Margaret and Brent had missed the mortgage transfer on the first of the month, and the sixty-day cure period had run out without one dollar going into the loan account.

I opened Sarah’s email and read her short, plain report.

They listed the house for sale yesterday afternoon, Sarah wrote.

Margaret signed the listing agreement, and Brent had to show up at the realtor’s office in person to sign as co-owner because his name is on the quitclaim deed, she went on.

They’re asking two hundred ninety thousand dollars for the property, eighty-five thousand below the neighborhood average, just to pay off the bank lien and avoid a public foreclosure auction, Sarah finished.

I looked over the legal PDF on my screen, reading the exact dimensions of the property, the legal description of the lot and the county clerk’s bold black stamp.