Bradley Group International, LLC

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SELECTING YOUR SHORT SALE REALTOR

We have a lot of passion about what we do to help homeowners and find it necessary to talk about selecting your Realtor to help you with your Short Sale.

IMPORTANT POINTS

Having a real estate license by no means should infer they have any proficiency at all to do a short sale. For most Realtors even those in business for 30+ years this is the first and most extensive market involving short sales.

National average for successful short sale negotiations is just around 22%. That means 8 out of every 10 home owners trying to do a short sale ended up in foreclosure. HORRIBLE numbers created by Realtors with no education or knowledge doing short sales thinking they would figure out along the way.

Negotiation skills are paramount to your success. Aggressive or an arrogant stance with the banks negotiators will find your file in the trash - welcome to your foreclosure

INTERVIEWING YOUR SHORT SALE REALTOR

Ask them their numbers

How many homes have they listed as Short Sales?

How many of those generated ratified offers?

Don't forget your Realtor still needs to be able to generate offers on your home before they can get you to a successful short sale approval!

- Of those what percentage closed?
- How many active short sale listings do they have?
- How many are they currently negotiating?
Have they closed Short Sales with two different lien holders?
What is their average time to approval for 1 loan versus 2 loans with different banks?
- - It should be about 3 months for 1 loan
  - and about 3 to 4 months for 2 loans with different banks
  - These number can vary greatly depending on the lender and your Realtors systems.
Do they negotiate their own short sales or do they use a third party negotiator?
Do they have assistants on staff to help with short sales?
How often do they follow up with the bank(s)?
- You would like them to follow up no less than every two weeks but the best of them do it weekly and all the while without irritating the banks negotiators.
How do they manage the contract and the buyer agent?
- Your Realtor should actively update everyone in the process. If they do not keep the buyer agent calm and confident that the process is moving forward and in a positive manner it will be trouble. When the buyer starts to panic due to the long time this takes, and they will, the buyer agent will be better prepared to keep them calm and staying with the offer.
We prefer Realtors that negotiate their own deals as they often have a much more vested interest in your home sale closing. At times the wrong 3rd party negotiator might be playing the numbers and okay with a certain amount of fallout. With that said I will note that we have recently found some exceptional 3rd party negotiators.
MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION - Do they enjoy doing short sales? You want a Realtor that enjoys the process and believes that every single short sale should get approved. The doom and gloom Realtors that tell you they are not successful and nobody writes offers on them should be politely dismissed and removed from your contact list all together.