You have had an experince happen in your life that has led you to need to sell your home. You have realized that what you owe on the home is greater than the value of the home. Therefore you are considering doing a short sale with the bank that holds your mortgage. What can you do to successfully navigate the process?
First, is immediately contact the lender who has your mortgage and request a short sale packagae. Most lenders have a department that is set up to handle these situations when you call. Some will mail them out to you immediately, others will e-mail and some have them electronically online for you. Once you receive the package, fill it out completely.
Second, interview and hire a Realtor to handle the short sale marketing and selling of your home for you. I always recommend talking to at least THREE different people and seeing what they feel you should price the house at, how they are going to market the home and that they have dealt with short sales or are comfortable dealing with them.
Third, pricing of your home. The reason I say talk to three different Realtors is that you may get three different prices on your home. Ask what their pricing strategy is. If a Realtor is signifcantly below market value the chances are great that they are not going to do you a favor. You will get a lot of activity and an offer that will be rejected from the bank...and probably back to square one. All Realtors have different takes on pricing strategy. But, one constant is if you are starting well below market value you are hindering your chances of a successfully negotiated short sale.
Fourth, photos of your home. Just because you are selling your home through a short sale does not mean you do nto need photos of the house.With over 90% of people starting their search online photos are critical for buyers to determine if they want to even look inside of your home or not. Too many times I see short sales with one or a couple of exterior photos and nothing else. You are not doing your self justice or helping to get your home sold by not having photos of the inside of the house taken.
Fifth, make your home accessable. Do not put unrealistic limittions on showings. The more accessable your home is the greater the chance of it getting sold. By refusing showings you are turning off buyers. You may have the occassionaly buyer driving through the area with their Realtor and all of sudden wants to look at your home...if possible let them. That could be the one family that buys your house.
Sixth, make sure your home is always is showable condition. You want to ensure your home is showing at it's best during all showings. Keep the place extra tidy and clean and ensure that it is properly staged for showing at all times.
Last, the most important part of this is when you do receive an offer. Negotiate in good faith. You, NOT the bank, is signing off on the house and the deal. The banks is only deciding if the negotiated price is acceptable to them and the market value out there. And when you do receive an offer and submit it to the bank for approval, have your paperwork ready. The bank will be asking you for updated financial information once they receive the offer...The longer you delay in getting the items to them the less chance you have of the buyer waiting on the bank...Time in this case is of the essence....
These may not be all inclusive steps. However; this is a general outline of how to get your home on the market and sold through a short sale process to avoid the F word (foreclsoure).
David diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Communication Is Key In Short Sales
In the ever growing market of short sales one variable that seems to elude Realtors is communication. In order for the deal to eventually close communication is vital for both the seller and the buyer. Why? The timeline in a short sale can be from an average of 45 days to months.
I always beleive in communicating once a week with buyer's agents to keep them abreast on the process with the short sale. In this market especially where we are in a buyer's market and the choices they have to chose from being so great communicating on a regular basis is vital to keep a deal from falling apart.
Without proper communication the window of doubt opens even more with a buyer as to whether the bank will accept their offer on the short sale.If you place yourself in the buyer's position you want to know what is happening and how the paperwork is moving along. For some buyers, it is a matter of time. For others it is doubt of whether the bank will accept the short sale. But in most cases it si the unknown that drives buyers away.
This topic came to light for me recently when a prospective seller e-mailed me about listing their home. They told me it was a short sale and where the home was located. Asked if I worked that area and if I could help them out with getting their home sold before it went to foreclosure. I responded within an hour of receivng the e-mail from them. Upon meeting with them they disclosed to me that they had sent this out to five different agents from different companies and that during the time we met I was one of only 2 agents to repsond back to them. (for the record we set up the meeting three days later). The other agent took 2 days to respond to them. They wanted me to list the house for them. When I asked what was the factor that made them chose me over someone else they told me it was my response time. They had the home on the market with another agent for over seven months with a couple of offers on the house. Both buyers walked away from the transaction prior to an agreement with the bank. Somehow, the found out it was becuase they never heard form the lsiting agent as to the status of the short sale offer with the bank. One agent went as far as to tell them they would repeatedly e-mail the agent to get no response or working on it response days later. They felt the agent was not doing what was needed to help them get the house sold to avoid foreclosure.
