The title "short sale negotiator" is a bit limited in capturing the full scope of what people like me offer.  A short sale negotiator does so much more than, well, negotiate short sales!  Two different levels of service often are available, tailored to your requirements and strengths. 

If you prefer to handle the negotiations but tend to get bogged down in the red tape that goes with dealing in short sales and foreclosures, a savvy short sale negotiator often provides a paperwork collection and submission service.  For a fee (ours is $350), we will contact the seller on your behalf, collect all of the required paperwork for the short sale package that goes to the lender and submit it, verifying that the paperwork has been received and is all in order.  We'll also track down the name of the lender's loss mitigation representative, snagging their direct line if at all possible (as having an actual contact person with an actual phone number is much more beneficial to you and the seller than just contacting the bank's "short sale department"), and we forward this info to you.  Lastly, we'll set you up with a reminder service that lets you know at what points in the process that follow-up calls need to be made to the lender.  You handle the negotiations, and we'll help you work through the bureaucracy.

 
We also offer a level of service that provides all of the same helpful aspects of our paperwork collection and submission service, plus we'll handle the follow-up calls and negotiations on your behalf.  Put another way: while the paperwork collection and submission service dots all of the I's and crosses some of the T's, our full service option dots all of the I's, crosses all of the T's, and even makes sure those X's are crossed, as necessary.

 
The short sale process can be a tricky one even to an agent experienced in handling such transactions, but if you let a seasoned short sale negotiator take care of the formalities, your chances for success and increased revenue can be markedly improved!

 

 

Michelle Schoen of The Permanent Record LLC started her company and has been a Virtual Assistant since 1990. She is a certified Real Estate Administrative Assistant and Transaction Coordinator. She also designs and updates websites. In addition, she also has a 20+ year background in medical claim billing and collections, authorization acquisition and transcription. She can be reached at michelle.schoen@thepermanentrecord.net or (303) 733-0885.

Michelle Schoen
The Permanent Record, LLC
Real Estate Administrative Assistant & Transaction Coordinator
Website Design & Updates
Short Sale/Foreclosure Negotiations
http://www.thepermanentrecord.net

 

Because time is often of the essence when attempting to negotiate a short sale – the homeowner might have waited until the last week before the foreclosure auction to make his/her first call to you, to name one instance – it's imperative that you are able to submit the correct documentation to the lender as soon as possible.  Getting it right the first time reduces the risk of delays in getting the short sale approved.

While different lenders might have different paperwork requirements when a short sale is attempted, the majority of lenders require the following documentation in your short sale package.  (Be sure to check with your lender for any additional paperwork that they may need.)

1.  The homeowner's written authorization.  Judging by the amount of junk mail that you receive that details your credit card company's "updated privacy policy," or the number of times you have to sign on the dotted line to verify that you've received your physician's "privacy statement," it's clear that we now live in an age where privacy is king.

As such, banks and lenders are pretty gunshy about releasing any personal information without express written authorization.  Your short sale package, therefore, will need to include a letter from the homeowner that gives the lender permission to talk with specific interested parties about their mortgage loan.  This letter should include the address of the property, the homeowner's account number and your name and contact information.

2.  A handwritten hardship letter from the homeowner.  Be sure that this is handwritten, not typed.  The letter should be very descriptive as to why the homeowner is in the position he/she is in.  Bankers are only human, after all, and may take a positive course of action if the letter goes into enough detail – but be careful.  If the homeowner lost his job through downsizing or a workplace injury, great – include that in the letter.  If the homeowner lost his job because he embezzled funds from his employer, that information should probably be left out.

3.  If the property is run-down, heavily damaged or otherwise in need of repair, include photos.  These photos should paint an accurate picture of the problems with the house and property, if any.  Photos to submit include any pictures of damage, stains, rot, mold, and any appliances that are in poor condition.  By including these photos, you are trying to build a case to show the lender that the short sale offer that you are making is the highest amount that they can likely recover, so it would be a bad idea for them to foreclose.

3a.  Related to #3 above, you should also include a contractor's estimate of repairs if the property is in rough shape or in general disrepair.  This can only strengthen your position versus the lender.

4.  You should also include what amounts to the homeowner's financial case file.  This has several different components:

            a.  Proof of the homeowner's income and assets.  This includes bank statements, tax returns and pay stubs, as well as a full documentation of the homeowner's debts.  Remember – full disclosure is important here!  If your bank statement shows a large withdrawal from an account, the homeowner should spell out why.

            b.  Information on any other accounts the homeowner might have, including retirement accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and anything else the homeowner might have that is of tangible value (cars, real estate, other investments).

            c.  The homeowner's credit report. 

