In the last Chapter 4, we learned what happens when you get an offer to purchase your home as a Short Sale: Short Sales for Sellers (Chapter 4) What happens when you get an offer to purchase.  Now, the offer has come in and all required documentation has been submitted to your Lender.  Now, you sit back and wait; WRONG! You sit back but your Realtor doesn't. The fun is just beginning!

Now we are in the negotiation phase of a Short Sale. This isn't for the faint of heart or for those who don't like to push the envelope. Your Realtor must be sharp as a tack, willing to break out in sweat to get the job at hand completed and be ready to negotiate.

Let's take a look at some of the things that can likely happen to your Realtor during this phase:

• The Short Sale documentation that they have already sent in gets lost and they must re-send.
• The Lender's Loss Mitigation negotiator gets re-assigned and your Realtor is now working with someone new.
• Your Realtor calls what seems like a hundred times and the negotiator doesn't return their call or they have been fortunate enough to have the negotiators email address but they never respond.

The scenarios above can happen but aren't necessarily always a given.  Your Realtor may be fortunate enough to get your documents through on the first time, be assigned an efficient negotiator who does return your calls and emails - Hallelulia!

The effectiveness of a negotiation has a lot to do with what has been provided to your Lender:

• Have they been provided with an analysis of the current market subject property? Such as closed sales, months of inventory, active listings in area, etc.
• Does your offer to purchase coincide within a range of fair market value? You'll have a tough time with 50% of fair market value unless the properties condition warrants such.
• Of course, we're also assuming that your Lender has been forwarded the standard documents that support your hardship, as the Seller. A detail of such can be found in past Chapters: Short Sale for Sellers (Chapter 2)

Making regular contact with the your Lender by your Realtor is key, not to the point of being annoying but persistent and regular. It's not the aim of your Realtor to annoy the heck out of the negotiator but to let them know that they are a professional and will do what it takes to get them to see that your offer is a good offer. Your Realtor must be prepared to seek others out if they're not getting through to your negotiator.

Some items that may be in line to be negotiated are:

• Purchase price
• Seller contribution
• Realtors commission
• Pursuit of deficiency
• Any past due home owner association fees
• per diem late charges past initial approved closing date
• etc.

What it really all boils down to is, if you have your Realtor who truly believes in the offer that you have and their ability to have success for all parties involved than the chances are going to be pretty good that you can take your Short Sale to close.

 Let the negotiations begin!

The more you know, the better prepared, the better the outcome.  Stay tuned for the next Chapter addressing Short Sales. Come back soon to see the next released Chapter. 

Got something that you'd like addressed, let me know.

I serve Coral Springs and the surrounding cities such as Coconut Creek, Parkland and Sunrise in Broward and Dade and Palm Beach County of South Florida as your dedicated Realtor ready to work for you. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Call me at 954-464-1100 or email me at: lynnp@ImagineYourHouse.com