Certified Short Sales Specialist

Can we get this information in other states that frontline seminars doesn't go to.  Like Connecticut, for instance.  they are becoming more and more frequent and i see an awful lot of them falling apart do to lack of experience and/or information.  I'd like to get all the information that I can as I am working with buyers who are about to make an offer on a short sale property.

George,

I do appreciate your committment to continually improve your knowledge for yourself and your clients. Thank you sharing the name of the course. I have seen a lot of courses offered and generally they are deficient.

Michele Lane-RE/MAX Associates San Jose, California

Hi George,

Does your Association of Realtors recognize the designation? Just wondering who certified the class?

George - Thank you so much for sharing!  Looks like a great program.  It's refreshing to see - with all the scams out there right now!!

Good for you for wanting to enhance your knowledge of this important area.  For anyone to think they know it all and cannot still gain additional knowledge is a recipe for disaster.  I actually teach short sale classes and I still take the opportunity to learn more whenever I can.

George - sounds like a class any agent should take if they are dealing with short sales. So many seem to have little clue. I could certainly use this despite not being keen on dealing with these proeprties. But they are in most prices ranges and there is no avoiding them. Thanks for sharing this.

Jeff

This is some great information, I did not know that there were certifications for short sales.  Thanks for sharing and have a great day

Thanks George for responding to my question. I was actually thinking of getting my GRI but now I feel that this is more timely and relevant to our market.

Thank you for sharing this information and also for telling me about the www.shortsalegeni.us seminar. There is some great education available on short sales. No agent should be handling them without a broad base of education and references. You are right on, George!

Good Article George,  You've convinced me to get a certification.  If you have been doing short sales for 15 years and feel the course has taught you something.  I heard it takes two years to get in with any banks, do you know anything about that?

I can't help comment on this one George.  I just posted a blog on Certified Short Sale Specialists.  You are a great agent.  But I am going to disagree with you.  For the most part short sale certification is well, crap.  I am not saying there are not some very good short sale courses.  But having a short sale designation makes not an expert.  Nor a specialist.  In fact in medicine, law, and other professions "specialist" means that you limit your practice to that specialty.  Many so called short sale specialists do any real estate they can get.  Few actually specialize in short sales or anything else.  My son in law John Boles and I have closed over 100 short sales.  Our failure rate is very low.  I have never been to a full blown class.  I have been to several hypo sell their program classes and as most of you know you can get a lot out of those and often as much information as the whole course.  My son in law John Boles has done the most of our short sales and I try to give all I get to him.  When he is to busy then I have to work.  But the point that I want to make is there is NOTHING like doing it.  No weekend course can teach you what doing it does. It is experience.  You and all of us who have done several short sales and have been doing it for years know it is an ever changing beast.  Banks are different, they change, lenders are different and to be an expert you just have to do it and do it.   Don't get me wrong.  I am not discouraging courses.  But I think all Realtors need to understand there is an ethics element here.  Failing closing can be devastating to a seller.  Holding oneself out to be an expert or a specialist is a dicey proposition.  I love working with buyers agents who are experienced on the seller side.  The game is different with short sales than any other real estate transaction.  It is collaboration.  You need a buyer to stick with it for your seller.  Keep up the good work George.  Short sale "specialists" specialize in short sales.  Very few who say they are, are.  Short sale experts are not those who have a certification.  They are those who have closed a lot with several banks with a high success rate.  When I have a buyer looking at a short sale I don't look at the agents certification.  I look at how many short sales they have listed, closed, canceled and expired.  If it has been few, we want them to let us help.  Collaboration is the name of the short sale game.  One last thing.  Now BANKS are sponsoring short sale courses.  Who do they teach to benefit?   Agents too often fold on bank counter offers and negotiations.  We work for our clients.  Not the banks.  Unless of course the bank is our client.

One more comment to Christine:

One of these days I am going to entitle a Blog the greatest profession. I just googled it. Can't find where Realtors place. Mathematicians and software developers are on top of most lists and lumberjacks are on the bottom. So I guess Realtors are somewhere buried in the middle.

But here is my take: From the late 1970s until 1998 I was the Chiropractor in a small town in central Idaho. Hailey. 11 miles south of the Sun Valley mountain. I practiced for 20 years. I made enough money that I retired at age 46. I owned a lot of real estate during that time and pealed out of it from 1998 to 2003. I was only 46 years old and always planned on practicing again in Boise. I loved Chiropractic and it was very good to me. But I had been in real estate too, investing owning, buying and selling since I was 27 years old. I got a real estate license and pretty much accidental started doing retail real estate because of a friend. A broker, property manager, with no agents.

I started a web page and had the first or one of the first in Boise, (for sure the only one still in existence) that had an MLS (IDX). Never did I ever think I would be a Realtor 12 years later! I started my own brokerage the day I was in it two years. My broker was uncomfortable with my web pages and MLS online.

So: After 12 years this is what I think. There is no greater profession than being a Realtor. Doctors save lives. So do Realtors. Realtors help people make some of the most important moves in their lives. Like a good doctor, good Realtors take a good case history. They find out what their (patient/clients) need and want and then the help them get it.  I loved Chiropractic. But I love Real Estate too. My kids are agents with me as well as several of their friends and that is a lot of the reason I am still with it.

Being a great Realtor takes compassion and empathy. Helping people get their first home, getting out of an upside down property, getting invested in a great income property, etc. etc. Lots of Realtors bomb out. Most who start quit.  Realtors can make more money than doctors and lawyers. But it isn't the money. It's the people you help and the lives you change. Realtors do that. If I were listing the greatest professions Realtors would be very close to the top.

Getting people out from under half upside down homes and back on their feet is very rewarding. Helping a young couple buy their first home is too. This IS the day of the short sale. Every short sale I close is a patient cured. Very rewarding. I love being a Realtor.  That is what I am.   

Go ahead and take short sale courses. List and close several and never GIVE UP!  They are ALL doable. Don't rely on your certificate. Rely on your diligence and tenacity.  If you get stuck on one call a friend.  Call me.  Or George.  We will gladly help.