(post by BT) People who let go of their houses used to be mostly those who put no money down. But that is starting to change. I am starting to see property owners who put money into the deals letting go because they bought a property they thought was worth more money, and instead got stuck with a vacant building (commercial, mixed-use) sitting empty with a $15,000 a month payment and no end in sight. Their money pit becomes a never-ending nightmare… no cash flow, stress at home, business doing badly, negative, more negative and then more negative economic news, finally lost sleep. Negative conversations with other property owners and brokers led them to finally give up and let go of their property, and with it, hundreds of thousands of dollars lost.

I approached this guy recently to get his listing. He purchased a property (vacant warehouse) through Massey Knakal, and claimed that the broker who sold him the property adjacent to his convinced him a “year” ago that he could make a $1 million profit on the deal. What!? Were you that naive? Why didn’t they – the broker whose job is to get the most money his seller – do the deal themselves, and collect the $1 mil? Maybe because they couldn’t get a buyer for that additional million. His mistake is his fault alone. He fell deep into the hole trying to flip in today’s market. Desperate to sell, he reduced the price again and again, only to come to that breaking point.

He is now past the break-even point and willing to loose his down payment – over $500,000!!! At this point, I can’t take this listing. It is not sellable, in bad location, and has many other negative points. I will be “helping” a “dead man walking”, selling a property that made someone so broke… and I’m thinking: what if this guy commits a suicide, or loses his nerves completely, if this thing doesn’t sell!? I am used to pressure but I don’t need that kind of baggage on my shoulders, this kind of sad situation in my portfolio. No Realtor ever wants to walk away from a few-million-dollar deal… but this is an example where I have to say “I’m out of here, homey!”