4 Biggest Mistakes Short Sale Sellers Make

Helpful, and great information that is truly appreciated. Good to put out there, because many homeowners think because they've missed payments and received a Notice of Default, giving up completely is acceptable.

Tni, the biggest mistake is letting the home fall apart and not keeping utilities on!  Also, a homeowner in a short sale needs to cooperate with their lender and get in all documents in a timely manner.  Those two are the biggest mistakes that a homeowner can avoid to make their short sale a success.  Also, I agree with your point about making the home available for showings.  Whether or not the lender postpones foreclosure, the homeowner and, we as the agents have no control over.  

Nice post, very much true.  #4 is the hard one....

Tni!  What a great post!  Thanks you so much for posting it.  Every point is incredibly valid.  The process itself is difficult enough without the blocks some Sellers put up.  The idea is to get it sold....even if its at this point...especially at this point.  The best effort needs to be implemented.  Great Post!!

This is a very important post and is full of important information for those who may find themselves in a short sale situation.

You are absolutely correct!  Thank you for this post.   Keep their homes in good repair, clean and easy to show.  Sometimes they can be their own worst enemies! But in these troubled times many of these people are having trouble keeping their lives in order,they try to hang on to hope.

Thank you for this post

This is the perfect advice for short sale sellers however many that I encounter do not care enough to keep the home together.  Some of them resent the people who are coming to look at their home and many are still bitter with the lender.  The most I can get some sellers to do is pick up the laundry before a showing...

Making the home difficult to show, to me, carries more weight.  Because even if the owner puts the home up for sale later than earlier if you can't show the property it will not sell.  And you are right, the owners tend not to be really interested in selling their home.

Tni,  Amen To That.  You're right on.

Sometimes it is hard to get homeowners to spend any more money or effort on a home they are going to lose one way or another.  They believe that any money they spend is just down a rat hole with no chance of getting any of it back.

They feel that the bank is not going to give them any credit for their efforts, so why even keep the insurance in place since they will not get any proceeds in case of a loss?

We have to figure out how to explain to these soon-to-be-ex-homeowners why they should not make the "mistakes" you list above.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

BTW, you write very well.

Tni your first suggestion was not allowing the house to fall into disrepair.  Did you for get that the reason for the short sale was because of an economic down turn.  Most people that are losing their homes don't have the resources to keep a home in good repair.  I agree that they should keep it clean and as presentable as possible. I don't think that it is realistic to expect that they'll keep the home in good repair.

Regarding your second point, "Taking to long to present the short sale application to the bank".  I think that this problem can be overcome with education.  Educating a short sale home sellers to the benefits of short selling will greatly overcome this problem.  It comes down to the old adage, "what's in it for me".  If a short sell home seller sees a benefit they'll move through the process somewhat quicker.

Parnell

Chicago Home Loan

You have explained this very nicely, hope the future sellers can read this.  Up to a certain extent listing agents can definitely help with #2.  Some of these sellers are so deep in financial trouble that they do not have any extra money to maintain their home, excellent post....

Great article. 

In our market we see many many homeowners who are selling their home as a short sale but aren't interested in moving yet.  Living for free for months and months.  I showed a short sale where owners hadn't paid their mortgage for 1 1/2 years and the foreclosure date was postponed several times.

HI Tni, I follow the market in the U.S. and have really come to appreciate what it takes to sell a short sale. You really have to be ready to present a complete package in a timely manner or else you would be wasting a lot of time as a sales rep working on offers that are going nowhere. Great detailed post. Good luck with your short sellers.

Great info. Thanks for the post.

Thank you so much for the post.  I agree with you 100%.  The one that cracks me up is when the seller makes it difficult for the house to be shown.  I've come across that and it's so frustrating and counterproductive.  Also, number one stands out.  I've seen people feeling defeated and giving up on the way the house presents itself.  Thank you, again.

Very nice, Tni. Informative, and incisive. Keep it up!!

I think we've all dealt with these at one time or another.

And tying in with all of your points are those short sale sellers who are trying to "milk" the process for as long as they can because they are basically living rent free while the mortgage goes unpaid.  I came across another one today while I was calling on this Expired Listing.  They want to stay with their previous "Broker Who Specializes Only in Short Sales," even though the broker did absolutely nothing for theseller other than put the house on MLS.  Their "broker" did not even tell them the house was no longer on the market, but the seller wants to stay with them because she mistakenly believes, the longer the process takes, the better off she will be.  Foreclosure may be coming to them all too soon, and sadly, their credit will be severely hurt, with perhaps other repurcussions as well.