Short Sale Sellers Need Consideration.....Are We Treating Them With Care?

Can you imagine anything worse than having to sell your home as a short sale? I can't! These aren't the people who are "working the system" they are losing their homes and they are doing the best they can to address the problem head first. They are not simply walking away and they are not beating the doors full of holes. They are facing the situation and trying to do the best they can for their families. They are spending months waiting, wondering, working and worrying. Often, they are beaten down...and the way Realtors treat them is not helping.

I was out yesterday showing homes and one was a short sale. I called a couple days ahead to make the appointment and showed up in that time frame. While I was there 2, count them 2, different Realtors with clients just walked through the front door after us to "see" the home as well. In this case, one said that they had tried to set an appointment and had been told "no" since they already had someone coming....me. The sellers didn't want that many people through at once. I told her I had an appointment and she just smiled and went on in with her clients "you don't mind if we come in too, do you?" casually thrown at the seller. What could they do?

The seller in this case was a young family. The husband works Saturdays and she was home alone with a newborn and toddler. She just tried to follow everyone around to close doors so the cats didn't escape and make sure they were quiet in the baby's room. My client was an older couple and although this home was not going to work for them, they were very concerned about this young seller and chatted with her about the baby and her upcoming move. When I left, I saw another car pull up....hopefully that Realtor had an appointment.

What I noticed is that the Realtors did not spend any time wooing the seller....as we would do in an equity sale. It's taking the consideration right out of the deal. We all know that listing prices are artificially low and someone is going to get a great price....so it's just a matter of timing. But they are being treated like a cattle call. We would never expect an equity seller to just allow a herd of people through their home with no notice, would we? Then why expect this of the most vulnerable of sellers?

I was saddened by this experience and I've been guilty of "forcing" appointments myself...."We'll only be a minute, don't worry about cleaning, we can look past that, don't feel like you need to leave, I only have this client for one day".....but I'm going to be more gentle from now on. These short sale sellers have made a difficult decision and are losing their homes, the very least we can do as a profession is treat them with the respect they deserve!