Holiday Hiccups

Let’s face it, realtors don’t have normal schedules.  We often work 7 days a week and rarely have a chance to take a day off without having our phones ring.  Work follows us everywhere interrupting anything and everything.  So with that in mind I have to admit I really like holidays like Independence Day where people are focused on home, family and fun because I get the opportunity to have a day where I can relax.

 

Oddly though, it also kinds of throws me out of my workaholic loop and I have to spend days getting back in the swing of things after having my normal schedule interrupted.  I have to admit I enjoyed going to the movies with a friend and doing some long neglected shoe shopping.  It reminded me of how I have to make time for myself even on non-Holidays.  And it reminded me that if I can get used to that maybe the hiccup of taking a day off won’t impact my routine so much.

“I Hate Banks” Mojo & I have something in common…

Spending my teen years in San Diego I was unavoidably a fan of local fave Mojo Nixon in the 1980’s.  Now 20 years later as I struggle with the pitfalls and traumas of dealing with lender owned property in the Phoenix real estate market I find myself humming “I Hate Banks” more often than I care to admit.

 

It is not that the bank owned property is driving down prices or that getting answers and timely responses to inquiries is difficult at best.  It is the blatant way that banks/lenders chose to ignore both national and state real estate laws while disposing of these “bad assets” and that no one seems to be standing up to them to say “hey you, you are subject to real estate laws!!!”

 

In Arizona all contract negotiations are required to be in writing, yet I and other agents in my office are often called or emailed by an agent representing a bank owned property who says that the bank won’t counter in writing and we have to have a meeting of the minds before they send their addendums.  It’s technically illegal, ok forget the technical part – its not legal by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Even when the banks respond, they are sending counters without signing the original offer and the counter is lacking signatures as well.  When we are representing buyers we are in the hurry up and wait mode waiting for the bank to respond, getting our clients to sign these blank contracts and addendum, and returning them as quickly as we can in the hope that the bank will actually go through with accepting an offer they have already “verbally” accepted.

 

When do we as real estate professionals stop this madness and demand that the banks follow the contract laws of our individual states?  When?  How?  We need to do it.  It is our responsibility to do it.

 

Until it happens though, don’t be surprised if you hear “I Hate Banks” flowing out of the speakers of the iPod player in my office…

 

I hate banks, just can’t stand them

Give me a shovel & Man I’ll plant them

6 feet under is where they belong

I hate banks is the name of this song

 

Lyrics from the song “I Hate Banks” by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper off Frenzy