A smarter agent/blogger would no doubt have waited to write this blog. Emotions are still pretty raw.

I learned today that a house I have listed for sale in Fauquier has gone into foreclosure.

We've had this listed as a short sale for at least seven months. For slightly less than six months we've had an offer on the table, an offer very close to what the bank's own BPO came in at. We've been unable, despite daily phone calls, to get the bank to move forward with that offer.

In the interim, as the house has sat empty, it's been repeatedly vandalized. The first incident resulted in the theft of both heat pumps. The most recent theft involved copper plumbing and the water heater.

And, over these six months, property values have continued to decline.

The bank is now sitting on a property worth substantially less than the offer they had in their hands.

The owners will have a foreclosure on their credit record rather than the short sale that would have been less damaging.

The potential buyers have wasted all these months and so many hopes and dreams on a house they won't be buying any time soon.

I'm out many months of work for no compensation at all.

And, it didn't have to work this way.

This is the first short sale that I haven't been able to get to settlement. I'll admit to being angry as well as sad.

Would I take another short sale where this same bank held the note? Absolutely not! Will I be warning other agents about dealing with this particular bank? Of course!

If there are days I seem less than sympathetic to the losses being suffered by many financial institutions, here's a good reason why.