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/

Bank Reo Foreclosure Departments Need Real Estate Agents To Complete CMAs (Comparative Market Analysis) Or BPOs (Broker Price Opinions) Make Great Part Time Money Dont Quit Real Estate. List Bank Reo Property And List Short Sales, Short Sale, Complete Bpo.
Real Estate Agents, List Bank Reo, Foreclosure, Short Sale, Bpo.

There may be another option to save you and your home from foreclosure. Short sales allow you to avoid foreclosure and salvage your credit. Contact a knowledgeable RE/MAX agent to find out more.

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.

Red Hot Property by Devin O’Branagan
Devin O’Branagan’s new book “Red Hot Property” follows four real estate agents as they begin their careers. Sometimes it’s a bumpy road, filled with dangers and pitfalls. They’re not always in the open houses; Molly O’Malley and Valentino DeMitri also have to wade through the perils of office politics.  Despite the wholesome safety warnings, O’Branagan manages to keep the book an exciting, believable read.

Cracks in the Foundation by Erica Ferencik
Ginger Kanadoo has been coasting along on a notoriously slow real estate market in Squamskootnocket, NY, so she plans to make the most of her latest listing… an outhouse. Teaming up with her 93-year-old aunt and her Wiccan daughter against arch-rival Tandy Brickenhausen, Ginger fights to keep a toehold on real estate representation. This is a very funny book with a lot of truths about real estate and the selling of it hidden behind the laughs.

Fatal Fixer-Upper by Jennie Bentley
New York textile designer Avery Baker inherits a 1870s Victorian cottage in Maine from her aunt and decides to renovate it herself.  She throws herself into reclaiming the home with the help of a good looking handyman, Derek Ellis… pity that they clash so much on modern vs. vintage.  Home renovation takes a deadly twist, though, when she starts finding clues that could mean that her renovation project is turning deadly…

The Ruthless Realtor Murders (Wyn Lewis Mysteries) by David A. Kaufelt
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?

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
A real estate agent sells haunted houses repeatedly because the buyers can’t live in them.  An investigative reporter finds that there is a correlation between the haunted homes and crib death via a lullaby that kills.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
The legend of Dracula has been so overshadowed by the allure of the vampire, most people forget that it all started with a real estate transaction.  This book is definitely a safety-first warning to agents who go into the boonies to meet an unknown client.

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.

Real Estate agents are being faced with the need to do short sales. So why do real estate agents hate short sales? I’ll tell you why they can be very frustrating. One of the Reasons they are so frustrating is that they take so long and you can lose your buyer while you wait for the answer from the bank. If Realtors can change their perspective on this first buyer it can make a big difference in their short sale. Alliance Short Sales in a company that provides: Education for Short Sales …