Part One: What to do when the house you are renting goes into a short sale: The short end of the stick...in a SHORT Sale process

Part One:

Life is short. And, more specifically, life is darn short when your plans go awry. Those curve balls seem to come out of nowhere, hit you hard, and throw your ordered life into something resembling a bad circus. If you are looking for info on what we did when the house we are renting went into a short sale, scroll down to the line of astericks-- everyone else, here is what our lives have been like for the past while. Welcome to life in the madhouse!

Which brings me to this: The owners of the house we are renting, (yes, the one that we moved to so we could prepare to pay the hubby's school loans), have decided to short sell the house. Yes, we've now only been here four months. Yes, we are in shock, too. No, we didn't expect this one either. And-- finally-- yes life has been crazy, and immensly stressful, for the past few weeks.

We first got a tantilizing taste of the future when someone knocked on our door. A lady stood there, asked for _______ or __________ (the owners). She then asked if we were new owners. (No, but by now I was loving the house, the view, and the church group.) She then-- breaking the news ever so gently-- handed me a piece of paper, and told me the owners were behind on their payments..... probably by at least 3--4 months.

Oh,my.

We called up the property manager, he assured us the lease protected us, and we would be fine. Fine? We were NOT fine, thank you very much. We just moved! (This was not quite two months after being here.) - He then calls out to the owners, who tell him that everything is well, and that they were just in the process of getting a "loan modification".

Fast forward to the beginning of June: We get a call from the Property Manager. The owner's have decided to short sell. And to top it off he tells us (over the phone) that the owners say we can start taking $100 dollars off the rent-- to help 'soften the blow' and as an incentive to keep mowing the lawn and keeping the place nice.

I find this highly ironic as we have *made* this place nice-- some of the weeds were up to my shoulder!

A week and a half later, my husband calls me from work. The realtor for the owners has called him there leaving messages on both his work number and his work cell. He doesn't have time to call him back... can I do it? It's my birthday, but my plans are flexible, and I give him a call.

First off: I don't get a hold of him, so I leave a message.

Second: I call my friend _______, whom I have known for years, and just happens to be a realtor as well. I ask him what I can expect, and what my rights and responsibilities are as a renter in this situation. He gives me loads of information appropriate for the state I live in, (for me this is Utah), and additionally gives me some websites to look over for more info. He advises me to get everything in writting. Not only will this let me review any details, but it helps to make sure everyone is abiding by the rules as well.

The owner's realtor gives me a call back late in the day. I ask him to email me, and he replies he just wants a few minutes of time really quick on the phone. First thing he asks: how much do I know about the short sell process?

(Please note: whenever someone asks me this type of 'how much do I know?' question, I always play dumb. It is HIGHLY informative as to what kind of person I am speaking to. Will they repect me? Will they try to take advantage of my percieved ignorance?)

He then says he would like to get someone in later that day, or at the latest tomorrow morning to take some pictures of the property, and get the BPO done. And I stop him right there.

Here is why: Legally--as a renter-- I get 24 hours heads up notice. I tell him there are two reasons why 'same day' isn't going to work. Number one: it's my birthday, and I am not going to spend the next couple of hours scrambling around to prep the house for pictures. Number two: I legally get 24 hours advance notice.

He then proceeds to call me uncooperative, and difficult. (Really? Because I am insisting on the 24 hours?! I mean, seriously, I know what pictures should look like-- and as I look around my living room & kitchen, there is NO WAY it is going to be picture worthy in just an hour. Who does the morning dishes on their birthday?!) He then tries to bully me into doing what he wants by threatening to call the owners. Um, hello? They are short selling the house we just paid to start renting-- just what does he think they can do to make our lives *more* complicated? He then tells me that he is going to call the property manager-- I say, "Great! I think he'd be very interested in hearing that you are trying to get away with not abiding by the lease".

I say goodbye while he is still arguing, and then contact my husband. I re-read our lease-- yes, I highlighted those sections pertaining to the sale of the property, the areas that ensured we had 'quiet enjoyment of property',(a GREAT clause), and how long we would have to move if the property sold-- which turned out to be 90 days. My husband does additional research on what to do in a situation like this, and I start to write a LONG email (yes, even longer than this post!) detailing what we, as renters, will do to help facilitate the sale of the property for the owners, but also what we expect them to abide by as well--*precisly*.


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Here is what we included as 'expectations/ allowments' in the email to the property manager. Some of this might sound strict, but I wrote that this was all due to the behavior of the owners' realtor-- which it was. (Because had he not been so rude, and awlful, we never would have gotten all this info together and demanded this.) If it was in the lease, I quoted it--including section, and exact wording. If it was part of Civil Code, or law, I quoted it, and included the source as well.

For instance: Did you know that if you call the local police station (which my husband did), you can find out if you-- as a renter-- can refuse to have a lockbox placed on your door? We found that ENORMOUSLY comforting as parents. We have two kids that are old enough to babysit our youngest, and I often leave them in charge while I go to the store. The idea that a realtor could just come and open the house up for strangers to look the house over-- while I'm not there-- was horrifying. So in the email I said no lock box, and quoted the Civil Code (including number in case they needed to look it up).

1. 24 hours advance notice. We would need time to prep the house, (remove any personal items,personal info-- paperwork stuff, etc). We would also need to arrange to take our children-- AND our dog--out, while showings occured. (Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find something? Can we say, "McDonald's drive thru for ice-cream", anyone?)

2. Quiet enjoyment of property. We expected to have the majority of our time *ours*. (Unless the owners wanted to give us a HUGE reduction in rent, that is.)

3. In order to help 'show the property' I stated that we would be happy to open our home for showings (with 24 hour advance notice for every appointment) one day a week, from the hours of ____ to _____. (This was a nice 8 hour window of time.) I even suggested Saturday,(the best day to show a home), but left the finial desicion to them.

4.Communication was to be by email, (gave specific email address), and our home phone number. My husband was not to be disturbed at work. (I also inquired as to how the owners' realtor had recieved those numbers. We haven't gotten an answer to that one, but I really just asked it to show that we were aware that those numbers should not have been given out without our ok.)

5. No lock box. One of us would be at the home to open up for the appointments.

6. I stated that it was to be made clear which items were our own personal property vs. what came with the house. I wrote that I am specifiying this, because we have an arbor, raised beds, and two fountains. (Can you imagine bidding on a home only to find out that some part you loved was not included?!)

7. I wanted it *in writting* about the rent reduction.

8. I stated that although we would continue to mow, and do basic maintanence, we would stop landscaping and adding wood chips....unless they wanted to re-imburse us. (You can definetly tell where we started and stopped.) The clause in the lease that stated we were to maintain the property-- and NOT use the excuse, 'It was like this when we got here', did not apply to us. I stated that we took pictures (yes, I did take pictures of the entire house and yard before we moved our stuff in), and I was happy to improve things while we were going to be living here,(I am a Master Gardener, afterall!), but now that the house was going up for sale, I would not be giving out anymore 'freebies'. (In fact, I dug up the lilacs I had planted, and potted them.)

9. We expected to be treated with dignity and respect. (And after the conversation with the owners' realtor, I felt I needed to state that loud and clear.)


We waited a week and a bit. Stressed out, house and yard spotless, and on the edge of our seats. I regretted dumping out old boxes, we poured over adds for homes, and our family was wondering: where to next?

In a weeks time this is what we got:

An email from our Property Manager stating that he will be arranging things with us-- no longer is _________ (owners' realtor) going to have any contact with us. The property manager will personally email us about showings, and 'Saturdays sound great.'


So that is the end of "Part One: The short end of the stick".