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Secret to Short Sale Success: Lining Up Buyers



If you want to be certain that your short sale is going to be successful, make sure you have one or more end buyer for the deal. The secret to short sale success is in your buyers list.

The most successful investors will start with building a buyers list, perhaps even in advance of selecting a property to acquire using a short sale. Many list services and online systems for investors are available to help you identify active buyers in your area and the price ranges they buy in. It is also possible to find this information out by hand by going to the courthouse or checking deed information for purchases by non-lender businesses and all cash individual buyers who are buying multiple properties in the area over a short period of time. These are the active investors in your area. Map out where they are buying and note the price ranges they buy in.

Contact these individuals to find out more specifically whether they are still interested in buying property in the area, and find out what exactly they are looking for. Are they rehabbers who want to fix up and resell properties in a certain area? Are they buy and hold buyers looking to rent the property? Are they your competitors in flipping property or do they prefer to wait until distress situations have been cured before they buy? While you might start your contacts with email or a letter, you must eventually start a conversation with these people to establish a level of trust.

Often times the regular investors in your area will be regulars at local real estate investor or landlord association meetings. They may also be active in a local chamber of commerce or business lead group. Start attending these meetings on a regular basis.

Then start targeting agents who have active short sale and REO listings in the areas where your active buyers want to own property and work hard to gain trust among these agents. Pinpoint the type of property that the buyers on your list want to own and make offers in the price ranges that will work for your buyers. You will quickly gain credibility with the agents who really work the short sale market once you’ve shown that you have great buyer contacts that are eager to put buy your deals for all cash.

Obviously, the most successful agents will have buyers’ lists of their own, and will be plugged in to marketing to find potential retail buyers as well. Between your investor-buyer contacts and the contacts of your best agents, it should be relatively easy to find end buyers for all of the well-targeted short sales that are priced right and in the right neighborhoods.

Duties and Responsibilities of a Short Sale Realtor



The short sale realtor usually deals in mortgage money and comes to a point of understanding where they lowers the amount remaining on the loan, allowing the property holder to sell of the asset at a much reduced price to balance the payment of the loan.

It is an intricate business where they are supposed to offer advice and ensure that you speak to the proper council. As a short sale realtor, you need to devote loads of time and put in some uphill struggle. This sort of a sale includes a lot of parties including the property owner, the lender, the investor who owns the loan, the purchaser and the negotiator.

Duties & responsibilities

• The most important duty of a short sale realtor is to guide the clients through a probable way by which they are able to purchase a short sale home. They are looking forward to sale the property at a reduced price after discussing the steps needed to be taken that leads to the purchase of the short sale property.

• There are many short sale realtors who would be ready to help you in different scenarios but you have to be wise and sensible while choosing them. You got to identify the most efficient and effective dealer among them.

• The ideal realtor would come up with considerable ideas that would either work within your given funds and resources or else would discard the offer. If the short sale property does not give them some money, they would prefer not to sell the property.

• There are few realtors engaged in short selling process who does not charge a fee for their service and on the other hand there are also companies that are involved in scams. So be very alert while opting for this kind of services.

• Usually the realtors have the basic responsibility of solving your home and property requirements. While getting in touch with any of these companies, make sure you do an extensive research on the property you are looking for as well on the realtor company so that you get a proper return out of the investment you make.

The prime function

The short sale realtor includes specific expertise on the technicalities of a real property transaction and provides room to the sellers so that they gain monetarily by selling the property to the maximum bidder. The realtors assists the clients by offering suggestive measures to be adapted while selling a property and it includes identification of the potential buyers, the way you should negotiate, the tactic required to position your sale and tuning the dealing that would effect to maximum profit.

How to Write a Short Sale Hardship Letter: A Guide for Agents



The short sale hardship letter could be the deciding factor of whether or not a lender will allow a short sale. While the homeowner is ultimately responsible for this step, as a real estate agent the more you know and share, the more likely you can help them.

Start by planning out what you will say in the short sale hardship letter. Write a list of every idea you and your client can come up with about why they can’t afford to make the house payments. Be specific and thorough about why you are having financial difficulties. Maybe there was a recent job loss. Perhaps medical bills or increased property taxes have hit them hard. Divorce, credit card debt, and to a lesser extent, a child’s college tuition can all be pieces of the puzzle they will have to assemble and present to the lender.

This step should be like brainstorming. Don’t think too much; just write whatever comes to mind. They might not be the actual reasons for the hardship, but you need to get the juices flowing.

Next look at your client’s short sale hardship letter ideas and pick the most obvious and serious reasons that affect their financial situation. Try to think like the lender. They see hundreds of these a week. What would they consider truly crucial, and overwhelmingly detrimental? A combination of lowered income (death, layoffs, disability) and raised, unavoidable expenses (like medical bills) are probably your best bet.

When putting together the actual short sale hardship letter, the number one rule is to keep it under a page in length and in paragraph form. The letter will not get the attention it deserves if it is too long or difficult to scan easily.

Make the short sale hardship letter as business like as possible. That means business format for the address and date. The RE: line should read “RE: Request for short sale – (Your loan # and property address).” Address the letter “Dear (Bank’s name) Representative.”

In the first paragraph of the short sale hardship letter have your client address the changes that have happened that makes them no longer able to afford the payments. In the second paragraph state why the area is bad. List increased taxes, declining property values, and any foreclosures on your street.

The third and fourth paragraphs should list the following with as much detail as the client can manage: wrongdoing by mortgage loan broker, bad adjustable mortgage loan on the property, hardships (from your original list).

In the final paragraph of the short sale hardship letter, have the client clearly state that they “Cannot Pay” and need to short sale the home. Leave no other options available. Include the client’s contact info and the agent’s contact info for “further information,” sign and date the letter and hand it to the attorney or lender in person.