Seller Cooperation is KEY to Short Sale Success
I've been a Northern Virginia Short Sale Agent since 2007. If there is one thing I know about a Short Sale, it is that the banks will drive you crazy with requests. Requests to get someone in to photograph your home and do an evaluation of your property. Paperwork requests...those are endless and repetitive. If you aren't up for the quick turnarounds required of you, a Short Sale may not be for you. Cooperation is key.
Last week, I was scheduled to meet with potential Short Sale Sellers who had found me online. We hadn't even signed a listing agreement and already, they were hot under the collar about the BPO. I informed them that the agent conducting the BPO had to get inside to take photos and needed to have their report to the bank within forty-eight hours. The Sellers were livid. They felt it was my job to tell the bank NO to the interior photos and to get a more reasonable time frame for the BPO Agent to come by. Apparently, twenty-four hours notice wasn't good enough for these two. Needless to say, I walked away before the listing agreement was signed. If you can't deal with a simple BPO request from the bank, your knickers are really going to be in a twist when they start requesting personal financial documents. "It's none of your business," doesn't work on banks. It IS their business. If you won't cooperate with the banks, you are wasting your time pursuing a Short Sale.
The banks don't care that you can't locate your latest pay stub or last year's tax returns. They don't care that it is a pain to get an arm's length affidavit notarized, or that is cost you x number of dollars for the notary's service. They just want it DONE. And if you can't do that, you aren't likely to get very far in the Short Sale process.
A good Short Sale Agent like myself will prepare you for what your bank will want. Listen to us when we tell you what we will need. Start gathering those documents now. If you wait until the last minute, you are only hurting yourself and making your own Short Sale more complicated.
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