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Elliott Morales is a special type of realtor. He helps people who, for one reason or another, are having trouble staying in their homes. "When people come into my office, they have a dark cloud over them," he told me when we met outside one of the properties he has listed for sale. "After they have met with my team, they sit up taller, they can see a glimmer of hope. I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping people in distress."
When people are 'upside down' in their mortgage, as Morales puts it, they owe the bank more than their house is worth, so trying to persuade the bank to accept less than the value of the mortgage is what is called a "short sale." If a homeowner can get out of a mortgage this way, his credit rating is impacted less than if the house goes into foreclosure.
Though all this sounds incredibly complicated, Elliott Morales' team has the knowledge to sort it out and advise the homeowner. The team consists of a credit counselor, an accountant and a couple of real estate attorneys who work with the client to come up with an exit strategy.
Elliott started in real estate in 1986 after he went hunting for his first apartment. He was fascinated by the realtor and her job. "I remember thinking, Wow I can do this!" he said, "and the next day I found out what I needed to do to become a realtor myself." He joined a real estate firm in Norwalk, his hometown, and spent a lot of time sitting in open houses for the other brokers. "If they didn't want to do something, they'd say, 'Give it to the kid,' so I got a lot of experience early on."
At one open house he met an appraiser who, impressed by Elliott's enthusiasm, offered to teach him the appraisal business. So, from 1991 to 2008, he also worked as a licensed appraiser in several New England states. Much of the appraisal business involves homes in pre-foreclosure, so Morales realized early on that the real estate market was in trouble, and that was when he decided to learn about short sales, first by haunting the Stamford Courthouse, and then spending days in the Bridgeport Courthouse.
Not all of Morales' business is with distressed real estate. He and his CT RainMaker Team are available to help you sell your house or find that special place to call home.
You can find Elliott Morales at Keller Williams Realty http://x323586.yourkwagent.com or call (203) 849-1014.
For more information on short sales, check this recent New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/realestate/25cov.html?pagewanted=2
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