Unfortuantely, dealing with short sales has become more the norm than the exception today in the Real Estate market. Becuase of that I actually sympathized with them and understood their plight. They wanted an agent they felt would communicate with them and the buyer's agent on a regular basis to ensure that when a reasonable offer was presented that the agent would do everything possible to ensure it stayed together and closed. They felt one of the two offers would have closed had the agent communicated with the buyer's agent on a more regular basis.
If you are thinking of selling your home on a short sale or buying a home on a short sale; consider the communciation process. It could make the difference between your home being sold and foreclosed. On the buyer's end it can be the difference between getting the home you want or settling. It is hard enough knowing you may have to wait 45 days or longer to get a repsonse from the bank. Not having your agent communicate on a regular basis justs opens that door a little wider for them to walk out of.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
I always beleive in communicating once a week with buyer's agents to keep them abreast on the process with the short sale. In this market especially where we are in a buyer's market and the choices they have to chose from being so great communicating on a regular basis is vital to keep a deal from falling apart.
Without proper communication the window of doubt opens even more with a buyer as to whether the bank will accept their offer on the short sale.If you place yourself in the buyer's position you want to know what is happening and how the paperwork is moving along. For some buyers, it is a matter of time. For others it is doubt of whether the bank will accept the short sale. But in most cases it si the unknown that drives buyers away.
This topic came to light for me recently when a prospective seller e-mailed me about listing their home. They told me it was a short sale and where the home was located. Asked if I worked that area and if I could help them out with getting their home sold before it went to foreclosure. I responded within an hour of receivng the e-mail from them. Upon meeting with them they disclosed to me that they had sent this out to five different agents from different companies and that during the time we met I was one of only 2 agents to repsond back to them. (for the record we set up the meeting three days later). The other agent took 2 days to respond to them. They wanted me to list the house for them. When I asked what was the factor that made them chose me over someone else they told me it was my response time. They had the home on the market with another agent for over seven months with a couple of offers on the house. Both buyers walked away from the transaction prior to an agreement with the bank. Somehow, the found out it was becuase they never heard form the lsiting agent as to the status of the short sale offer with the bank. One agent went as far as to tell them they would repeatedly e-mail the agent to get no response or working on it response days later. They felt the agent was not doing what was needed to help them get the house sold to avoid foreclosure.
Unfortuantely, dealing with short sales has become more the norm than the exception today in the Real Estate market. Becuase of that I actually sympathized with them and understood their plight. They wanted an agent they felt would communicate with them and the buyer's agent on a regular basis to ensure that when a reasonable offer was presented that the agent would do everything possible to ensure it stayed together and closed. They felt one of the two offers would have closed had the agent communicated with the buyer's agent on a more regular basis.
If you are thinking of selling your home on a short sale or buying a home on a short sale; consider the communciation process. It could make the difference between your home being sold and foreclosed. On the buyer's end it can be the difference between getting the home you want or settling. It is hard enough knowing you may have to wait 45 days or longer to get a repsonse from the bank. Not having your agent communicate on a regular basis justs opens that door a little wider for them to walk out of.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
Friday, February 25, 2011
Why Short Sales Do Not Close
Short Sales can and are good deals for both the buyer and the seller. The buyer gets a home at a fair deal and the seller is not subjected to a foreclosure on their credit. So, if the situation is one that is a win for both the buyer and the seller then why do so many short sales not close?
