Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron Tarvin on June 10, 2011 at 8:52am

I've not seen that from Wells to be sure. In fact, I have a Wells Short Sale that they went 6% plus a $2000 bonus AND gave an approved list price...it sort of blew my mind.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on June 10, 2011 at 8:53am

Must be specific to the investor because we regularly get 6% from both BofA and Wells

Permalink Reply by Sean Barrow on June 10, 2011 at 9:34am

I'm glad to hear that, thank you both.  Have you ever been able to get anything in writing that specifies an investors guidelines?

Permalink Reply by Lillie Handy Dominguez on June 10, 2011 at 9:50am

Sean,

Since 2 years ago, I always get 6% with all banks, especially Bank of America.  Prior to a government policy that came out stating that Banks could not negotiate Agent commission, many banks countered the 6% commisson.  Since then, I haven't had any counter, however, I do about 6-12/yr and maybe that not enough statistics.   If there is 1 Realtor, they will counter 3 or 4 percent.  I'll still ask for more. 

 

Be persistent and If I find that policy, I'll upload it.  If you did this short sale on Equator, they will usually counter 5% on the system.  Make sure and catch this and correct it and let them know you found a system error with the commission on Equator.  Don't ask them for it, just let them know it's 6%.

 

When banks used to counter me the commission below 6%, I'd provide the argument that: -

 "Few agents that do them because short sales are time intensive and challenging, risky and there are no guarantees of success, therefore, they should congratulate those of us who do and inform their investors to realize that Reators work very hard with short sales (it's not news to them, they know this) and deserve the 6% commission (I believe sometimes more)  Should they want to continue doing short sales successfully, to please appreciate the work Realtors do and accept the 6%, otherwise, many other realtors will stop doing them"

Also compliment the Negotiator and the Investors for working with you on the short sale and doing their best as you also know that they have alot of them on their plate and you want to be part of their team of success.

 

Permalink Reply by Sean Barrow on June 10, 2011 at 11:59am

Thank you Lillie,

If you could find that policy I'd love to see it.  The reply I sent was somewhat similar to yours, and I am of course always very respectful in my communications. I always assume that whether or not I like the outcome that I'm currently looking at, the negotiators are working a fairly thankless job they at least deserve to be spoken with politely.  Have a great weekend!

Permalink Reply by Lillie Handy Dominguez on June 10, 2011 at 1:09pm

Sean,

see the following website under "Short Sale Commissions".  However, it states that it only applies to Fannie Mae loans.  Not all of mine have been Fannie mae.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/real-estate-commission-laws-6731.html

http://activerain.com/blogsview/973498/short-sale-lenders-cannot-re...

Freddie Mac's guidelines - 6%    http://leadme2u.com/uploads/Freddie_Mac_SS_Commission_Policy.pdf

Freddie, Fannie & Hud approve 6%    http://theagentinsider.com/most-short-sales-now-pay-a-full-6-real-e...

 

Hope this helps. Have an awesome weekend......Lillie

Permalink Reply by Maya Thomas on June 11, 2011 at 12:51pm

You can ask the seller to write a letter asking the servicer who the investor is.  The request is a called a qualified written request or QWR. Then go directly to the investor with the commission information and request.

Permalink Reply by Dean Ouellette on June 12, 2011 at 6:10am

Sean I recently had one like this too, just 2 weeks ago. The second was saying could only pay 5%, I told them the seller could not afford to pay me the extra 1% and I did the work so would not accept a lower commission. They insisted the investor would not budge. we bickered back and forth for about 5 minutes then I told her how about we just submit and see what happens because we would hate for this to go to foreclosure. Thursday I got the approval letter 6%. Now there was one earlier this year year I fought a lot and ended up taking 5%, but usually they will pay the 6

Permalink Reply by Sean Barrow on June 14, 2011 at 9:32am

Lillie, thank you for those articles!

Maya, thank you for the suggestion, this is one our potential next steps.

Dean, that's great to hear.  I'll let you know if I can get the same result!