Short Sales are like Interval Training

A friend commented on one of my blogs about doing short sales and I had an 'ah-ha' experience.  Having been a personal trainer for over a decade, I know a lot about interval training.  Her comment made me realize that short sales are like interval training.  It's a work, work, work, rest interval.

When you meet up with a client, they need to understand a number of things.  It takes a lot of work to sell a house in a short sale.  Patience will be required.  But, they also need to understand,

• They need bank approval to do a short sale.  Simple enough, but it can take a little time to get that.
• Once the banks agrees, the seller needs a good agent who has the stomach and determination to see them over the finish line.
• They need to get their paperwork done and back to the bank at warp speed.  Banks are a "hurry up and wait" enterprise.  They will demand that you hurry up so they can then have you wait perpetually on them.
• The property needs to be priced and effectively marketed once all approvals are completed.
• Offers need to be submitted quickly and followed up on consistently and continually until the short sale agent has confirmation that the offer is in the right hands.  Once it's in the right hands the agent needs to have every contact number, email, fax number and name of each individual the bank has placed on that file.
• The short sale agent needs to have direct access to the negotiator who the bank assigns to the file.  Regular calls should be made to make sure the file is moving along.  That doesn't mean every morning or even every couple days.  They need to be timed as the bank relays where the file is in the process.
• The short sale agent needs to stay in touch with the buyer's agent to make sure the buyer is truly able to buy the property. Little life changes can change the process.  There is nothing worse than getting to a final approval on a short sale only to find out that the buyers went out and bought a car and are no longer approved for the original loan.
• Make sure all the players are engaged.  The attorneys, closers, banks, etc., need to be ready to move when the short sale lender confirms they're ready to move.  The short sale lender can tank an offer that has been ready to go for 6 months with a few unreasonable demands at the last minute.  Everybody needs to be ready to go.
• Make sure there are no surprises from the sellers or buyers at the last minute.  Stay in communication constantly.
• Close.  Go home happy.

Short sales tend to be a work, work, work, rest - work, work, work, rest interval.  The sellers need to understand that they may be called upon at anytime to deliver reams of information they've already delivered in the past.  They need to keep all of their files handy until the closing is complete.  Once it's over, they can rest.