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Real Estate

Meet Agent X: The man who rappelled down a cliff to sell a house

In addition to one stellar performance of a New Jersey accent from our president, Richard Bitner, the Agent X awards ceremony at REO Expo provided a $100,000 marketing package from HousingWire. And, believe me, our winner’s unique story truly deserved it.

Our winner, Phil Chernitzer, principal broker and owner of REO Real Estate in Sterling Va., was given the task of selling a home on the Potomac River. It was a beautiful home, had beautiful views of the river and sat on a wonderful plot of land. Unfortunately, erosion was eating away at the cliff behind the home, and the home was about to fall.

Chernitzer’s tool of choice? Research. He investigated ways of stopping the erosion, even rappelling down the cliff with a contractor to take a look at the damage so he could give a full report back to his client, determined the best ways to move the home farther away from the river, and eventually found the right investor to take the home on as a project.

That doesn’t mean our other contestants weren’t impressive as well.

Properties sold: A home with skateboard ramps built from an extended roof; Another home that went from lovely middle class home on a quite street to part of a gang hotbed at night; a rural home with no well, no water and no plumbing; and a home whose owners had left behind a 500 pound safe and left no forwarding information, making selling the home impossible were all the plights of our remaining four finalists. All nominees sold them in impressively small amounts of time.

So, if you find yourself facing a monumental task in the next year, just remember that it might all pay off at REO Expo 2013.

jhuseman@housingwire.com
@JessicaHuseman

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