Listen To Your Short Sale Sellers
This post was inspired by reading one of my Inner Circle Agent's (Scott Ferguson) blog posts
In it, he talks about the importance of actually listening to your clients needs. Not a novel concept of course, but one that we as sales people tend to forget (read his post, you'll thank me later).
Nothing is truer with short sale sellers. The only "given" is that they will walk away from a closing with no cash (and even this may not be a given that they understand right away without your help). Other than that, there's simply no telling what's going through their head:
- Bankruptcy
- Just Let It Foreclosure
- Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure
- Staying in the house vs. moving out
- Maintaining the house dung the short sale
- Cooperating with showings
- Showing up at closing
- Providing all the needed paperwork for the short sale throughout the entire process
You've got to find out up front what they're thinking & what their expectations are. If not, you'll spend a lot of time trying to sell a short sale only to have them file bankruptcy a week before closing (ask me how I know). The defense? Asking great questions and listening.
Remember, your short sale seller is going through two hardships - always: The first is whatever happened to them to cause them to get behind and stare at a foreclosure (job loss, divorce, death of a spouse, disability, etc). The second hardship is the foreclosure itself and all of the stress and anxiety that goes along with it.
Asking good open ended questions, decided to get inside of their head, will help you learn what they are really thinking and help you determine if they will be in there with you over the long haul during the short sale process.
Dedicated To Your Success,
Joel
Short Sale Negotiations: you earn FULL COMMISSION and no fee to buyer/seller - www.GreatLakesShortSales.com
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