My New Blog

With short sales dominating the market place, I think it is important that I share my experiences on what makes a short sale successful. Short sales are not rocket science, they are hard work but they can also be very rewarding. I think that the majority of people who feel frustrated with short sales are agents who lack the experience of dealing with them. There are some frustrating aspects of dealing with short sales but if you handle a large volume of them, they can be regular income and may provide you with closings in months that you generally would not have any. I closed almost a million dollars in short sale business in the month of December, who'd of thunk? Below are my suggestions:

• Listing Agents, communicate with your buyer's agent. The buyer's agent responsibility during the transaction is to keep the buyer engaged. The buyers agent must have an abundance of information to share with their clients. An e-mail that is sent that simply states "We called X Bank this week, three times, there are no new updates". This gives the buyer and the buyer's agent hope that their file, hasn't been lost by you.
• Sellers demand that the Listing Agent is communicating with the Buyer's Agent Regularly! Make it a part of the listing agreement. Agents who fail to communicate lose buyers. ALL of my short sales have closed with the first contract that comes through BECAUSE I communicate. This track record may not continue but I feel certain that my percentages will remain high.
• Listing Agents who communicate foster positive relationships with other agents. When you become an expert and are receiving regular short sale listings because of your excellent track record, those buyers agents will also want to work with you. They will encourage their clients to view your listings because you are a professional and they had a great experience working with you.
• Listing Agents - Be Honest! Don't give information that is intentionally not correct. This really upsets the buyers agents and may cause you to lose a very good, well qualified buyer.
• Listing Agents/Buyers Agents - Give your clients proper perspective. If you don't know the answer to your question, find the answer.
• Listing Agents/Sellers - Do not charge the buyers a negotiation fee. It's not the buyer's responsibility to pay for the sellers misfortune.
• Listing Agents/Sellers - Do not use a loss mitigation company that charges exorbitant loss mitigation fees. I wouldn't be surprised if there are law suits that spring up from this in the future. Many of these companies are charging very large percentages. Find a mitigator who charges reasonable fees.
• Listing Agents - Your time and effort should be spent on generating new leads for your business! Hire a mitigator. Ask around in your local area and find out who they have had success with. Build a trusted relationship with that mitigator and treat them like the royalty that they are. They have tough jobs and deserve all of your words of encouragement.
• Listing Agents - Change the Status in the Multiple Listing Service.  Need I say more?  There is nothing more frustrating for a buyer's agent than trying to show a home and the listing agent has all ready accepted an offer.  If you are in the midst of negotiating a contract, update the agent comments in the MLS and let other agents know!  Please respect the time of the cooperating agents!
• Listing Agents - Return buyer's agents phone calls in a timely manner.  There was a realtor who had two listings that I was going to show this past weekend.  We called on Sunday and today is Tuesday... still no call back.  Sellers make sure that your Realtor returns the phone calls!  Your house is not going to be shown if an agent can not access your home.
• Buyers Agents - Track your contract expiration dates! Make sure that your client has the signed extension prior to the expiration of your Short Sale Contingency Addendum.
• Sellers - be involved in your transaction! Know what is going on. Many short sale agents fail treat your listing as a second class listing. It is NOT! Your credit is on the line here. Make sure they are working hard at representing you fairly. You should have all of the exposure that a traditional listing has. Call the bank and don't let them forget about you. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
• EVERYONE - Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!