Short Sale Tools...where Do I Turn?

OK, I have now written two posts about Short Sales in the last 24 hours...because once again I am a bona fide short Sale Listing Agent.  Granted, I may be rusty, after being away from this side of the business in Hemet - San Jacinto, Ca for over 2 years now.

Yesterday I got the call from a seller and decided to help them (I hope I help them).  I had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done, from my previous experience...but I have changed brokers since then and all of my marketing material that I have stored somewhere in the archives of my desktop is all branded...with a brand I don't care to associate myself with.

So, after spending a couple of hours going through the forms and reading what I had to, I went into the marketing side of the equation. 

First I jumped into the MLS and prepared a very basic CMA, as my appointment was at 3:30 and the clock was ticking.  The MLS has a great short format that was very useful.  In the future, I'll go back to a more complex booklet style and leave the 1 page summary for the back of the book.

Finally, I needed a list of documents that I knew I wold be asking the Seller to provide.  Yes, I know there are tax returns and pay-stubs, etc.  But I needed a list.

So What Did I Do?

Naturally, I turned to ActiveRain - found a couple of blogs at the top of my search that pretty much covered everything.  A cut and paste here and a cut and paste there...some quick editing and branding and I had a hot looking list.  I wish I knew who to give the credit to...but I can tell you that ActiveRain was an awesome resource.  Next time someone tells you that AR is just a social site, chuckle to yourself, smile and say, "yeah right" and leave your competition in the dust.

Today, after the action of the day settled and I wanted to bring myself up to speed on Short Sales I again turned to ActiveRain and found numerous resources of fellow agents who took the time to share, in the interest of bettering everyone in the industry and thereby bettering themselves.  I think someone already coined the phrase..."Pay it Forward".

One of my personally favorite bloggers to read is Bryant Tutas, or Broker Bryant as he is affectionately known (this guy has over 608,000 ActiveRain Points - YIKES! - and only #2 in the State of Florida) is a true Short Sale Superstar.  He has a wealth of information that I highly recommend anyone wanting to figure out anything about short sales, to read his blog.

Well Broker Bryant and Wendy Rulnick created a special website and group for Short Sale Agents and it is appropriately called the Short Sale Superstars.  All I can say at this point, after spending the last hour reading the boards and looking at the different resources available is to check it out if you have any interest, whatsoever, in Short Sales.

So who know, with a little bit of organization, an incredibly talented assistant and the help of ActiveRain and all the great resources exposed here...this short sale thing might just work out for the year 2010...it better if the REO's don't happen again pretty darn soon.