The Short Sale Dilemma

I just took the SFR (Short Sale and Foreclosure certification course). I am so glad that I did. Realtors really need to learn how to successfully complete a short sale. Taking this course was well worth the money and time.

I don't like short sales and I don't recommend them to my buyers clients

Atlanta Real Estate Listings and Homes for Sale

Greg,

I read your full post. Some agents are successfully completing short sales en masse - so does that make them successful real estate agents? Some hire "negotiators" to do the hardest part - battling it out with the lender or servicer, leaving the agent to spend time lead generating and marketing. The lenders and servicers seem overwhelmed by the volume so they can't process large volumes in reasonable amounts of time. They need to hire and train more people, but seems they're backlogged on that too. Government throws in some "guidelines" (every-other week) and the constantly changing rules or procedures keep everybody in confusion. The LEFT hand hasn't been introduced to the RIGHT hand yet. Designation courses costing hundreds of dollars are popping up - but who certifies the certifiers? How does a two or three day course make one an "expert" at anything? It's one thing to market a property and get it to a closing, but quite another to initiate, manage and take responsibility for the outcome when the transaction is as legally complex as a short sale. I think we are edging dangerously close (designations or not) to the unlicensed practice of law when we "negotiate" with a lender on behalf of a seller (and quite literally their future)in a short sale. If the dust from all of this ever settles, I believe there will be years of lawsuits following. Then these negotiation firms will scatter and disappear like the cockroach mortgage brokers of the boom years did. I also think that there may be cases where a servicing company is compensated better for handling a foreclosure than a short sale, therefore the short sale drags on til it dies and becomes a foreclosure.

Hey Greg!  I think that you can get plenty of education on AR and Short Sale superstars!  I have chosen not to take the various courses due to the amount of research I have done over the past 18 months!  Nothing seems to replace time in the trenches!

Greg, I too took the CDPE Course.  I think one of the most critical things was the pre-listing checklist and dialogue.  Too many agents aren't preparing their sellers for the comittment necessary from the seller to submit a full and complete packet.  They just take the listing, slap a too-low price on it and then wait.  I learned some key information, helping me ask better questions when representing a buyer.  How those answers come back often helps me encourage or discourage a buyer from a particular short sale. After all, the knowledge and communication of the listing agent can make or break the deal, just as much as the bank can.