Straight from a short sale negotiator - How to make sure they won't respond to you.

I finally heard back from the negotiator on one of my short sales today.  One thing I always like to do is establish some rapport with them and see what kind of insights I can glean from them about their process and best practices in working with them.

This particular one has been extremely difficult to get hold of and although I've been persistent in my efforts, I've been careful not to cross the line to obnoxious.  I couldn't resist asking him to tell me what's the best way to a negotiator to respond.

Apparently the answer is not repeated attempts throughout the day.  This negotiator informed me that he had 42 emails from one agent in the same day.  I bet you can guess what a passive aggressive negotiator's way of dealing with such an annoyance is.  Those emails get deleted or go unanswered.

While I don't have a problem being firm with a negotiator when the need arises or escalating a file to their supervisor when warranted I'm always respectful.  While it may not seem like it sometimes, there are humans on the other end of those phone lines and they're extremely overwhelmed. 

Being an ass is likely to land your file at the bottom of the stack and when they're 300-500 deep it may be a while before you get a response.

At the end of our conversation, he thanked me for the way I conducted myself and my professional approach to my communications with him.  Personally I'd rather have a friend than a foe when it comes to getting short sales closed.