Short sales... Wow! Historically, in Real Estate, there have been few topics of discussion that would compare to the subject of "Short Sales."
Recently, in our office, we were discussing a particularly "sticky" frustrating, time consuming, and labor intensive short sale transaction that we are working on. We were reminiscing about the days when closing a transaction meant: writing a contract, negotiating that contract, getting signatures on all the paperwork, and following normal processes like financing approval, ordering inspections, etc. Not to say that there were no bumps in the road with these "normal" transactions... there certainly were! But we REALLY did not appreciate how, for the most part, smooth the process was closing a "traditional" real estate transaction was.... UNTIL NOW!
NOW... we not only have to follow the normal contract processes, but added to that we have to:
- Delve into our client's (if we are the listing agent) troubled financial records in detail
- Deal with the security issues that arise with holding this type of information in our files
- Facilitate negotiations, not only between the buyer and seller, but also with the lender (so much easier dealing with the buyer & seller!)
- Use our best psychology & constant communication to keep the buyer "enthusiastic" throughout the long process
- Educate our less informed REALTOR collegues on the short sale process along the way!
- Deal with the additional & COPIOUS amounts of paperwork, emails, faxes... yadda yadda yadda!
- AND... then there's the phone calls... there's bound to be a new medical condition arising from having a phone glued to one's ear for hours upon hours a week!
- And we WON'T EVEN DISCUSS the fact that after all this added work... lenders ultimately cut our commissions so we get less money for a LOT more work!
I could go on... but you get the idea, right? I'm sure that if you are a REALTOR, you have struggled to describe to a "layman" what it's like working in the Real Estate industry in this historical period in time... WELL... that's the purpose of this post, really. The discussion we were having in our office lead to an analogy that I think REALLY describes it very graphically... here it is:
"As a REALTOR, working with Short Sales is like being stranded in the desert... about to die from thirst... and coming upon a toilet full of water... you don't WANT to do it... but, in order to stay alive, you must.... hang your head over that bowl and drink up!"
www.TheSerenaGroup.com 
.png)
.png)
Comments(4)