Real Estate Agents and Short Sales: What You Need to Make Sure You Ask Your Agent
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Home Page > Finance > Real Estate > Real Estate Agents and Short Sales: What You Need to Make Sure You Ask Your Agent
Real Estate Agents and Short Sales: What You Need to Make Sure You Ask Your Agent
Posted: Sep 08, 2010 |Comments: 0
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It is no surprise that this real estate market we are in the midst of is a confusing one to say the least. People are losing their jobs or getting a decrease in income left and right, leaving home owners in a situation where they need to choose their electric bill over their mortgage payment.
It is leaving home owners that cannot afford to make their mortgage payments left to be at the mercy of their bank, asking for a loan modification and, if they are even paid attention to, in most cases the loan modifications may not be significant enough to really help them in crisis.
If selling the home is the answer, and whether or not the homeowner is in jeopardy of not making their payment, a seller that owns a significant amount on their home still and gets an appraisal they may be sadly surprised that their house has depreciated to a place that they now owe more than their house is worth.
This is now a situation that most may think would be an impossible situation to get out of. Well, thankfully for the homeowner there is a solution. The solution is called a short sale. In simplest of terms a short sale is when the lender (bank that holds the note on the home being sold) accepts a settlement to pay off the mortgage that is less than the amount owed. The easiest way to explain this is think of if you had a credit card bill that was $10,000. You could not keep up with the payments so you negotiated with the credit card company to take less than the amount you owed them and they “settled” for less, closed the card account and you now owe nothing other than the amount that was agreed upon, usually up front in one lump sum. That is basically a short sale. However, and this is very important to understand, all banks are different and all loans are different. There are some loans that even if you do a short sale the bank MAY have rights to come after the homeowner for the amount they lost AFTER the home is sold. This is not to scare anyone that is thinking of having their home put on the market as a short sale, it is to educate and make sure you get the facts UP FRONT. When a homeowner decides that they should put their house on the market and that they know the home will be sold as a short sale, there are certain things that will need to be done before the short sale is approved. When I say approved I do NOT mean a contract is approved, I am talking about the short sale “itself” being approved. The bank has to approve the house to be sold as a short sale first before they will even think of accepting a contract.
The following is a list of things you need to ask your real estate agent as well as get prepared for your agent so they can take this information to the bank for you:
Write a hardship letter. Write a letter describing why you are in the situation you are in, for example perhaps you lost a job, or there was a pay decrease, a medical reason, etc. Explain.
Get the latest tax return together, 2 months of bank statements (checking/savings) and last 30 days of pay stubs.
Ask your realtor if they have ever listed a short sale home before, if so ask them to show you the listing(s) and see how many days it took to sell from listing day to closing day. If the days on the market are low but the days under contract are high, chances are the agent did a good job marketing the home, but the bank took a long time to approve the contract. That is very common but you really need an aggressive realtor for a short sale to be persistent with the bank.
Ask your realtor to explain to you the steps involved in a short sale. If they can’t, get a new realtor, I am not kidding.
Interview at least three agents and ask each of them to show you what other homes they have sold that are short sales. (They can show you 20 homes they listed and sold but if none of them are short sales, it does not make them a short sale expert, thus may not be the agent for you).
If the agent you are interviewing does not advise you to talk to an accountant or financial advisor first before taking the listing to make sure a short sale is in your best interest (filing for bankruptcy can save your home if you do not want to sell) then get a real estate agent that is going to be upfront and honest with you, will give you all options and are not just there to get the listing but are truly there to help you get through what can be a truly scary situation if you are not properly educated.
Asking questions and seeking knowledge about all of your options is imperative to make sure you are doing exactly what is right for you. Everyone’s situation is different, and putting your home up for sale as a short sale may or may not be your answer. You will never know though unless you ask. Do not procrastinate either, doing nothing is worse.
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John Horne -
About the Author:
John Horne, is considered to be one of the top brokers in the U.S. with a more than 800 real estate brokers under his direct supervision. He is the author of “Just Shut Up and Buy the House”- which in its first month was nominated for a Pinnacle Achievement Award and is a professional guide for real estate professionals and mortgage lenders. He has just been accepted into the prestigious membership of the American Society for Training and Development professionals. He is the owner and CEO of Agent Edge Training Inc.
http://justshutupandbuythehouse.com
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John Horne, is considered to be one of the top brokers in the U.S. with a more than 800 real estate brokers under his direct supervision. He is the author of “Just Shut Up and Buy the House”- which in its first month was nominated for a Pinnacle Achievement Award and is a professional guide for real estate professionals and mortgage lenders.
