On the House | Jim Weiker commentary: Persistent buyer goes distance for short-sale property
Two days ago, Charles Roginski and his girlfriend, Nina Calabria, were to drive 612 miles from their Delaware County home to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
They were eager to see what 30 months of short-sale limbo had bought them.
In January, Roginski paid $165,500 - sight unseen - for a two-bedroom, two-bath fully furnished condominium in Grande Dunes resort on the north side of Myrtle Beach.
Roginski is the second owner of the condo.
The first owners bought it new in 2007.
They paid $569,900.
"I'm happy with the way it turned out," Roginski said recently.
He's also happy it's over.
The Grande Dunes property was his 11th short-sale offer since August 2008 and the first to be accepted.
With each rejected deal, his determination edged closer to obsession.
"By the time I thought he'd actually buy one, I figured I'd be ready for retirement myself," joked Calabria, 46.
Roginski's exercise in persistence illustrates both the trials and rewards of short sales, in which a property sells for less than is owed on the mortgage.
Roginski, a 60-year-old director of organizing for the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, made his first short-sale offer on a Westerville condominium. At the time, he was looking to replace his three-bedroom 2,800-square-foot ranch on an acre for something more maintenance-free.
He soon learned that short sales are often an exercise in patience. In February 2009, six months after making his first offer, the bank rejected it.
"At that time, banks were just sitting on these things," Roginski said.
In 2009, he made offers on three other central Ohio properties in short sales.
All were turned down, and Roginski turned his attention to Myrtle Beach, where he and Calabria had vacationed for several years.
He enlisted the help of Sheri Hager, a Century 21 buyer's agent in North Myrtle Beach.
Myrtle Beach, like most secondary-home markets, has been bludgeoned by the housing collapse.
But one happy result for buyers is that agents and banks are accustomed to dealing with short sales and foreclosures. (Hager estimates that 25 percent of her business is in short sales.)
Roginski said banks responded to his offers in Myrtle Beach far more quickly than they did in Ohio.
That doesn't mean they accepted his offers, even though Roginski learned to offer close to the asking price.
Roginski made his first Myrtle Beach offer in March 2010 and made five more by the end of June. All were turned down. Calabria had grown tired of the process and Roginski was heading there himself.
"She'd say, 'Don't you have something better to do?'" Roginski said. "I'll admit, by the end, I was getting tired of it and thinking of giving up."
In November, Hager alerted him to the Grande Dunes condo.
Roginski and Calabria were familiar with the resort but hadn't considered buying there.
With its Ruth's Chris Steak House, golf courses, tennis club, marina and private oceanfront clubhouse, they considered it out of their reach. Roginski had toured one of its condos, but, otherwise, their biggest exposure to the resort was enjoying the half-price happy hour at its outdoor bar.
But Roginski decided to make an offer anyway on a sixth-floor unit listed at $169,900. He planned to offer $164,500, but, at the last minute, he and Hager decided to bump it up $1,000, which, they later learned, put him $500 ahead of a competing bid.
Hager submitted the offer Dec. 2. He learned two days later that it was accepted and, on Jan. 26, he closed on his first short-sale property.
"He definitely was persistent and he was patient, which was the key to the whole process," Hager said. "A short sale is anything but a short process."
This weekend, Roginski is planning to enjoy the fruits of his long labor.
"I'm looking forward to seeing it," he said before heading south. "I've never bought anything like this before."
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