Why do I want to do Short Sales?

“Short Sales” is my favorite, I enjoy it and it’s a passion to help people on real estate distress, one of my greatest satisfactions is when everything was accomplished, I will tell you why:

I enjoy and feel full of satisfaction when people say to me from its heart how grateful they’re with two single magic words “Thank you” that means a lot, means you did something good to someone in need of help and that I helped someone on need of me, that feeling does not have a price changes 360 your world and make you feel that you accomplished that important mission.


What can be done to help make the Short Sale process run smoother?

I’m going to go straight to the point, we need to stick with every lender’s policies and rules and it doesn’t matter how simple we’d like to make the lender’s processes, we have to stick for what every lenders ask us to do and to comply with all short sale requirements needed so far.

What we really need to do is learn and be updated always if there are any lender’s changes in their guidelines, rules or policies.

You may add/change, what works for your state,

Let’s start:

1) Have handy the short sale paperwork needed as: contracts, disclosures, addendums, cheat sheets, I’m including here the most important paperwork required to do a great short sale Look Addendum A.

2) Ask your title company or attorney CO to do a fast search for any irregularities against the seller’s home that may have as: liens, judgments, etc. Remember that some lenders are not willing to pay some of those irregularities, avoid any future surprises and doing this you can know ahead where your seller is standing.

3) Order a HOA status letter so you will know where the seller’s is standing on and also you don’t disclosure something that you aren’t sure.

4) Don’t forget how complete, well done and structured a short sale package needs to be faxed, Include always a complete short sale, don’t waste the seller’s lender time and yours sending incomplete short sale packages. Remember: Exemptions may occur with different lenders, but generally all lenders love to receive complete short sales packages.

5) Have a good attitude when you speak with a short sale employee, many times your rate of success depends on how good or bad your handle the situation with the seller’s lender personnel, if you are getting upset or frustrated about the whole situation, then tell the employee that you will call later and when you feel in a good mood to speak with a seller’s lender personnel then call again.
6) Seller’s Lender personnel sometimes is the key, if you seem that the seller’s lender employee is giving you a hard time or being rude, then say “thank you for the update, I will call later” then you hang up and call again and VOILA you got a different person and that new person may have a different and fresh attitude, many times willing to help you or more knowledgeable, is like everything eh?

I’ve had rotten apples helping me on T-Mobile customer service and good apples as well, so what the bad apples couldn’t do for you the good ones could, that’s a rule.

7) Every lender is a little different, there is not a standard, but if you do your best to send a complete “standard” short sale package you will have fewer obstacles, fewer delays or new surprises, for instance: your short sale package was lost = “thrown away”, Note: You can ask to every lender their short sale packages requirements or you can include everything that I include on my package. Remember if your short sale package goes more solid with all information required, seller’s lender may not need more.

8) One call daily for a follow up every day to know where you file is standing; ask them to take notes for anything that you spoke with them, TIP I’ve experienced that if you call very early in the morning there are more chances that you are not waiting for long time on the phone line for a seller’s representative assistance.

9) Don’t trust all short sale employees what they say, some personnel they don’t have a clue what they are talking about, they can tell you something that you should not be doing, if you are unsure of something please ask someone that really has experience with short sales and you really trust as a fellow realtor here in this website.

10) Do a dateline list and write down: Date, Time, department that you spoke with name of the person with last name who helped you that day and your important notes there, I take a manila file and on the left side I write important information there on the right column, you can do it in your computer or any electronic agenda, etc.

11) If real estate is heading near the foreclosure sale date, call to the short sale department do an escalation for foreclosure sale postponement and never trust what they short sale departments tell you, until you have verified with the county that isn’t foreclosure sale date, can be through the web or by phone. Always verify that the information is true double checking with the county or the foreclosure attorneys that the foreclosure sale date was truly postponed. Bank of America short sale personnel says that you can call within 5 to 2 business days before the foreclosure sale date deadline, don’t call after or before because they don’t care for foreclosure postponements unless it is a critical situation, if you are working with a different lender ask them what is the time frame for foreclosure sale date postponements.

12) Include on all pages of your short sale paperwork “the loan numbers”, I write them as header on upper right side, TIP: You can save time using PDF scanner and copy and paste all the loan numbers fast.

13) In the authorization to release information include the Expiration date as well, some lenders they ask for that some others not, you can do it as standard!

14) Include a complete Cover Page with all paperwork you are faxing with special notes if possible and write down the number of all pages that you are including the cover page as well. Check Addendum B

15) Don’t forget to make sure that short sale package that you sent went successfully through, you need to keep a copy on file that they received your file with Date and Time and the fax number where your sent your short sale package..

16) Don’t forget to be 100% sure that the fax number that you were sending the short sale package is the right one, sometimes lender’s personnel they give you the wrong fax number to a different department or short sale state, so ask twice when you as for the fax number where you need to sell short sale package if that is the correct for your loan number.

17) Don’t forget that sometimes the Fax # for the authorization to release information is different than the fax # for the short sale package, verify with your seller’s lender the info if they don’t come in the short sale package.

18) Be honest to your CO-OP agents “Realtors”, so you know what to expect from the offers that you receive and how strong or weak the buyer(s) are to be waiting for the offer to be accepted.

19) Be honest with the seller’s lender negotiator of course when you get one assigned on your file, some negotiators tend to ask you several questions about the distress situation of your client, if you don’t know, don’t answer and say that you don’t know, if you know the answer something that your seller told you answer properly, don’t risk your file!

20) Before presenting offers to the seller’s lender, do a prescreen how strong and solid the buyer’s lender side is and ask your seller how they want to proceed if you got several offers, of course that you will suggest what you think that is better for your seller, but the seller takes the final decision what to do, remember that time is critical.

21) By the time the seller’s lender request a BPO, it’s time that recall buyer’s lender to have all docs handy from the buyer, so when you are receiving in written a seller’s lender approval, it is a green light for the buyer’s lender to proceed and not waste time.

22) Don't ever recommend that the buyer do their inspection and appraisal before you have approval in writing of the short sale, some states may differ, but here we need to have everything in writing.

23) Don't ever advise the seller to move out the property, especially when they have an FHA Mortgage, Remember that seller’s lender prefer that sellers are living in the house so they can take care of it.

24) If you are new on short sales, check your foreclosure laws from your state, every state is different, if you can redeem a property or not, etc.

25) Oh and don’t forget this, don’t ever give any bankruptcy, legal or tax advice, as always stick with your contracts, disclosures that conforms to your state real estate laws.


What do lenders need to do to help make the Short Sale process run smoother and faster?

Have professionals and qualified short sales personnel as: Managers, supervisors, underwriters, negotiators and the rest of the short sales staff personnel.

Have a quality control of professional trust worthy third party companies who orders BPO

Have a good organization and a standardization of the short sale process for all lenders to get faster responses in less time.

Communication between Realtors and Short Sale’s Department should be done through emails, lenders still don’t trust on this way of communication for lender’s policies.

Short Sale Packages should be as standard on PDF format and through email or be uploaded through their website to make easier and faster for everybody.

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