We qualify our buyers before showing them a home, right? But are you qualifying the short sale listings you're showing them? If not, you may be wasting your time.
By contacting the listing agent and asking them a few basic questions prior to showing their listings you'll accomplish 2 things.
- You'll save you and your buyers some and frustration time by not showing or writing an offer on a property that's not going to qualify as a short sale and consequently will never close.
- Some Listing Agents will finally start doing their homework before taking any listing and slapping "short sale" on it.
When I meet with buyers looking for a home in Chandler, AZ, my first visit with them will include some counseling about the types of properties available for sale in our area.
- Traditional resales
- New home construction
- Short Sales
- REO's
I will explain the process with each type of sale. When we cover short sales, I'll go over my list of questions that I will ask any listing agent prior to showing a short sale listing and explain the reasons for each question and I'll obtain the buyers approval to eliminate Short Sale listings based on my findings so we're not wasting time.
I will tell you that buyers agree 100% of the time. Buyers do not want to sit around waiting on a short sale that's not going to close and loose the opportunity to find one that will.
Here are a few questions I ask any short sale listing agent (and another reason why listing agents should be responding to inquiries in a timely manner. If they don't respond...I don't show).
- Do you have any offers?
- Have you submitted any offers to the lender(s)?
- How many offers will you be submitting to the lender(s)? If it's more than one, the interview is over and I'm moving on to the next property.
- Have you prequalified the seller and do they have a hardship?
- Have you reviewed their financials and do they have an income shortfall?
- Have you verified the parties on the Title and Deed?
- What stage of foreclosure is the property in?
- How many lenders are involved?
The answers to these questions will determine whether or not we'll look at the property. Some of the answers will give me an idea of how long the process will take and depending on how long my buyer is willing to wait, whether or not we'll look at the property.
The answers will also be a very good indicator of whether or not the listing agent knows what he/she is doing. I'm willing to help a listing agent along, if certain criteria are met, but if the agent has not done their homework, they've just flunked my interview and we're moving on.
***Since I originally wrote this post, many of the "short sale" rules have changed and are not so clear cut. I have all of my short sales speak with an attorney prior to listing their home for short sale and now work with a professional short sale negotiator who handles all of the seller's confidential information. I am a REALTOR. I can not be responsible for determining whether or not a seller qualifies for a short sale. It's working out well and 100% of my short sales, so far have qualified, sold and closed using this method.
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