Everyone talks about the low closing percentages for short sales. But, what about the real estate teams that are closing more than the national average? There are teams we know that are closing 70-90% of their short sales. What are they doing to successfully bust-up-the-banks and keep buyer and sellers on the hook all the way to a successful close?
They:
• Have Persistence
• Set Proper Expectations with ALL Parties
• Do Thorough Research
• Have Strong Analytical Skills
• Understand their Market
• Seek Out the BEST Training
• Know the Importance of Strong Follow-Up
• Have a Well Planned Strategy
• Own A Belief in the WIN
• Are Always “On Their Toes” Creative
• Know the Power of Teamwork
• Are Skilled Negotiators
None of those skills are oddities. These are the skills that every real estate agent worth their salt should have. So, if every agent has the skills needed to close a high percentage of short sales, then every agent should be getting a high percentage of short sales to the table. Right? YES.
Here is an example of a tough short sale case that is like many that we see agents let fall apart. This is a real case that closed at our office recently: Seller was in severe distress and facing a scheduled foreclosure date. Agent had tried to sell their home for over a year at pay-off even though that amount was over 30% higher than an average of comparable sales. The seller just wasn’t ready to acquiesce to the idea selling as a short. But with the pending foreclosure date, the seller finally allowed the agent to lower the list price to a number that fell well within the comparable range. At current fair market value list price the property immediately received a reasonable offer. The agent then did a great job of prepping the buyers and their agent to be patient with the process.
The file was uploaded to our system and a pre-lim title report was turned in to us. Agghhhh – there were 2 junior liens, a sizeable condo association lien being handled by an incorrigible attorney, unpaid utilities, and a State Department of Revenue tax lien. Plus, the primary lender is known for being tough to work with and the holders of the second mortgage are known to never be agreeable. The buyers had no extra money and the sellers had no extra money. So, the deal was not going to work without everyone working together and the primary lien holder getting a net that met their requirements. Most agents and loss mitigators would have run screaming from a deal like this, but we saw a strategy and decided to run with it.
So what happened? First, the BPO agent was knowledgeable and more than agreed with the list price. A realistic BPO helped us considerably. During review we got the sale date postponed twice. This gave us enough time to get all lien holders to reduce accept for the incorrigible attorney. The Seller sold some items on ebay to pay off the condo association. We got 2% contributions to closing costs approved for the buyer, 5% for the agents, and our costs covered
Now, don’t get me wrong, this was not a quick easy deal. Getting this one to the table was a tough case. The buyer got wiggy and had to have their hand held. We had to get dirty with the lenders and even had one of our team banned. But, this would have just been another foreclosure statistic with the likelihood of sitting on the market forever as a foreclosure if we hadn’t stepped it up and got it done. Everyone came out on the winning side. The seller sent over a beautiful testimonial to the agent, broker, and our team.
Want help strategizing your next short sale? Be sure to Ask an Expert for information about our deal analysis programs and if you haven’t signed up for the Newsletter, be sure to do that now.
TO YOUR SUCCESS!
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