The answer is simple...Communicaton and expectation. In my dealings with short sales I have found two keys to getting the short sale offer accepted and the buyer to wait to get that final approval. The first and most simpliest answer is communication. There is nothing worse than not knowing. I rather have an answer that says do not know or have no updates to day for you rather than have nothing communicated to me. I learned early on that if you want your short sale to close you need to be proactive in communicating to the buyer's agent the status of the short sale. It does not have to be daily but at least once a week you should give some kind of communication that they can relay onto their buyer. Without that, buyers tend to waiver and are not sure if the process is moving along as it should. The listing agent can be one of the best at negotiating short sales but if they fail to communicate to the buyer's agent; they are setting themselves up for a cancelled offer.
for example,if you have an offer on a house that is a short sale; weeks go by and maybe months and you have no feedback form the listing agent as to where the offer stands or where the bank is in the process you will begin to think they do not know what they are doing. Or, you may think they are not going to accept your offer. Either way; you begin to look at other properties and maybe place an offer on a different house and rescind your offer on that one. A lot of that anxiety and frustration can be allievated with proper communication between the listing agent and the buyer's agent. A good rule of thumb is at least once a weeek to give an update or at most every two weeks depending on where you are at with the bank in the negotiation process.
The other main reason so many short sales do not end up closing is the expectations of the buyer. They are not properly briefed upfront that the process can take some time. The quickest I have seen a short sale go from start to finish is 30 days to approval. Generally it takes anywhere from 45 days and longer depending on the bank. Some banks have a great system in place that moves the process along rather quickly. Others do not. So, knwoing what bank you are dealing with and the average time frame that bank takes in processing a short sale can and will make the differnce in whether the house will close....
By telling someone you are very good at it but not relaying the bank's average time will do nothing but frustrate the buyer and the buyer's agent. In the end that frustration will lead the buyer to walk away and go to another house.
If you are selling a short sale or buying one make sure the lines of communication between the realtors is open and that the expectations of the buyer are realistic and you will both have a smooth closing that is beneficial to both of you.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
The answer is simple...Communicaton and expectation. In my dealings with short sales I have found two keys to getting the short sale offer accepted and the buyer to wait to get that final approval. The first and most simpliest answer is communication. There is nothing worse than not knowing. I rather have an answer that says do not know or have no updates to day for you rather than have nothing communicated to me. I learned early on that if you want your short sale to close you need to be proactive in communicating to the buyer's agent the status of the short sale. It does not have to be daily but at least once a week you should give some kind of communication that they can relay onto their buyer. Without that, buyers tend to waiver and are not sure if the process is moving along as it should. The listing agent can be one of the best at negotiating short sales but if they fail to communicate to the buyer's agent; they are setting themselves up for a cancelled offer.
for example,if you have an offer on a house that is a short sale; weeks go by and maybe months and you have no feedback form the listing agent as to where the offer stands or where the bank is in the process you will begin to think they do not know what they are doing. Or, you may think they are not going to accept your offer. Either way; you begin to look at other properties and maybe place an offer on a different house and rescind your offer on that one. A lot of that anxiety and frustration can be allievated with proper communication between the listing agent and the buyer's agent. A good rule of thumb is at least once a weeek to give an update or at most every two weeks depending on where you are at with the bank in the negotiation process.
The other main reason so many short sales do not end up closing is the expectations of the buyer. They are not properly briefed upfront that the process can take some time. The quickest I have seen a short sale go from start to finish is 30 days to approval. Generally it takes anywhere from 45 days and longer depending on the bank. Some banks have a great system in place that moves the process along rather quickly. Others do not. So, knwoing what bank you are dealing with and the average time frame that bank takes in processing a short sale can and will make the differnce in whether the house will close....
By telling someone you are very good at it but not relaying the bank's average time will do nothing but frustrate the buyer and the buyer's agent. In the end that frustration will lead the buyer to walk away and go to another house.
If you are selling a short sale or buying one make sure the lines of communication between the realtors is open and that the expectations of the buyer are realistic and you will both have a smooth closing that is beneficial to both of you.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
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