The Short Sale · Chapter 1 · At the Coffee Shop
The coffee shop is a place to find individuals of a different ilk. At the left corner table, an elderly couple drinks black coffee while reading a newspaper. A college student with bags under her eyes, a computer, and a stack of books is consuming a large, sugary, blended espresso drink to stay awake as she finishes a large project. There is a line filled with persons looking forward to a flavored latte, but one is in line only to ask for the Wi-Fi password. A heavy-set man wearing a collared dress shirt and black slacks is answering emails from clients. With so many individuals crowding the coffee house, anyone could hide in plain sight.
One man sits at a side table with his back against the wall. He wears a plain collared shirt, generic blue jeans, and discount tennis shoes. He is clean-shaven and has no awe-inspiring features. He is focused on his laptop and wearing earbuds; he easily blends into the crowd. You might find it odd to focus so much on an ordinary “Joe” or “ordinary Mike,” to be correct.
Mike’s situation is not unlike the majority that lost everything in the Financial Crisis. Mike was engaged to his high school sweetheart and wanted a single-family home to start his family shortly after his wedding day. He wanted to surprise his bride-to-be by taking her to their new home and carrying her over the threshold.
In 2006, he bought a beautiful home with three rooms, two stories, a two-car garage, and a large backyard. He and his fiancé had dreamed about having two kids and a large home where the kids could play in the backyard. Mike was obsessed with making their dream come true. He bought the house before his wedding day and was able to keep it secret until his wedding day.
On his wedding day, Mike made a detour after the wedding ceremony and before the reception. He took his new wife to their new home, carrying her over the threshold. She was elated and furious that she was not part of the home-buying experience. Mike told her not to worry about the sale price when she became worried about how they could afford this beautiful home. She had quit her job so they could start a family. She, like many Americans, had little to no savings. Little did she know that Mike had spent all his savings to buy that house. Regardless, Mike was able to make part of his dream come true.
Two years later, they were swimming in debt. They took out a second mortgage to remodel the house. They had accrued large credit card debt to decorate their home and to pay medical bills. When they couldn’t conceive, they saw numerous fertility specialists only to discover that Mike had fertility issues. They had failed to refinance their variable mortgage before the financial crisis, and their bank was unwilling to refinance or modify their loan. Their financial situation was on the rocks, and so was their marriage.
They eventually concluded that short-selling their home was the only way to salvage their financial situation. Mike was hoping to get a promotion which never came, and his wife could not return to work because of the deep depression she developed after learning they would never have children.
After several months, they lost their home through a short sale. On the day they had to move out, his wife hired a different moving crew and gave divorce papers to Mike right before leaving. Mike was devastated. His dreams and his aspirations crumbled.
He lived alone for a few years. He was divorced, stuck in a dead-end job, and bitter. He could not stop thinking about his demise and his bleak future. He kept trying to figure out where things went wrong. Unfortunately, he failed to see his own mistakes. He fell into the trap of being the victim and needed to find the person at fault.
He replayed conversations in his mind. Mike remembered how his real estate agent told him not to worry about the big home sale prices. He assured Mike that real estate loans had excellent interest rates and required hardly any money down. Mike was young and naive and did not investigate whether the loans had variable interest rates. If the interest rates ever rose, his mortgage payments would increase significantly. Mike put complete trust in his real estate agent and his preferred mortgage broker.
Mike failed to recall that his co-worker and parents advised him not to buy an expensive home. His co-worker warned him the home was overpriced. His parents advised him that a first home should be a low price. This would allow him to build some equity which he could use later to buy a bigger home. But Mike could not wait. He wanted to get started on achieving his dreams, and that made him vulnerable to his real estate agent’s smooth talking.
Mike had concluded his demise was his real estate agent’s fault. He needed to get revenge. Mike would destroy him financially. Mike wanted him to experience the same as he did.
Mike had followed his real estate agent’s comings and going. His target loved to frequent the same coffee shop every morning. He would buy a black coffee, open his laptop, answer emails, and sometimes pull out a stack of paper bills to pay them online. Mike aimed to find a weakness in Saul’s routine that he could exploit.
“Have a nice day, Sally. I will see you tomorrow,” Saul said to the barista.
Mike thought, “I’ll see you tomorrow, too.”
Before you go
In the next chapter, we learn about what Mike was doing at the coffee shop.
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