I have successfully completed a few short sales. I've been on both sides of the table as the listing agent and the buyer agent. I've taken classes and I have obtained my LMC (Loss Mitigation Certification). I certainly have learned a lot but still find the time frame it takes to complete a short sale frustrating. My newest listing in Mashpee, MA is a short sale and the seller and I have hired a mediator. She seems great and we are excited. She has had a lot of success. But, I wonder, will the process be smoother? Will it be any quicker? Today is Jan 26, 2009 and we are submitting an offer to Chase bank today. I'd love comments of others experiences when using a Short Sale mediator/negotiator. And I will be sure to put up another post when the transaction is complete.
Colleen -
My suggestion - monitor her closely! The listing is still YOUR responsibility.
I've seen some mediators work well, others falter, with poor follow up. Never ASSUME anything.
My two cents anyway - good luck with the listing and sale!
Say - you know my friend Annie Hart Cool from The Cape? If you do, tell her I say hello!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
Colleen;
Best of luck to you with the mediator! I'm looking forward to hearing about the outcome!
-Karin :)
Have not considered this option. We have been discussing contracting witha local attorney to gain access to their "Clout" to expedite the process. We will likely come to some agreement and will post the results.
I know, Dean, you make a really valid point. Fortunately, I did talk to 6 different agents who were very happy with her work. But, just because she is taking some burden off me doesn't mean I shouldn't be in touch with her consistently. And I appreciate the reminder. Yes...I do know Annie but I dont' run into her often. I love making the connections though. Thanks everyone for the comments.
Caution: it's too easy for 3rd party mediators to become overwhelmed with files as is often seen when title companies handle short sales. I haven't found that attorneys are any more successful either - the attorneys don't make the calls - their staff make the calls - and again, they can only do so much in a day - they get their paycheck every Friday regardless of the short sale success. as a matter of fact, the short sales that have been dragged out the longest are those handled by attorneys (I have 3 of those in process right now, one is over a year!)
the most successful third party negotiators are those that receive a fee only when the transaction closes and like mentioned above, even those need to be closely monitored.
Wendy, I like your points. Fortunately, this is being handled by a negotiator who will only be paid when the transaction closes. You are right, this is a much greater incentive to keep the process moving along. I plan to stay in close contact with her. Good luck with your 3! Colleen
Hi from Texas,
I am in the process of doing a short sale with Chase, I don't need any more middle men or anything to confuse it anymore. I admit this is my first short sale and boy let me tell you, lets say I faxed a 100 pages to them on December 23rd, 2008, Here it is January 27th, BPO has been done. I call there every other day and ask about the status, same answer is we are waiting for a Negotiater to be assigned. I sit there and ask them till I am blue in the face of who can tell me any more than this, come on. My take is that there is not enough Negotiators. I guess there must be one for every 1000 files or something. Why don't they hire more of them is what I want to know, the time they take to even get to the point of getting the file assigned, certainly makes times worse for both parties in the transactions. Buyers get disinterested and can leave the deal , or even the seller might not be able to continue making payments. I would like any advice that anybody can give me to help push this harder. I would definitely do this again, but next time I guess send them starbucks coupons or something. Maybe that would help, haha... Anyways thanks.
Hi Casandra. I wanted to wish you luck with your short sale. The first one I did as a Sellers Agent, in retrospect, wasn't that bad. It was Fall of 2007 and the Seller took care of all the financial paperwork that had to be done. He called the bank every few days and I did as well. The worst part was the few days before the closing. We had been given the verbal agreement of the arrangement but we needed it in writing. The person at the mortgage company that we were dealing with kept saying we would have it but we didn't get it until 8:30 am for a 9am closing. My advice: make a sheet of stickers that has the name and account number on it to stick on everything you fax to them. Keep copies of the fax confirmation. Continue to call every other day. Have the seller call too. Don't cut your commission - you will work too hard for this. Make sure the HUD has everything on it...smoke inspection/home warranty/water or sewer charges/ commission/atty fees...anything you can think of. The bank won't do well with covering last minute expenses and may delay everything on you. And, finally, if the seller and Buyer are told up front this is a 4 to 6 month process then you have set their expectations and hopefully they will understand the time frame is long. Good luck!
Colleen Im just curious. Does the negotiatior get paid by the bank in addition to your commission?
Wendy, So far so good. We have 2 offers on the property and she had all the paperwork submitted the day we received the offer. In just 2 weeks, she had a name of who the file was assigned to. It has taken me 3 months in the past to get a name! Still no response on the offer though. Next step should be to have the BPO assigned. Thanks!
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