SHORT selling your home is such an important and stressful step in your life and it’s the springboard into your future so you wont have anymore sleepless nights. It is critical you interview and choose the right agent working for you not themselves.
Never choose agent out of obligation just because you might be related or have a spoken to them previously about your current situation.
Because once the home is on the market and it’s not selling you find yourself wondering, “Is this agent really the right one?” Better do your homework and talk to your realtor carefully and ask to see proof that they have closed and experience in dealing with short sales.
What to look for in a Short Sale agent:
1. Experience
Short sales require a thorough process so agents should be used to handling them on a regular basis. With this kind of experience comes success. Agents who do short sales even a couple of times a year do not have enough experience.
Short sale agents should be working on them daily. This enables them to become familiar with the banks and gather the right contacts to get the deals done. If you’re in a position where the bank is nonresponsive, you need an agent on your side that knows exactly who to call to get an answer fast.
A Short Sale application has to be done right the first time otherwise you will have to wait a while just to realize that your agent did not submit correct documents and you would have to start the process over again.
2. Proof of closing previous short sales
Once you meet your agent, they have to be showing you proof of Short Sale Approval letter stating recent closing that they have done. Banks are so structured that every thing you do with them has to be in writing verified. Therefore if your agent has done a Short Sale before, they have to be able to show you Approval letters from different lenders justify their track record.
3. Open communication lines with all parties involved
A good agent will keep you in the loop and always be reachable. Selling your home can be stressful and confusing, you need to be able to contact your agent and receive answers in a timely manner. If you can’t get in touch with your agent easily, imagine how hard it’s going to be for the bank to communicate with them. Remember, the banks aren’t nearly as patient as you are. Banks don’t make a habit of calling agents back, therefore if someone tells you that they are waiting on the banks return calls, that means they actually might not have called the bank. On an initial Short Sale we usually call the bank a couple of times a week, once a negotiator steps into the picture we tend to call the bank 3-4 times a week to get updates. Think about it, if you call them enough they will be annoyed and pull your file and take care of you because they don’t want to get your voicemail or email again, right! It works for me.
4. Good communication skills and a good-mannered agent are important.
Good communication with the banks is an absolute must. The only way an agent is going to have this type of communication is if they do short sales on a daily basis. There is no way around this. We hear more often than not about sellers dealing with agents that can’t seem to get through to the bank. Ag
5. Make sure your agent is not doing your Short Sale for their own interest.
An agent must list the property properly for all other agents to have access and fair shot at the property. More so often agents are not honest and have tried to bring their own buyers unethically to get more commission. You must be aware that the banks are smarted than you think; they have a good assessment of how much your property can sell or should sell. So, interview your agents properly and make sure they are working for your interest not their own.
The banks are starting to work with government agencies to speed up the short sale process into a maximum of 60 days for approval. There are always a lot of factors involved and every case is unique to itself. So, if you agent is familiar with the bank process and understands how to close a short sale then you will go thru this closing with less to no stress. Otherwise you will be pulling your hair prior to closing.
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Please call me Ken Go of 1st Innovative Finance Group and I will help you understand the process of short sale. Ken Go is a mortgage broker with experience in home financing and short sales. Call Ken at (562) 508-7048 or write to [email protected] for your inquiries or comments.