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Short Sales are frustrating. This is a fact. After helping hundreds of real estate agents analyze and close their short sale deals, WHB Solutions has always asked why, without our help, they would avoid short sales. Many of the answers that come back were consistent with what all real estate professionals have been experiencing with short sales. The main difference in why they decided to pursue short sales was because they discovered WHB Solutions.
WHB Solutions have created a community of short sale experts and real estate professionals working with short sale transactions. It is due to our collaboration that we have been able to get short sales approved. Lender short sale approval guidelines have been a mystery, but through collaboration, we have narrowed down the lender trends and strategies that work and have clearly documented our best practices with short sales. Our short sale strategies have gotten 90% lender approvals on our short sale transactions.
The following are the top ten reasons why real estate professionals avoid short sales:
1) Bankruptcy – When a homeowner files for bankruptcy, it helps to stop a foreclosure process. A short sale can still be performed, but it requires an approval from the bankruptcy attorney to release the property so a short sale attempt can be made. This is just means extra work for a real estate professional and it may increase the time to close a short sale, but it can still be done.
2) Sellers Misleading – When qualifying a homeowner for a short sale, the homeowner must be cooperative. Many homeowners start the process of a short sale yet to cancel the transaction midstream by deciding to walk away from the home or file bankruptcy. If you feel that a homeowner may not have true intentions of going through a short sale, you should walk away.
3) Multiple Lenders – We have closed short sales with multiple lien holders. For example, we had one file that was in bankruptcy, had two mortgage lenders, and five separate tax liens. It was because of a cooperative homeowner, we were able to get the short sale closed.
4) Lack of Agent Knowledge – Many real estate professionals have not done short sales and based on our experience it takes a dedicated resource handling short sales day in and day out to understand what it takes to get a short sale approved and closed. We provide all information to how a short sale needs to be properly processed for a high chance of approval and this is based on the hundreds of short sale files we have analyzed and closed.
5) Banks Taking too long to respond – As in any business, building relationships is important when working with a lender who takes too long to review a short sale file. WHB Solutions has worked enough short sale deals with lenders that we have actually been asked to send future short sale files to the same negotiator because of our proven experience. Many real estate professionals don’t do a high volume of short sales and are not able to establish any strong relationship with lenders.
6) Client Knowledge on consequences – Many real estate professionals do not know how to explain to their clients the consequences of a short sale and do not push for the homeowner to seek professional help when looking at their best options. It is this fact that causes a homeowner to not even attempt a short sale or stop mid-stream in a short sale process.
7) Lack of Communication – We have learned from the experience of multiple short sale transactions that communication has been a key factor to ensure the success of short sale transaction. Buyers were not updated with progress and end up looking for another home. Frequent touch points with the lender were not made and deals fell through because someone did not do their job and the property was sold at an auction. There are many reasons short sales fail due to lack of communication.
Consistency – Every lender has a different timeline when processing short sales and many real estate professionals have experienced inconsistent results, which causes a low level of confidence when working with short sales. All of our short sale education materials teach best practices that we have used to close our short sales that have been proven to work, regardless of the lien holder.
9) Buyers Walking – This is a major concern for any short sale transaction. Putting in hours of work, yet to have it fall apart because a buyer walks away from a deal is not a good feeling. That is why it is important to continue finding backup buyers and setting the right expectations with the current buyer.
10) Staffing/Resource Issues – It is possible for a real estate professional to single handedly become a short sale expert. But it is our opinion that the best results occur when there is a team in place. Unless short sales are 100% of your sale pipeline, one resource cannot be used to make endless phone calls to a lender to get a single transaction closed. Our short sale training materials is formatted in such a way that a single resource can work through a single short sale transaction to closure. Being a member of our short sale community will also aid to the success of any short sale file.
Full Article Resourse: www.whbsolutions.com/blog/
To learn more about how to qualify the best candidate for your short sale transaction visit whbsolutions.com. The number one factor in becoming successful in Short Sale Education, Short Sale Success and Short Sales is to learn how to pre-qualify your deal which includes finding the right buyer.
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If you’re looking for inspiration involving realtors and properties, look no further than these novels. Entertaining, funny and even educational, these books will show you the other side of real estate in all its humorous, gritty glory.
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The third book in the Wyn Lewis Mysteries, “The Ruthless Realtor Murders” has realtor/lawyer Wyn Lewis trying to solve the murders of local realtors involved in condo developments in Wagg’s Neck Harbor. Can she find out who is bumping off everyone in the real estate profession before she gets nailed for a crime she didn’t commit?