All of this information is included in order to assure the lender that the homeowner cannot pay back the debt owed.

5.  Lastly, you will need to provide a comparative market analysis, which details the prices of similar homes that are active on the market, pending or sold in recent months.  This document should show that selling the home through conventional means would not be enough to pay the mortgage in full. 

As mentioned before, there may be other documents required by your lender; check with them for details.  But the above is a pretty good representation of what you will be asked to provide when pursuing a short sale.

* * * * *

Michelle Schoen of The Permanent Record LLC started her company and has been a Virtual Assistant since 1990. She is a certified Real Estate Administrative Assistant and Transaction Coordinator. She also designs and updates websites. In addition, she also has a 20+ year background in medical claim billing and collections, authorization acquisition and transcription. She can be reached at michelle.schoen@thepermanentrecord.net or (303) 733-0885.

Michelle Schoen
The Permanent Record, LLC
Real Estate Administrative Assistant & Transaction Coordinator
Website Design & Updates
Short Sale/Foreclosure Negotiations
http://www.thepermanentrecord.net

 

As you may already be aware, short sales are a great way to help create a win-win solution for both a distressed homeowner and a lender, and can also allow you (as an investor) to purchase property at a deep discount.

But, as you may also be aware, a short sale offer isn't an instant panacea for a homeowner's troubles.  Sometimes short sales fail.  To ensure the success of your short sale offer, make certain that the following bases are covered, else your short sale may be doomed to failure.

1.  You should be clear on the level of motivation that the seller has.  An unmotivated seller can be a drag on your time and resources; his reluctance to carry out simple tasks like providing paperwork in a timely fashion is a red flag that will underline his overall unwillingness to cooperate.  Just because he apparently doesn't understand the gravity of the situation doesn't mean that you have to continue putting forth your time and effort to carry out the short sale.  Cut bait now!

2.  Short sales are a great way to purchase all types of property at deeply discounted prices, but beware:  if you're offering only 20 percent of the home's supposed value, you'd better be able to justify such an offer on paper with pictures and repair estimates that are commensurate with your offer.  If not, it doesn't matter how good your relationship is with the lender – you'll still be laughed right out of the bank.

3.  As a follow-up to the above, if comparable homes in the market and BPOs seem to be way above your offer, be prepared to justify your offer and why it's so much lower than the closing price of other homes in your market.  If not, the lender will likely instead choose to see the foreclosure process to the end.

4.  One of the biggest mistakes an investor or purchaser of short sale properties can make is found in the lack of follow-up with the lender.  Maintaining periodic contact with the lender can keep you informed of any potential curveballs or pitfalls in the process that can put an end to your short sale aspirations.

5.  Have you ever come across a short sale website that promises to stop a foreclosure even if there's as little as one day left before the sheriff's sale?  Don’t believe it.  My rule of thumb, in fact, is that 3 days isn't enough time to negotiate a short sale.  Three days is barely enough time to negotiate a postponement of the foreclosure auction unless all of your paperwork is already filled out, if a sales agreement is in hand, and if your documentation is solid.  The sooner that the short sale process is started, the better your chances of short sale success!

Even if you adhere to each of these, it still may be possible that the short sale will fail.  But you're guaranteed a better shot at succeeding by avoiding these common roadblocks to short sale pitfalls than otherwise.

 * * * * *

Michelle Schoen of The Permanent Record LLC started her company and has been a Virtual Assistant since 1990. She is a certified Real Estate Administrative Assistant and Transaction Coordinator. She also designs and updates websites. In addition, she also has a 20+ year background in medical claim billing and collections, authorization acquisition and transcription. She can be reached at michelle.schoen@thepermanentrecord.net or (303) 733-0885.

 

I've been thinking recently about social networking sites and my place in them, asking myself the tough questions as to whether they are really worth the time and effort that I put into visiting and posting at such places.

On one hand, it's evident that anytime you put together a group of professionals, whether it's virtual or live, and give them carte blanche to discuss anything pertaining to their work, the conversation will eventually degenerate into backbiting and sniping at one another.  This not only detracts from the "professional" designation that we all purport to carry, but is a colossal waste of everyone's time.

Many folks are pretty intent on getting the last word in, and others seem to lack the ability to just walk away from the conversation.  Since the relative anonymity of the Internet allows both instigators and defenders to carry on such a discussion without receiving a punch in the nose for their efforts, a lot of these shouting matches can continue unabated for an indefinite period of time.  And as easy as it is to just "click away" from these fruitless dialogues, human nature dictates that we love watching car wrecks, so we perpetuate them by taking sides or adding our two cents.

