When Sacramento buyer's agents ask me how I know that I'll get short sale approval, the answer is easy. The odds are I will. And those are high odds, probably in the 90 percentiles. I might be biased, but I believe I'm an above average Sacramento short sale agent. It's hard to look at your own performance objectively, but I would never identify myself as a short sale expert nor proclaim to be the top short sale agent in Sacramento -- even though national and local media might hang that tag of short sale expert on me -- for a variety of reasons.
First, to be an expert, one should really be a lawyer and not a real estate agent / broker. That's because short sales involve a host of legal challenges and questions. Can the short sale bank hold a seller personally responsible and obtain a deficiency judgment? How will a short sale affect credit? Are the banks attempting to commit what could be deemed short sale mortgage fraud? Will a seller be required to pay taxes on a short sale? Even if should suspect that I know any of those answers, I can't advise my sellers in that manner. I'm not a lawyer.
Second, there are a variety of ways that a top producing real estate agent can claim to be number one in Sacramento, and those measuring sticks change daily, which means that claim could be a lie. The methods for performance evaluation are varied as well. Is it measured by the individual number of transactions or dollar volume? Is it measured by number of short sale listings that are not yet sold or active short contingent? Does one measure performance by the last 12 months, 5 years or are we talking about the last 30 days?
Furthermore, if an agent says he or she is the number one short sale agent in Sacramento, is that claim valid if the agent doesn't personally negotiate the short sale? Sometimes an agent is identified on an MLS listing as the listing agent but that agent is not really involved in the transaction. That agent might have hired a team of new agents who work under the agent and bring their own sellers to the table. But that agent might get credit for the sale.
So, I shy away from personally making those types of claims because they are nebulous. And because I don't care. I can tell you that I do what I believe is best for the client. I know what it takes to get short sale approval and perform to the best of my ability. A good short sale agent never stops learning; no matter how many short sales she has under her belt, there is always something new to learn every day. Some new horrific short sale twist to navigate. When I get up in the morning, I greet the day wondering what new fresh hell awaits in short sale land; I'm prepared for the battle.
A few days ago, I was interviewed for a CNN short sale story that hit the web on Monday. As with most online short sale articles, whenever my name is mentioned, my phone starts to ring off the hook. I get calls from all over the country from sellers wanting to speak with a short sale expert. They see that I have written a short sale book and automatically assume that I can give them legal advice or real estate advice, when I can do neither. I can't interfere in another agent's transaction; I'm not a lawyer, and I don't sell real estate in other states.
I sell short sales in Sacramento. Period. Hey, somebody has to.
Comments(6)