I had a couple of cash-for-keys appointments today, a couple more of my listings moving up the status chain – now they’re vacant and secured and in pre-marketing, they should both be listed within the next 1-3 weeks.  Ordinarily the prospect of some good new listings coming on the market is cause for a smile, but today the joy is bittersweet.

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One of the cash-for-keys appointments was a full week past the originally agreed-upon date.  A day before the original vacate date, I rolled by the property to see how the occupant was coming:  he wasn’t coming along quickly, the house was still full.  I found him in his driveway standing amid an ocean of possessions, he was having a garage sale – not the quick way to divest yourself of a whole house full of possessions.

We talked, and he agreed he’d need some more time; he said he’d need just til Wednesday, but when I wrote to the client, I said I didn’t see him getting out of there any earlier than Friday.  The client agreed to extend the vacancy until Friday at 5 PM, which was good – because sure enough, once Wednesday rolled around, he wasn’t ready then either.

By Friday morning, he still wasn’t ready.  I drove by to see his progress – still far to go.  He said he’d be ready by Saturday morning – but come Saturday morning, he still had a few more things to do. And so it was on Saturday afternoon, when he then swore up and down he’d be ready by 9 AM on Sunday morning.

A rainy Sunday morning at 9 AM found me at the house with a contractor to change the locks.  Unfortunately, the occupant still was not ready.  Bummer, because now I’d have to pay the contractor a trip fee – which he generously waived (thanks Mike!).  I told the occupant that he should just call me when he was in fact ready, rather than saying he’d be ready on such-and-such a date and time and blow it again.

The next day, he called and said he would be ready.  I called and asked the client if he could still get all his cash for keys money, even though he was a week late.  The client said for me to go ahead and give him the check if the property was vacant and in broom-swept condition.

And so it was, the occupant had followed my instructions to the letter and the house was totally empty.  We were walking from the garage into the house, and I noticed he wasn’t behind me.  He’d stopped back in the garage, and was weeping quietly against the wall.  “Hey, are you OK?” I asked.  No answer…so I walked inside the house and gave him some time alone.

He didn’t want to let go of that house.  He said he’d never refinanced it like so many others had, he’d bought it, and put $45,000 worth of materials and his own time upgrading the property, remodeling the kitchen entirely, etc.  He was going through a divorce, had recently quit his job, and had three kids – and now he’d lost the house, and was living in a rented room.

There’s really no way around it:  that blows.  There’s no shortage of hard-luck stories in the REO business, but sometimes the emotions are just so raw and you’re right there in the thick of it – and what’s there to say?  A lot of times in this business I feel like I’m part life-coach, part therapist – which is something I really ought to put on my REO Résumé because it’s definitely part of the job description.  All in a day’s work, can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.