On the other hand, the very concept of worldwide social networking was, pardon the expression, virtually nonexistent a decade ago.  Outside of newsgroups specifically devoted to your area of expertise (if you even accessed the Internet at that time), the only way to network with people across the country was through national conventions.  These days, there is literally a global bank of knowledge and experience that you can tap into to learn more about what has worked, what might work and what could never work for you and your business.

If a person can "rise above" the sometimes-vicious tone of some supposedly "professional" members of our community and stay focused on the positive things that many of us prefer to take part in, then social networking sites like this one and others do more good for our line of work than any other invention of the last quarter-century.  The worldwide wealth of know-how can bring us more ideas than we ever could have come up with on our own, making us all better as individuals and as a community.  And that can only be a good thing.

 

Michelle Schoen
The Permanent Record, LLC
Real Estate Administrative Assistant & Transaction Coordinator
Website Design & Updates
Short Sale/Foreclosure Negotiator
http://www.thepermanentrecord.net

 

Homeowners who find themselves in a bad financial situation are pretty much doomed to eventually have their home foreclosed, right?

Wrong.  The short sale process is a way to help those homeowners who, for any number of reasons, are unable to pay on their mortgage.  Perhaps the main breadwinner has walked out, or maybe there's been a debilitating accident that has left the homeowner unable to make their monthly mortgage payment.  Whatever the reason, short sales are a great way to get those homeowners out from underneath their mortgage without doing too much damage to their credit rating.  In a nutshell, here is how I handle the short sale process:

After checking various foreclosure lists to see which homes might be candidates for a short sale, the first thing I do is find out who the attorney is; it helps if I already have a relationship with them.  Then, I run a Comparable Marketing Analysis; this entails finding out what comparable homes in the area have sold for and how long they were on the market before they sold.  This helps me see what the home is actually worth in comparison to what the foreclosure amount is.  It also helps to know various neighborhood statistics, including the crime rate, the number of vacant homes in the neighborhood, and the number of/proximity to sex offenders.

Then, I contact the homeowner to find out if they are willing to talk with me – first, with a letter, then with a phone call if their phone number is available.  If I am able to get my foot in the door with them, I will make a presentation to them and provide them information on how I can help them get out from under their debt without hurting their credit rating.  Usually, the options by this point are a short sale or a foreclosure; the latter is very damaging to a person's credit, so I try to make the homeowner see that a short sale would be the best option.  If I am successful, the homeowner will sign an authorization for me to speak with their lender and the attorney to find out more information about the foreclosure, including the balance of the principal, how far behind they are with their payments, appraisal amounts, etc.

At this point, I will also do an impromptu, unofficial inspection of the home, including taking pictures and making note of anything that is defective or broken, or if mold is present, for instance.

After discussions with the lender and the attorney, I'll make an offer on the property and take the homeowner a sales and purchase agreement.  This agreement will include multiple contingencies written into it.  If the homeowner agrees to the process, I have them start getting paperwork together; there is a very long list of things that have to be turned in when I start the negotiation process with the lender and the attorney.

Then, the negotiation process begins, and I try to work out an equitable solution that is satisfactory to all parties involved:  this usually means getting the property off the lender's books, and getting the homeowner out from under a mortgage that they simply can't pay.

 

I am actually writing this for a dear friend of mine.  She is disabled and lives in Toledo, OH.  She would like an agent or broker from the area to assist her in buying her first home.  She's on an SSDI budget and is interested in looking at pre-foreclosure and HUD homes.  Is there anybody in this group who would be willing to assist her?

Thank you!

Michelle Schoen
Real Estate Administrative Assistant & Transaction Coordinator
Website Design & Updates
General Administrative Support Services
http://www.thepermanentrecord.net

Since nobody has touched on this topic, I felt I could be strong enough to do it.  Has anyone even noticed that we've had four school shootings in five days?  One girl dead in Colorado, a Principal dead in Wisconsin, several young girls dead in Pennsylvania, one girl killed in Vancouver... my goodness!  And we're only a month into the school year!

Speaking as the parent of a murdered child, I can tell you that there is nothing worse.  No matter what you compare it to, there is no comparison to the loss of a child.

So as you go about your day, remember these parents.  If you live in their communities, reach out to them.  Even if they push you away at first, reach out.  They're going to need all the love they can get.

 

We went to a couple of open houses in our neighborhood this weekend.  I'm that nosey neighbor lady that your mom warned you about.  I love open houses!  I like to see how other people have decorated, remodeled, everything!  I enjoy the creativity.  But we're also trying to find our first home.  At the age of 39, my husband and I have decided we want to join the ranks of adulthood and purchase our first home.  But there are some things you need to think about if you're going to hold an open house.  Keep in mind that I'm a neat freak. 

