Short sales....love them or hate them, you better learn to deal with them. For the last few years, I avoided short sales like the plague. Last year I listed a few for past clients as a service to them. Of course, I used a "short sale negotiator" and each one did close...eventually.
Looking towards my 2010 business plan, I realized that short sales were not going away and that I needed to change with the times and dive in. Well dive we did. I purchased and read everything with "short sale" in the title and studied diligently. Through my research I determined that preparing a full packet was not so difficult. In fact, it was eerily similar to preparing a loan packet. Next, I discovered while going on short sale listing appointments that clients had very few objections to me listing their home. They welcomed me into their homes and trusted me to help them through a very difficult time in their life.
Submitting the packet and conducting business with the customer service personnel was not nearly as difficullt as I had been led to believe. Most importantly, working with the banks negotiators overall has been fruitful. Periodically, we have need to escalate calls to get to the right decision maker but overall we are seeing much improvement in turn times. In the last three months we have averaged 31 days from submission to approval on our short sales with a better than 90% approval rate.
In a nut shell, here are some important things that I have learned:
- Take the time and read about short sales. Knolly Williams has a great book entitled "7 Days to success with Short Sales."
- Don't be afraid to call your upside past clients. They will find comfort knowing that you care and confidence that you can help.
- When dealing with the banks - Don't accept a "No" from a person that lacks the authority to say "Yes."
- Take a position of Authority.
- Advocate for each client with the same determination that you would for yourself.
Comments(1)