Short Sale Short Sales are Getting Hard to Do.

Time is a changing.  I remember a few months back sitting in the office and an agent in

Big Daddy Dennis

the next cubicle was looking for a home for his client.  He pulled up a listing and the client said ‘I like that one’.

The agent said it’s a short sale, it will take forever, we will skip all active homes that are short sales’. 

Today I would love to have a short sale to show my client.  Inventory is so low and homes are going from active to pending in a few minutes.  Short sales are now having MULTIPLE OFFERS.

Now don’t want to submit a short sale offer, because I still won’t get it.  It is still a waste of time.  So I had to figure out how I can get my client the home of their dreams and get the offer accepted by the seller.  This is what I’ve discovered so far.

Keys in getting that Short Sale

Price is not a consideration.  When the seller sell, their close costs is a net ZERO.  Usually.  This means at COE the HUD1 says ZERO cash requirements from the seller.  SO THE SELLER really does not care what the price is.

Short Sale Sellers Hate Investors.   Yea they still do..so if you are submitting the offer in the name of an LLC… oh well you’re one of those evil people who caused the problem in the first place.

Some short sale deals are fixed.  I’m calling it steering.  A listing agent has a potential purchaser in mind.  Or maybe the purchaser is a friend of the seller. Once the listing goes active, the agent immediately closes the listing and goes pending.  In a matter of minutes and NO BACK OFFERS PLEASE.   So who gets screwed in this deal?  Not the lender, they took the offer, the seller got out for zero, you got a commission, the buyer got the home. Everything worked out.  Well someone should tell the seller about the 1099 coming their way and remind them that they should take the highest and best offer.  And don’t forget about that arms length document you signed.

Long Escrow.  Think about it. the seller is sitting in the home and not paying anything including taxes, HOA.  So if you tell them that it’s going to take a little time to close.  YAYOO..they live it more free rent.

Send a letter.  Back in 2006 I listed a home and the prospective purchasers (multiple of them) want the home.  The seller accepted the offer from the purchaser that set a I-Just-Love-Your-Home letter.  Have you seen these? A personal letter attached to the offer telling the seller how much they love the home and really need the home for their sick grandma.  It works you should do it.

Multiple Offers from me.  Usually when I’ve submitted an offer on a short sale I submit three.  One from the Husband, One from the In-laws and one from the Uncle.  All different and with different terms.  Hopefully one is picked.

So there you go.  Get that short sale home.

The good news.

And for a side note, I’ve seen some deals in Arizona where the prices have gone up over the past 6 months at a annualized rate of 62%.  A home that sold for $74,000 5 months ago just went pending (in a matter of minutes) for $100,000.  That an annualized rate of 62.4%… wow… If only I could find something to buy……………….