Pets.  Pets are wonderful.  I love my four cats and wouldn't trade them in for the world.  However, I do change the litter boxes... a lot.  Twice a day.  I don't want someone coming into my house and smelling or seeing a dirty cat box.  It's a pet peeve.  If I walk into your open house and find a dirty litter box with litter on the floor, I'm not going to be very interested in owning the home.  Cat litter has urine in it.  It's just a fact of life. 

So do yourself and everyone else a favor... make sure the litter boxes are either clean or out of sight until visitors leave.  Put them in the garage.  Put them in the trunk of your car.  Whatever works for you.  Just don't leave them in the house with feces and urine in them!  

If you have a dog, I strongly advise you to clean up the poop in the yard.  The smell alone is enough to turn off some buyers.  Seeing flies and ants crawling around on and in it... that just doesn't do much for me.  There's also the issue of sanitary living conditions.  Your doggy probably doesn't like walking in the poop anymore than your visitors do.

Walls.  We all leave fingerprints on walls, appliances and various other things around our house.  But when I see a light switch that's literally brown and black because of dirt, it's not appealing.  Seeing the walls literally dripping with dirt... not appealing.  We saw a house this weekend where it was obvious there had been smokers... not so much because you could smell it, but because you could see it dripping down the walls.  If your seller is a smoker, it's a good idea to tell them to scrub the walls at least once.  It will help to reduce the amount of smoke smell and it will help with the build up of tar and nicotine on the walls.  A couple of well placed AirWick automatic battery operated air fresheners is also a very good idea.  One costs less than $10 and comes with one can of spray.

Bathrooms.  If you have a dirty bathroom, it's not going to show well.  Black mold growing along the caulk and up the tile walls is not a good sign.  A toilet that obviously doesn't get flushed often enough is not a good sign.  Remember, some people are very scent sensitive.  Something like that will immediately make them lose interest in a home.  Again, one AirWick air freshener would be very helpful.

These are just a few things that kind of set me off when I was walking through open houses in Denver.  Hopefully there's some information that will help you to help your seller get just a little more ready for their next open house.

Because I'm a little bit of a neat freak (Read: You can safely eat off my floors), I tend to not like sticky notes.  They get stuck to everything that you don't want them stuck to.  They refuse to stick to the things you do want them stuck to.  So when one of the virtual assistant girls with whom I work gave this link to me, I was in heaven!

http://www.evernote.com/en/

Say goodbye to sticky notes!  You can store handwritten notes through your pen and tablet.  You can store things you need from blogs, websites, email and more.  And the best part?  It's free, unless you really want to pay for it. 

Enjoy!

Susan Milner was kind enough to bring up the topic of CRM or Contact Relationship Management in her blog today, so I thought I would give you some of the offline options that are available to you if you're one of those folks who doesn't like having their client information sitting out there online in a strange, unfamiliar world. 

Before I go into this though, I would like to thank Christian Real Estate Network for allowing me to have my geeky side!  For those who don’t know me, I’m a recovering Network Administrator (MSCE, severe Geek!).  So… let’s look at some of the offline options.

ACTive Agent for Outlook – Sonoma Enterprises - $149.00

·        Single click access to follow-up appointments, email campaigns (aka email blasts), distribution list management

·        Store personal information about the entire seller’s/buyer’s family – great for keeping track of birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

·        Multiple user-defined fields for information that’s not already included

·        Access to all of the property and transaction information records for each of your contacts

·        Ability to store buyer requirements as well as all of the records of all of the properties you have ever shown to this client and their comments/feelings about the properties

Agent Business Builder – Powermate Software (Agent and Broker versions available.) - $399.00

·         Address book database

·         Interactive Calendar & Planner

·         Built-in point-and-click mail merge (116 pre-written letters included)

·         Auto-Dialer (phone number and email capable)

·         Multiple user-defined fields for information that’s not already included

·         Built-in word processor

LeadCommander Professional Series – By DataBasix Technologies - $229.00

·         Lead generator – access new leads and import data from multiple sources

·         Prospecting System

·         Marketing Campaign Manager – market prospects based on multiple pieces of criteria.  Track and evaluate your marketing campaigns.

·         Customer Tracker

·         Client Follow-up Program

·         Remote access through the internet

·         Form letter database & writer

·         Auto-Dialer

·         Multiple user-defined fields

In addition to the ones list above, there are many more options out there.  This is just a brief overview of a few of them. 

Disclaimer:  I am not supporting or recommending any of the above options.

Michelle Schoen
The Permanent Record
Real Estate Administrative Assistant & Transaction Coordinator
Website Design for Real Estate Professionals
Administrative Support Services
http://www.thepermanentrecord.net