Experienced Bay Area Real Estate Expert Prepares to Help Financially Stressed Homeowners

Experienced Expert Get RE$ult$ Team Leader Michelle C. Carr-Crowe Prepares to Help Financially Stressed Homeowners

San Jose, Calif.—Local real estate consultant and top producing residential real estate agent Michelle C. Carr-Crowe of San Jose-based Altas Realty has just completed coursework and testing to obtain the new and distinguished Certified Distressed Property Expert© (CDPE©) designation.

The Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE©) designation is offered through the Distressed Property Institute, based in Boca Raton, Fl. and launched in January 2008. It offers comprehensive training on how to handle short sales. The institute was founded by dynamic real estate veteran Alex Charfen.

Charfen and Carr-Crowe are colleagues connected through their membership in, and commitment to, the principles of the client-centered By Referral Only© program, developed by noted real estate coach Joe Stumpf, based in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif. The two met at the organization’s annual strategic leadership conference.

“As the majority of my clients in the Lynbrook High, San Jose, Saratoga and Cupertino areas are financially conservative, I initially expected CDPE© education and training to be useful solely in helping my investor clients buying short sale and bank-owned properties at bargain prices,” says Michelle C. Carr-Crowe. “However, as I processed my first short sale, I remembered my mother Judy Carr’s perseverance and persuasive techniques in negotiating with buyers, sellers, thrifts, the FHA and HUD on what we called short-pays, (now referred to as short sales) during the Savings & Loan crisis of the 1980’s.”

“As I realized people I already knew and cared about needed a trusted professional to help them navigate through this new and dangerous financial terrain, I recalled asking her why she worked so hard on these paperwork-intensive, bureaucratically frustrating and emotionally draining transactions.”

“My mother looked at me and said, ‘If someone ethical like me doesn’t help them get out of trouble, they’ll be stuck working with the same crooks who got them into this mess in the first place,’” and when I asked her how that could happen, she explained.

One, clients are usually loyal and go back to whoever they worked with the first time;

Two, clients are embarrassed and feel it will be easier to talk with someone who’s already familiar with their private financial information rather than explain it all to a new, and perhaps judgmental, person; and

Three, those people already have their phone number, address and personal information, and many are actively soliciting people in trouble with automated phone calls, letters and late-night television ads, usually with too-good-to-be-true promises, such as walk away and owe nothing, together with advanced fee contracts.

Today, people in financial distress are also being bombarded over the Internet with unsolicited e-mail messages, often leading to Web sites with official-sounding names that are unaffiliated with the government programs actually designed to help homeowners.

“What I and my team first do is consult with a potential client to see if we can help them, whether it’s exploring a loan modification, introducing them to a seasoned loan consultant for a refinance or hard money second loan, or possibly selling the property, even if it’s in foreclosure, or negotiating a short sale,” says Carr-Crowe. “First, we find out what’s important to the client, and like a physician, ask the client to tell us the honest truth about everything going on so we can show them all of their options available so they can make the best choice for their family in that unique situation.”

Carr-Crowe has effectively counseled many homeowners who purchased homes since 2005 who are terrified about their current or near-future financial situations but are unsure of who to safely turn to.

“Realtors® are in a position to help people avoid foreclosure,” says DPI founder Alex Charfan. “Like Michelle, they can be great catalysts for the recovery of this housing crisis.” Nationally, only 12 percent of short sales are approved. Among CDPE© designated Realtors®, more than 80 percent of short sales are approved. According to the National Association of Realtors®, more than 45 percent of existing home sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 were foreclosures and short sales. In a short sale transaction, homeowners sell their property for less than the mortgage amount, but avoid the foreclosure process. The CDPE© designation has been endorsed by many major U.S. brokerages, and industry icons including Howard Brinton, founder of STAR POWER System; Bob Corcoran, founder of Corcoran Coaching and Consulting, and Brian Buffini of Buffini and Company.
The Distressed Property Institute is based in Boca Raton, Fl.
By Referral Only© is an organization of real estate and mortgage consultants committed to ethical principles and effective business models. It was founded by real estate coach Joe Stumpf, and is based in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif.
Altas Realty, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., is the largest independent brokerage in Northern California.
Michelle C. Carr-Crowe is a San Jose-based real estate consultant at Altas Realty, and the leader of the Get RE$ult$ Team of experienced experts specializing in San Jose, Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto and Santa Clara properties. More information can be found at www.michellejudycarr.com. She can be reached at 408.252.8900 or info@michellejudycarr.com.