The top 7 mistakes Realtors make while doing short sales make these listings more hassle, and far less likely to close, and end up costing agents money.
Mistake #1 – Not knowing the listing is a Short Sale from the very beginning.
If you don’t know that a home needs a short sale to get it sold before you list it, you may not find out until closing, or shortly before closing when the settlement statement is prepared. Then at the last minute you find out that the property isn’t going to close because the seller doesn’t have the money needed to bring to closing. All your time, effort and money you spent on this listing, and this transaction is wasted.
If you don’t realize that a listing is going to require a short sale at the time you are taking the listing, but you do know it by the time you’re signing a contract for the sale – by not being prepared beforehand you have set yourself up for time delays, and other problems. We often hear agents who have accomplished a short sale or two say they generally take 60 – 90 days. A short sale should take between 30 – 60 days. If it takes longer, then somewhere time is being wasted in the process, and I’m not talking about the time the lender wastes.
In a short sale situation, delays and taking too much time to get lender approval will often kill your deal. The buyer either can’t wait that long, or may give up and move on to another property.
But if you’re not prepared in advance, after getting the contract signed, you have to scramble to get together the documents you need for the short sale package that you will send the lender to get the approval. All the while you are wasting time, making it less likely that the buyer will wait for the lenders approval.
Sellers can be very slow at coming up with the financial documents that you will need, and you need these documents fast. Every day you waste at this point makes it less likely that you will get lender approval in time, before the buyer gives up and walks out on you.
If you are prepared in advance, once you get a completed contract it should take more than an hour to get the short sale sackage sent to the lender. No wasted time – no delays.
Not knowing that a listing is going to require a short sale also means you probably don’t have the listing agreement filled out appropriately, which could cause you trouble, and cost you money.
Chris Badger of Strategic Loss Mitigation, along with being a real estate Broker, is known as one of the top experts in Short Sales.
For more information see his blog at Short Sale Blog
For his complete Short Sale guide for agents, go to “The Ultimate Short Sale Success System”
[tags]Short sale, Short Sales, Agent Short Sale, Realtor Short Sale, Success, training, system[/tags]
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