Short Sale Strategies That Work.....What I'm Learning From Negotiators

We are all learning as we go! Talk about a "full immersion" program. Of course I'm talking about short sales. We all are dealing with them in one way or another. Buyers Agents, Listing Agents, Maybe you are even losing business because you won't deal with them. Sad truth...they are here to stay for awhile.

I work with them all the time!

I list Orange County Short Sales!
I work with buyers who buy Orange County Short Sales!

This is my job.

But rather than just allow myself and my clients to be pushed around based on the whims of the lenders involved. I try to learn something from each experience to use in the next one.

I learned something about 9 months ago on a short sale listing I had that I have now used successfully on 2 more transactions. We are all seeing more and more than lenders are pushing back on sellers and asking for cash contributions. In the past we got around this by simply pushing back ourselves.....did they really want to just foreclose? This used to work....now? not as much.

So now when we accept an offer from a buyer on a short sale, I make sure we get a commitment in writing that the buyer is aware they might need to add a cash contribution to the transaction to make things work. If we have multiple offers, the buyer's willingness to do this can make the difference in which offer we accept.

The trick?

On a very difficult short sale last year, I ended up in a frustrated conversation with the negotiator about the impasse. She told me to rewrite the offer with 6% closing cost credit to the buyer. Then we can use that money to compensate for a cash contribution from that same buyer. Did you follow that?

The lender could approve 6% closing cost credit which offsets the cash contribution.

*** added point, we do need to show that 6% of buyer's closing costs...I say 6%, I mean "up to" 6% as a reimbursement to the buyers for the additional cost***

Slight of hand? Absolutely silly? Yes, but...I've used it on 2 additional deals now and it's worked. So...today this is my short sale tip. Good luck out there!

Orange County Short Sale Information