Good morning Superstars. Have you ever been sued by a Seller or Buyer?? I haven't. But if I were I'd be ready to stand in front of any judge and defend myself.
It's my opinion that over the next few years there is going to be a huge increase in lawsuits against agents and brokers. Mostly related to Short Sales. That Seller you helped is going to be real pissed off, 5 years from now, when he is slapped with a deficiency judgment and his wages and assets are garnished.
Will you be prepared to defend yourself? Do you have a written record of what when down during the Short Sale process? Or did you just wing it?
Here are some things I do now to protect myself in the future. Hopefully there are a few you can implement into your business. Even better, maybe you have some ideas that I can use.
- Make sure you are covered with your E &O insurance.
- Use email as often as possible for communications so you have a written record of the conversations. If you do have a phone conversation with a customer/client follow up with an email and outline the points that were discussed. This also helps to eliminate confusion. "Your Honor he never told us that" Yes I did. Look here.
- Have a disclosure package at time of contract (listing or BBA) that outlines the short sale process in detail and what can be expected. Have this all signed and dated. "We thought he was giving us legal advice so we didn't hire an Attorney". Sorry, but you signed 3 different times that I was NOT an Attorney and that I was NOT giving legal advice.
- Have a log of every action you take related to the short sale. You can use Short Sale Commander for this. My Sellers share in this so that every time I make a notation they receive an update. A recent transaction had over 300 notations. That equates to 300 updates to my Seller. It would be very difficult for them to tell a Judge I didn't do my job properly. "Your Honor he didn't do anything and we were foreclosed on because of it". I don't think so.
- After each closing*** ask your customer/client to write you a testimonial. Place this in the file. "But your Honor read this. They said I was awesome!!"
*** Yes you MUST close on your short sales. You may lose some but you need to be hitting 90%+. Much easier to defend your position if you can prove your successes.
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Are you missing something? Are your short sales declined? Are you losing closings? Are you losing buyers? Losing sellers to foreclosure? Do you have to re-start your short sales dozens of times? Are your short sales taking forever? Are you stressed out over your short sale success or...worse, your short sale failure? And no one seems to be able to show you how to do it quickly, with no stress? UNTIL NOW. WE can HELP YOU Succeed with Short Sales! Broker Bryant and Wendy Rulnick... Real Answers from REAL PRACTICING SUCCESSFUL SHORT SALE BROKERS. We want to help you. Wendy and Bryant
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Comments
I love this post. This is exactly what I have been emphasizing to my team lately. You can do EVERYTHING RIGHT, but if you can't prove that you did, it could be the same as not doing it if you end up in court. I think it is important to document each and every one; you never know when a bank will elect to foreclose and you will need to show your clients you have been diligent in your efforts and that the bank's decision was due to internal factors or decision-making and not due to negligence on the agent's part.
I also use Short Sale Commander. You have a permanent record of what happened, it is great for team collaboration, and you can give your clients access to view your progress. I highly recommend this program.
I am with Bryant. I know alot of agents who use attorneys to handle their short sales and it can be hit or miss. When it is miss more than hit, I tell those agents that they really need a new group of friends :). Most of those agents do a fraction of the business I do in my area so I dont buy the realtors need to use a third party so they can go out and get more business.
I handle my own short sales too and protect my time and leverage myself with my team, not outsiders, and can say that I also do not buy into the inflated "time" that alot of third party companies claim it takes to do a short sale. As a matter of fact I interviewed a third party company and their value proposition was that I should be doing more productive things than spending all day on the phone. Not a good value prop because if they are spending all day on the phone, why would I want to send them 30 or 40 short sales to handle.
When I am ready for a third party there are two that I will be interviewing and they are great contributors to this site.
As far a the original post! thanks Bryant, great post!
Hi Elliot. I disagree. I have taken many short sales where the sellers were using attorneys. The attorneys failed and did nothing but charge the sellers $1,000s of dollars. I much prefer to handle the short sales myself and have the sellers seek legal advice when needed. Handling short sales is only a time waster of the agent is not organized. I can easily handle 30-40 short sales at a time. Attorneys don't handle short sales. Their staff does and unfortunately most are not available after hours to deal with lenders when needed.
Great post Broker Bryant! I always try and get things in email rather than phone to avoid the "he never told me that" syndrome. Sometimes you can just tell in advance that you need something in writing because you know your client is about to make a bad decision.
Anyone familiar with Sharefax Credit Union, and has ever completed a shortsale deal with that institution?