Editor’s Note: Sandra Bridges, head of the Short Sale Help department at HomeTown Realtors in Auburn, shares her experiences in Home $$$s and Sense about what it takes to close a short sale in the current real estate market.
Dear Sue,
As a professional short sale negotiator I would like to share my experiences and opinions about the ups and downs of the short sale process.
To begin with I have been negotiating short sales for a number of Northern California Realtors and their clients for the last three years.
I have spent hours, days even months obtaining a written approval from the seller’s lender only to discover that the buyer has vanished or the seller is unwilling to sign the lender approval letter.
Either way, the short sale doesn’t close. Everyone loses.
I have found that the key to successfully closing a short sale is compassion, the management of realistic expectations and regular communication.
Sellers need to know that they are not alone. More than 50 percent of the transactions taking place today are depressed property sales.
Home sellers are very emotional, and rightly so. They are often depressed, angry or ashamed. They never thought in a million years that they would be in the position of a short sale.
Their situation requires compassion and understanding, and above all professional guidance from the first step to the last.
Sellers can begin setting realistic expectations by seeking the counsel of a reputable real estate or tax attorney.
Believe it or not a seller is sometimes better off going through the foreclosure process. A real estate attorney is the only one that can give that kind of advice.
Under certain circumstances the lender may agree to sell for less than they are owed but hold on to their legal rights to pursue a deficiency judgment against the borrower.
A real estate attorney can determine if a judgment is a possibility.
Sellers should know and accept where they stand legally before listing their property for sale.
Once the property is listed, complete and prompt submission of the necessary paperwork is a must. The more complete the package the smoother the short sale process.
Short sale buyers are getting great deals. In a sense they are being paid to wait for the negotiating process to take place. But in my experience, 30 percent of those buyers walk away because they get impatient and buy something else.
It would help if short sale buyers knew that the negotiation process can take anywhere from a month to four months, and in some cases longer.
Patience is the key.
I would suggest that agents open escrow with a deposit when the short sale offer is made and accepted. There’s nothing like having a skin in the game.
I also think that it would be wise for the buyer to review the sellers’ disclosures and do as many inspections and investigations as possible at the beginning of the escrow period instead of waiting for lender approval.
The agents that I work with that are the most successful at closing short sales have a regular communication system in place.
It can be e-mail, phone calls or texts. It’s whatever is comfortable for the client.
Those agents also have periodic meetings with the buyers to extend the negotiating time allowed in the short sale addendum.
The idea is to stay in the game by being on the same page.
I have found that it takes a team to process a short sale. The lawyers, tax attorneys, lenders, sellers and buyers and agents that bring them together and of course, the short sale negotiator.
Sandra Bridges can be reached at (530) 852-2858.
Sue Thompson is owner and sales manager of HomeTown Realtors in Auburn. She can be reached at seesue@seehometown.com, or on the web at homedollarsandsense.com.
