Getting to the Finish Line

Recently, Barber was working with a client who encountered a most troubling predicament: even though they had, to their knowledge, fulfilled every obligation of the homebuying process – they were pre-qualified; they were under contract to purchase a new property;  and they had already sold their previous residence – they were in danger of losing their new home; their previous mortgage professional, they learned, had not provided all the necessary information upfront.

Thus, with the processing time long gone and earnest money on the line, Barber contacted his lender at SunTrust, who jumped into the process and, in a process that would normally take 30 days, approved a loan in just 10. The anecdote, Barber says, goes to show just how beneficial in-house professionals can be for an agent’s business, especially when good service is needed the most.

“In our world, whether you’re in real estate, banking or insurance, it is about assessing the needs of the buyer and then figuring out how to get to the finish line with that; every transaction is different, and no two are alike,” Barber says. “That’s something where you say, ‘Wow, this person saved the day.’”

Morgan recounted a similarly challenging situation that her in-house team of professionals handled with similar aplomb. During the darkest days of Atlanta’s housing market, many homeowners became unintentional landlords – homeowners who, rather than pursuing short sales or foreclosures, decided to rent their single-family homes.

Morgan was representing one such homeowner, someone who had taken on a tenant to make ends meet. With prices rising, however, the homeowner was looking to sell the property, but a problem soon emerged – the tenant refused to vacate the property. Though eviction was an option, Morgan decided to consult with her attorney, and after reviewing the rental agreement, the leasing management agreement and comparing them with tenant laws for Georgia, they discovered that there was an early termination clause in the contract that gave her client legal standing to sell the house – which she did in just 20 days after putting the home on the market.

It was a case, Morgan says, where the in-house service providers accomplished exactly what they set out to do.

“These affiliated business partners have been vetted,” she says, “and we know they’re going to do a great job – which means doing what my clients need them to do.”

Melissa Morgan
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties
404.444.5263
morganteamhomesales@gmail.com

Russell Barber
Barber Realty Consultants/Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty
404.877.8771
russellbarber@atlantafinehomes.com