Control a client! It's a must! Short sale 101

I just had a meeting with my staff Friday about controling our clients during our short sale process. I thought this might be good information for a fellow short sale experts out there!

The problem lately has been clients calling banks and speaking with the loss mitigator reps on the lenders end. Keep in mind when clients come to you, it's because the don't know where else to turn. They turn to you for your expertise on negotiation and salesmanship. However, a strange transportation occurs somewhere during the process.

THEY BECOME BRILIANT!   LOL                                                           

Lately, there's been a rash of clients (for the lack of better words) getting in the way. They call the lenders and contradict everything you've been preaching to them for months. Keep in mind, lenders would much rather speak with the homeowner than you. Why? because they realize homeowners don't know what they're doing. wouldn't you rather speak with an uninformed person than an expert? Who would you rather play poker with?

Here are few things clients will do, that can set you back days!!!

1. they give improper estimated values for the home being sold. They don't mean to they just don't know. But, the lender will be sure to ask them what they think. At this point your expert assessment of the market just went down the drain.

2. They start getting nervous and tell the lender they can find money from somewhere to get caught up (just don't foreclose). Now, normally this is not a bad thing. If the client can get caught up that's always best. However, you already know the client can not! Why else would you be working a short sale? This now makes the lender put the brakes on your already difficult task of bring in buyers and get acceptances.

3. You tell them what amount the lender will acccept! Seems harmless doesn't it?! Here's where your client will begin to play investor/super agent! They'll start showing the property for you, they'll make deals with investors giving them a partial picture of the situation. Many times the investor will believe he has options, when really he/she does not!

4. We update our clients weekly, however the updates are very general. There's a method to our madness when negotiating with the lender. Lender's don't like to loose and if they are to loose they need to feel it's in their best interests. This takes a lot of tact and is not overnight. You have to develop a trust factor with the bank that tells them you want both sides to win! Giving detailed information to clients just overwhelms them. They will not understand what you're trying to accomplish nor will they be patient. This is when less is better!

5. Make sure you give your clients best case scenarios and worst case as well! I know it's hard but the sooner they know the worse the sooner they can start preparing for it. If you wait until the end to share with them failure posibilities they will ALWAYS blame you for everything! So, be honest and make sure they know you're going to do your very best, but in the end their lender holds the final say!        TAKE CHARGE!!!  

I pretty sure most of you have dealt with some if not all of these scenarios. I hope this blog serves as a reminder that you have to be in control of everything. You are the expert, you know what's best! When you ask to be represented by an attorney, they are not going to ask you what you want? You pay them for a job and they are going to go about doing what they know to do. Can you imagine jumping in to speak with the other attorney or Judge negotiating in lieu of your attorney? Suicide!!!