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Industry: Are Short Sales The New Low Hanging Fruit?

When I worked at the title company in 2006, there was one agent who would always sidle up to my desk, lower his voice, and ask if I could get him a copy of the Blue Sheet. The Blue Sheet is an NOD newsletter here in Santa Clara County. Every month the agent would ask me and every month I would give him the address so that he could order a subscription. At that time, he was one of the few agents who expressed an interest in short sales.

By the middle of 2007, short sales had become the rage. Agents in some areas no longer needed a Blue Sheet because short sale listings were easy to find. On top of that, many conventional listings became short sales as the sellers followed the market down after trying to turn a profit with their original listing price. Now I hear that some ambitious agents have picked up 20, 50, or even 100 short sale listings.

Is it possible to properly service 50 listings? Are these agents buying more short sale raffle tickets because the odds of winning are so low? I've spoken to several agents who have been through short sales and their experiences have not been positive, yet it seems like more and more agents describe themselves as short sale specialists. Are short sales the new low hanging fruit, or are they more like fruit that is already on the ground?

Does anyone really prefer working short sales?

Thanks!

Frank Jewett

Posted by Frank Jewett on 04/17/2008 03:59 AM

Comments (14)

industry, short sale, listing, listing agent

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14 Comments on Industry: Are Short Sales The New Low Hanging Fruit?

APR

2008

I am not a bottom feeder as a rule,but i do like to eat! Short sales are here.

More like rotten fruit. We will help clients if they hire us. But as a rule we don't pursue that client.

Short sales would not be my first choice so much emotion attached to the sale.

They may be the new low hanging fruit in our market (25% of all of our listings) but I am dabbling in ONE. The rest are getting referred out to a REAL specialist who knows this stuff, the banks and has the systems in place. I don't think I will be getting in to these!

Greg, I understand the need to eat, but I wonder if the payoff is really there. From what I'm hearing, short sales are more work and it takes a long time to get approval from the bank, so it seems like agents would make less money working short sales than they would working conventional sales. Short sale listings are easier to get, but much harder to turn into food, from what I've been hearing.

Thanks to everyone who responded!

Frank Jewett

Nice post Frank. So far this fruit has been pretty sweet for me. I've been working short sales ever since I stumbled upon them in 2004. I have 2 staff members who are dedicated 100% to processing short sales. They can be a LOT of work, but once you know how to do them (and train someone to do the monotonous work) they can be very rewarding. I closed 5 short sale transactions last month, and am running a 80% success rate on getting them closed. Short sales are about 40% of my practice.

Knolly, thanks for the feedback. Sounds like you've found a successful approach. Are there many short sales in your area? Here it is a relatively new phenomenon which means banks haven't figured out that they need to deal if they don't want to end up owning the property. Most of the horror stories I'm hearing are that it takes too long to get approval so either the buyer goes away or a newer listing comes on the market at a lower price and kills the appraisal.

Frank Jewett

I am going to a listing appointment tonight that is a short sale. I don't relish the oncoming frustrations, but for this client I feel I should try to help. I am not experienced with short sales and my client knows this...as she said, she is letting me "cut my teeth" regarding short sales with her. Any suggestions from my Realtor peers would be greatly appreciated!

Paula Swayne

Paula, a veteran EO recently told me that talking to the lender early and often is critical.

Good luck to you and your client!

Frank: Yes, we do have lots of short sales in our area. Texas has been a high pre-foreclosure state for years, but now many more states are joining the fun. :) Most of my referrals come from local REALTORS who don't want to mess with doing a short sale. We're working on 23 files right now.

Paula: Knowing what to do and how to do it can be the key to getting the file approved or not. Also you have to submit a complete file to the lender or it can take many additional months. Also, a KEY is knowing if the client qualifies BEFORE you take the listing AND getting it priced right. We typically talk with the appraiser (before they do the appraisal for the bank) and share our ideas about pricing along with a CMA. I have set up a web site with FAQs for my short sale clients. It's http://www.shortsalesite.com/. Hopefully you'll get some good info from there. Good luck!

Frank: Thanks so much...I will contact them tomorrow!

Knolly:I went to your website...thanks for the assist!

Paula

APR

2008

I've done two short sales. They are not fun. People get very emotional. I would never seek out short sales.

They are rotten fruit lying on the ground.

Karen, dealing with that aspect of short sales will certainly take its toll.

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