April is synonymous with the Easter/Passover period. Even if you may not celebrate the religious foundation of this singular time, it traditionally represents a period of awakening. We see it all around us in the change of seasons: our clocks move forward, green starts to break out on dormant trees, birds are more visible and noisy. The anticipation of the season becomes evident in all that we do. It is with this thought in mind that I wish each of you continued health and vitality throughout this year, and that it brings a stirring of our senses and an appreciation of our many blessings that surround us.

 This great country of ours is seeking balance. We want things to work better and to eliminate the financial and political stresses that plague us. I am an optimist and I believe we are reawakening as a Nation, reacquainting ourselves to the principles that this country was founded upon. We are relying much more on those we trust and putting our faith in a political system that by its nature requires balance as its foundation.

 As this country changes, my hope is that we truly seek efficiencies and build upon our relationships with each other, melding our personal and political views for the sake of preserving our individual rights and freedoms.

Harvey Blankfeld

Brown, Blankfeld & Associates

7475 W. Sahara Ave., #100

Las Vegas, NV, 89117

 Harvey, Christina & Administrative Staff:

I wanted to write this letter now that I have had some time to reflect on the sale of our property on Pine Leaf. I don’t think I had told you at the beginning of our effort to sell our home, that I believed that I did not need a Realtor to help me find a buyer and successfully negotiate a sale of the property. How wrong I was. I entered the listing with reluctance, not on your abilities, but with my over confidence in my own ability to sell a property that I thought would sell itself. I was like so many sellers that wanted to avoid what I thought was an unwanted cost.

I knew it was a difficult time to sell a home with so many bank owned properties on the market. Your presentation convinced me that without the professional support of a trained and experience Realtor, that my chances in selling this property would be slim. Your detailed market analysis and step approach is what really convinced me that I had to have a professional team if I wanted to be successful. The first mistake I would have made would have been in establishing a realistic selling price. The second would have been the lack of exposure of the property to the market. I believed that its location and great curb appeal would be sufficient to find a ready and qualified buyer and I did not need the expansive exposure of the MLS and individual marketing that you provided.

It was your sensitivity and market awareness that allowed the selling price to be set at a level that brought multiple offers within a very short period of time.

The real strength of your team approach was in the process of the sale once we had received the several offers. There were so many pitfalls during this period that I know I would not have been able to complete the sale on my own. Your experience in overcoming objections on both sides of the transaction made the cost of the sale worth every penny. There was a period that I thought the sale would never be closed; your persuasive and positive approach with working with the buyer’s agent made the sale a reality. Key to the entire transaction was the communication that flowed on a daily basis. I never wondered how the process was proceeding; I received timely updates and suggestions that made the decisions easy and effective. The little extras that you and your staff performed were the “icing on the cake”.

Thank you for a job well done. I would not hesitate to recommend you and your Team to any potential buyer or seller.

Richard Yeakel

In May of last year we took a listing.  It was a short sale and the owner was very concerned about the time it would take and the toll it would take on her life.  We received an offer in June and submitted the package to the bank for approval.  We toiled for 5 months with the bank and got re-routed, re-started, re-negotiated and just regurgitated until in December we caught a break. 

My client, the seller, met a lady that knew someone that knew someone else that might be able to help us.  At first I thought it was just a hoax to get my client to send a check to someone, but it wasn’t.  The man we found out was a big shot at the bank and he looked into the deal and got it approved in about 48 hours.

We proceeded to closing with great haste as we thought we were just dreaming and didn’t want the bank to re-something to us again.  The good news is the deal closed in December.  You would hope this story would end at this happy albeit drawn out point.  Unfortunately it doesn’t end here. 

Just today 1/25/2010, I get a call from the buyer’s agent.  She is panicked and doesn’t know what to do.  The buyers have received a letter from the bank telling them that the home is going to be auctioned on the courthouse steps on February 12, 2010.  The buyers naturally told the bank that they had just purchased this home from them and they paid cash.  The bank told the buyers, they must be mistaken and they should bring the account current or suffer the consequences of a foreclosure.  The buyers spend the better part of the day talking to various people at the bank and trying to get them to understand that they are making a horrible mistake.  The bank continually reminds them that they need to get the balance paid or suffer the ordeal of being put out on the street.

When the buyers agent called me to tell me this story, I let her know that I wasn’t sure what we could do, but we would certainly try to explain the situation to the bank and get them to understand.  I had heard of a similar circumstance from a colleague, but I wasn’t really certain what to do.  We called earlier today and they sent my assistant on a wild goose chase of transfers and disconnects.  I then called the bank myself and was subjected to the same typical re-routing.  I eventually got a person to actually listen to the situation.  She then, to her credit, got her supervisor involved and I got to have a civil conversation with a person that would save them from terrible embarrassment, not to mention potential litigation.

The supervisor dug into the file and discovered that the negotiator that was handling the Short Sale never closed the file.  She never let anyone else know that the money was received and the home had been recorded in the new buyers name.  This is the same negotiator that dragged the process on for more than 5 months with no progress.  I know the banks have it tough with so many people attempting to sell their homes as short sales, but they must be more professional, and they must be at least efficient enough to actually close a file properly and not subject a buyer to this kind of scare.

The buyer is very relieved and actually having a good chuckle about it now, but I would be willing to bet the bank wouldn’t be laughing had they actually sold the home again and put this owner out.  I bet the bank would have been subjected to a significant financial hardship of their own.

 The homeowner purchased her home at the height of the Las Vegas boom.  She scraped together her down payment and stretched her budget to the max.  Times were good and it seemed like the right way to go before the prices got higher and homes were out of her reach.  She was able to afford a $250,000 home.  Her mortgage was adjustable and the payment barely affordable, but with both her and her husband’s salaries, they could make it.  Of course, her credit was spotless.  The American dream was realized.

 After they settled into their home, they worked hard on finishing it with backyard landscaping, a covered patio, and all the things they felt they needed to make it a home.  Things were going great.  Then, WHAM! Las Vegas was changing- times were tough, business was off, and consequently, her husband was laid off.  She was lucky – she had a great boss who cut everything else but kept her at her current salary.  In addition to her husband’s layoff, her loan rate adjusted and her payment went up.  Her neighbors also hit on hard times and abandoned their homes.  The average $250,000 price in her neighborhood dropped to $95,000.

 She was in a quandary.  Should she join the group of neighbors and go into foreclosure or try to do the “right thing”?  She had heard about this new thing called a “loan modification”.  She contacted The Big Bad Bank and the process began.  She filled out all the paperwork and had the right qualifications.  It looked like a sure thing.

After several months, lo and behold, her loan modification was approved!  Her payment was reduced $500!!  Now, remember her loan period was extended another ten years, but it still seemed like the right thing to do.  She began to pay the lower payment as they instructed.  Being a vigilant person with regard to her credit, she decided to check her credit report after three months.  The Big Bad Bank had reported her late to the credit bureau THREE TIMES!

When she called, she was told that her loan modification was a “trial” or “temporary” modification.  She said, “But I paid what you asked!”  The Big Bad Bank said, “But you paid less than your original agreement.  We accepted it but it was not what you agreed to when you bought the house.”  The homeowner is disputing the late payments with the credit bureau and is hoping for the best.

This homeowner was trying to do the right thing.  The moral of the fable “The Wolf and The Crane” is “In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains”.  The moral of my story is “When you try to do the right thing, the wolf still may eat you”.

By the way, This story is NOT fiction…