Foreclosure Up Close and Personal

As a rule, I’m not horribly sensitive.  I don’t always cry at sentimental commercials.  I feel manipulated by some television programs, as if I’m supposed to cry, so not only do I not cry, I change the channel.

But one of the first houses I ever sold was foreclosed upon just about 18 months after it was purchased.  Later that same year, I saw a good friend’s house on the market as a foreclosure.  I approached an agent that had been a Realtor longer than I had and asked her, “How do you deal with it when a family you know loses their house?”

She sort of sniffed the air and said, “I don’t know people who lose their houses.”

Well, now she does.  I read the May 2007 Foreclosure Report this morning and found some familiar names.  THREE Realtors (two are no longer practicing, one is still working as a Realtor) were in the report.  I wanted to cry.  The very thing a good Realtor tries to prevent (by educating the client, helping them make the correct choices for their lifetsyle/income level/future plans), they were falling victim to.

It just hurts.