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First of all, “yes” some short sales take long to sell and “yes” some short sale listings can be frustrating. But let me tell you this; not all are created equal! With a little patience and a little creativity you can overcome some of the shortcomings of listing pre-foreclosure/short sale properties and make a lot of money by helping homeowners get out from underneath the huge burden of debt and stress they are under.
Let’s deconstruct three of the biggest short sale myths:
Reduced commissions
They take too long
Too hard to close
1. Reduced Commissions
Yes, it’s true when it comes to a short sale; the lender is in the driver’s seat. And since they hate to lose money they tend to reduce the amount of commissions by an average of 1%, meaning that if your area pays out 6%, they will only approve 5%, which will be split by both the agents involved in the transaction.
You know what I say to that? Who cares! Be creative! Did you know that there are 7 additional profit centers that can offset your 1% cut in commission? Let’s take a look at what they are:
A “Loss Mitigation Fee” via the Lender
A “Loss Mitigation Fee” via the Buyer
A “Loss Mitigation Fee” via the Attorney or Title Company.
A “Loss Mitigation Fee” via the Seller
Referral fee from a listing agent (for doing the loss mitigation work on their short sale).
Buy it as an investment (buy and hold or buy and flip).
Any combination of all of the above!!
The “Loss Mitigation Fee” is a fee that we collect only when we successfully negotiate a short sale and have the foreclosing lender pay for all of the closing costs (the realtor commissions, attorney/title company fees, conveyance taxes, etc.).
2. It Takes Too Long
The average loss mitigator receives an average of 30 NEW files a day. Not a week, not a month but a DAY! That is part of the reason that short sales can take a while, but it isn’t the main reason. The primary reason is because the majority of real estate agents submit short sale packages that are less than adequate and professional! Meaning;
They are incomplete in terms of paperwork (entire documents are missing)
They are arranged poorly (Yes, that makes a difference!)
They are sent to the wrong person or department (happens very often)
They are incomplete in terms of information (i.e. the financial worksheet isn’t completely filled in)
Those and many more reasons cause short sales to get hung up. Once again, take what the defense gives you. If loss mitigators are overwhelmed, then the key is to put together a professional and presentable short sale package guaranteed to get your short sale offer reviewed and approved.
3. They Are Too Hard to Close
With the right system they are not hard! Let’s take a look at how to overcome the two biggest reasons why short sales blow up right before the closing.
Not managing expectations
This is a negotiating process. Make sure you clearly communicate the process every step of the way to the buyer and the seller. We use an online short sale management tool called ManageMyShortSale.com to automatically keep everyone connected to the short sale process, which is updated in real time.
Many deals blow up because real estate agents fail to communicate to both the homeowner and the buyer the current status of the short sale and what to expect when they negotiate with the foreclosing lender(s).
Lack of qualified buyers
The key is not to have only one buyer but to have a pool of qualified buyers that are pre-approved. The best buyers to keep an eye out for are those that are already pre-approved and that have funds in place to make an actual purchase.
The two easiest ways to do that are:
Start networking with every real estate agent that specializes in buyer’s representation. They are easy to find because it is in all of their advertisements.
Start working closely with every single mortgage broker or direct lender that you know, or that one of your fellow agents knows.
In conclusion, listing pre-foreclosure/short sale properties can take some time to close. However; in this market everyone needs to stick together and help one another out. By building the right network of real estate professionals, we can all ensure that our listings (short sales or not) do not sit out there without a buyer!
For more real estate industry news and loss mitigation blogs and videos visit www.RealEstateBusinessMentors.com or visit www.AskBobLachance.com for any short sale bank negotiating questions.
Before joining North Shore Enterprises (NSE) in 2004, Bob Lachance was a 4-year-collegiate-scholarship athlete in ice hockey at Boston University where he won a National Championship in 1995. After leaving BU he enjoyed a successful 8 year career as a professional hockey player. Upon retirement from hockey, Bob completed several profitable real estate rehab projects for his own benefit. He then joined NSE as an associate responsible for property acquisitions and loss mitigation/lender negotiations. Bob brought the same determination and work ethic that lead to great success in his professional sports career and thus generated more acquisitions and short sale acceptance letters in a shorter time frame than any associate before or since. His outstanding performance led to a promotion to partner in 2005. Since that time, Bob has taken responsibility for all the day to day operations of NSE. As partner, he has overseen the acquisition of, the loss mitigation, and the disposition of over four hundred properties. Bob continues to be directly responsible for identifying good candidates for acquisition and for overseeing bank negotiations, and has been essential to the success and growth of NSE.
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