Do Your Short Sale Listings Shine, Or Are They Relegated To the Scratch and Dent Section?

I am a bargain shopper at heart, so I know where to find the discounted merchandise. Floor models and slightly scratched inventory can offer huge savings. I buy appliances for my rental properties at a local store that carries discontinued models and stuff that might be slightly dented. If the fridge works fine, who cares if there is a ding in the side.

But as a real estate professional, I am noticing a disturbing trend among agents who are billing themselves as "short sale experts". There are a few who are becoming very adept at listing short sale homes. However, a quick perusal of their closed stats and bingo. . . there aren't many. Lots and lots of expired and canceled listings instead.

Inevitably there is a commonality about the way the homes are being presented in the MLS and online. Usually, there is one crooked and slightly blurry exterior picture. . . or worse yet, one that must have been taken in the dead of night, from a moving vehicle!

The horrific photo is usually accompanied by verbiage in the comments that is something like this. . ."Short sale, third party approval required" and that's it. These are the public comments, mind you, those that are fed via IDX from the MLS system.

I often wonder if the homeowners know how their home is being presented. As a Joliet and Shorewood short sale listing agent, I approach the marketing of a short sale property the same way I would any other home I have been hired to represent.

I take the time to take multiple high quality photos, I write a detailed description of the home, I create a single property website, I syndicate the listing across the web, I use a text messaging mobile flier system. . . You get the idea. My short sale listings get the same excellent marketing that any other home would get.

What about you, do your short sale listings shine. . . or do they scream distressed? Why relegate them to the scratch and dent aisle, don't they deserve your best marketing efforts?

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If you are a Joliet, Shorewood, Plainfield or New Lenox IL homeowner who is struggling to make your mortgage payment, or facing foreclosure, a short sale may be right for you. Don't wait, call 815-207-9703, I promise to create an excellent marketing plan for your home. I don't just list short sales, I sell them.