The owner and President of Roswell, Georgia-based Crimson Financial Group, Gaylon Laboa oversees a diverse real estate business. Unlike some traditional real estate agencies, Mr. Laboa’s organization accepts new market developments and strives to capitalize on them. In doing so, Gaylon Laboa serves homeowners, lenders, and the community.

After working for more than 10 years in investment banking and consulting, Gaylon Laboa founded Crimson Financial Group to facilitate the short sale process for homeowners who cannot meet their mortgage obligations. A homeowner in this position sometimes feels overwhelmed or intimidated and may not be able to negotiate effectively with the lender who holds the property note. In many cases, the homeowner realizes he or she cannot keep up with the mortgage and stops making payments. Such inaction puts the homeowner in a precarious position, because the lender will likely start foreclosure proceedings once no payments have been received for 90 days. In such a situation, Gaylon Laboa steps in and negotiates a short sale for the homeowner.

A short sale occurs when a lender agrees to allow a homeowner to accept a purchase price for a property in an amount less than he or she owes the bank or mortgage company. When the housing bubble burst, home prices dropped. As such, many homeowners could not sell their houses for amounts that reached the original purchase prices. By undertaking a short sale, Gaylon Laboa pays a homeowner the current market value for a property and the bank accepts it will not recoup the entirety of the mortgage loan. Lenders often prefer a short sale to a foreclosure, which often requires a financial institution to maintain a house, weed through back taxes and homeowners’ association fees, and then put the unit back on the market. Instead, Gaylon Laboa takes responsibility for making repairs and paying for upkeep.

A graduate of Troy State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Management, and the University of Alabama, where he completed his Master of Business Administration, Gaylon Laboa also invests in real estate products that become available because of foreclosures, tax liens, and failed first-lien mortgages. He holds a membership in the Georgia Real Estate Investors Association and supports such charitable endeavors as the United Way, the March of Dimes, and the USO.