconvenient. In one case, this HOA manager was claiming she had NEVER received our document request, despite the fact that I had emailed it to her! I forwarded her the original email the 2nd time and she was still denying it. Then came the cashed check and she was STILL denying that she NEVER received our order for documents. Needless to say, we had to print/scan a copy of the canceled check and email her a copy before she agreed to process it!

The challenges is that we anticipate a lot of REOs from this development, so there is no option to go ballistic here. And if we escalate to her management, the next condo listing will be jeopardized since she will find a way to get even.

No offense to our guest at GitMo, but if this is NOT Water Boarding, what is? I know some friends of the former White House were not classifying Water Boarding as Tourture, but this clearly goes well beyond the realm of professional conduct.

However, I am happy to report that after being Water Boarded for 3 times last months, my team is no longer calling it Water Boarding, they affectionately refer to it a "Freedom Tickling" by the HOA!! This experience had made us much more appreciative of SFR listings and thought me a lesson not to EVER invest in a Condo!

What do you guys experience? Any one Water Boarding you these days!?