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9 Crucial Questions to Ask About Short Sales

Somehow, despite my best efforts, (partly joking) some agents are still confused about how to handle short sale listings. This, 4 years into the Great Recession, still leads to trepidation and confusion regarding short sales and leads buyers agents to sometimes navigate a wide berth around short sales with their clients. I have a simple solution for you buyers agents who want smooth transactions and still want to show short sales to your clients.

If your client wants to see a short sale, explain to them the pros and cons and let them know that you will be happy to show them short sales so long as it is structured properly and represented by a competent agent. To determine that, simply ask these 9 crucial questions before showing (or at least before writing a contract) so that you can avoid the types of short sales that drag on for several months without any progress:

Question #1: How many liens are there? If the agent doesnt know, hang up immediately. If more than 2, tread carefully. If more than 3, run away.

Question #2: Who are the lien-holder(s)? Some banks are better than others, refer to this post to prepare your clients for the timeline

Question #3: Do you have a complete short sale application package? This should already be done.

Question #4: What communication have you had with the bank(s)? The agent may have already done a lot of the prep work to get the deal approved. This is the type of info your clients should factor when considering writing an offer.

Question #5: Have you had, or do you have any other offers? What happened to them? What is the status of them? Get a straight story about the history of this property. If the last offer was declined, and your offer would be lower, then your clients may want to look elsewhere.

Question #6: Will you be presenting multiple offers to the bank? You dont want that. Write it into your contract that they cant.

Question #7: Where are your clients and how accessible are they? Long distance or hard to reach clients can behave like monkey wrenches in a transaction like this. You want to hear that they are nearby and/or very cooperative and accessible.

Question #8: How many short sales have you successfully completed? Realtors can be like fisherman when it comes to this. Try to get a straight answer. If the Realtor is very experienced, it could be useful in getting your clients off the fence and writing an offer.

Question #9: Are you using a negotiation service or are you handling this yourself? If they are using a service, try to find out who they are and if they are any good. If themselves, consider how long it took them to return your call and how easy they are to communicate with. If you have a tough time catching them, a bank will have an even harder time.