Holland realtor Tom Smolinski discovered he had a knack for negotiating short sales for homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosure. He decided to formalize that knack into a niche market with a new agency he launched in January,
Tom Smolinski Realty, and brought a few realty team members along with him.
In addition to a team of two realtors and two mortgage negotiators, Smolinski says he's hired a full-time administrative support person and filled a new realtor position.
Short sales happen when a lender agrees to forgive the debt owed for a home and accepts the sale of the property for less than the mortgaged amount. The housing market crash reduced home values and, coupled with situations where there's a loss of income, some homeowners find themselves in desperate need to sell their home to avoid foreclosure. But the new lower value of their home falls far short of the amount they owe.
"We help them sell the home for what it's worth in today's market, and we negotiate the remaining debt with the bank to get that debt forgiven," Smolinski says. "We've seen people take money out of their 401k [to make the mortgage payments], advances from their credit card, take money out of savings, and after a year and half they're completely out of money and they still end up doing the short sale."
Smolinski says the national average of successful short sales is 24 percent. "We're averaging a 95 percent success rate dealing with the banks and mortgage companies," Smolinski says. "We've helped about 50 clients with short sales and negotiated an average of $75,000 in completely forgiven debt."
Smolinski just opened a new office at 305 Hoover in Holland. By the end of 2012, he hopes to add two more mortgage negotiators and two more buyers' agents.
Source: Tom Smolinski, Tom Smolinski Realty
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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