Short sales....the real story

I have 37 Listings and 35 of them are short sales.  32 are in escrow. and 17 of them are approved.  Let me tell you that there is more to short sales than agents know.  I like many realtors do not make offers on short sales only because the listing agent does not have a clue what to do.  I'm sorry Bill Fiore, but calling your post "the real story" is a bit misleading.  Before You take on a short sale you must first understand the process and if you think you already know, you don't.  It's actually quite simple.  In a typical transaction you have a buyer a seller, 2 agents, and a loan officer/lender.  You have a client who wants to sell his house so you go on the listing appt and you find out he owes more than what it's worth so you sell the idea of a short sale to your client.  He gives you an authorization letter to talk to the bank and you request a short sale package.  You then put it into the MLS.  You don't know how to price it so you go low to get some activity.  Meanwhile, you collect what the bank wants and send it off.  Four months later, the offers you had are no longer interested and you have to start over. The other agents hate you and believe you to be incompetent; your seller also hates you.  Everyone hates you.  I hate you.  Sorry no sympathy for those who want to learn on the fly.  There are too many agents out there screwing things up.  You handle everything in the same way a normal transaction would be handled.  You even open escrow and collect a deposit, get a termite report, order disclosures, everything.  Once you have buyers loan approval you send that along with a hud1, termite, appraisal, and from your seller your short sale package from the bank which should include a hardship letter with a detailed explanation of why they can't pay their mortgage and a monthly budget that totals all of their monthly income and expenses showing their inability to pay their bills, 2 years 1040's, 2 months bank statements, and 2 recent paycheck stubs.  If you don't have all of the items above your file is going nowhere!  Do not send the bank pieces.  You see, when you call the bank you will talk to a nobody.  When you start to send items they will get delivered to a department filled with nobodies who will collect them and place them in a stacking order and replace them at the bottom of the pile until it is complete.  Once you have a complete and I mean complete package, you send it off where it will get looked at by a nobody who will order a BPO,(Appraisal) and place it on the desk of the person who has delegated authority along with the BPO.  You then call the bank and get routed to that person.  Your short sale will get approved or denied in about 10-15 days after that.  What will get it approved depends on how convincing your package is. Did you prove to the bank that you are selling the house for as much as you can get and that there is a financial hardship and that the buyer's loan is solid.  Like a rock.  Oh and you have to defend your commission too!  I hope you documented everything you did to sell that listing for top dollar.  Anything short of that please send them to me and get a referral. 626-523-3492

PS. Seller and buyer cannot be related or affiliated in any way.