Jim Perry

It is so important when going to a potential short sale listing appointment that you are prepared to ask the right questions to make sure that you do have a hardship. This will save you and your client a lot of time, money, and frustration.

In my experience, I have found that when going to one of these listing appointments having a list of questions so as to "interview" the potential client before you take the listing is really important. I was told back when I first started taking on short sales was that the best business you do in this field sometimes was the business you DIDN'T take.

I received a referral from a business colleague who told me of a woman who had a son that had a parole officer and was needing to go to military school (or to jail which I immediately understood her plight) which was going to cost her over $2000.00 per month. When we met at the listing appointment she told me that she was a very successful nurse at a local hospital and could make whatever she wanted since nurses are in high demand in our area. She did have some debt, purchased her house about 18 months previously and the house was definitely valued below what her mortgage amount was, but as I pieced this together I quickly realized a potential "insolvency" in the future, but definitely not now.

Its always hard to turn down business, but she didn't actually have a hardship yet. Key word is "yet". I am finding the banks are getting a bit better at these short sales (with the exception of Chase and B of A) but the key to a successful short sale is having a genuine hardship and very willing and helpful clients.

Found this article on www.wsj.com and thought the findings were interesting; although in the state of WA negative equity is not a "hardship" for a short sale, many other things are most of these situations are in a negative equity position.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124657539489189043.html#

From my stand point here in the Tacoma area, this is only going to worse before it gets better.

I just had lunch today with Rick Bulman who is the author of "Unmasking the Mortgage Madness" which is a really good resource that you can either give to your "first time" home buyers as a gift or you can loan it to them and have them read a couple selected chapters. It does truly expose predatory lending practices and helps the buyer understand the "jargon" in the business. There are actual pictures of HUD statements and various forms and tell the buyer what to look for in fees, etc.

I know alot of us spend alot of time working with buyers and trying to educate them on what to look for in a loan based on there set of circumstances, but I find that giving a copy of this book to them for "homework" prepares them for the initial meeting with the bank.

Someone said somewhere, "Knowledge is power".

There is an old saying, "the law is for the lawless". Many people in Washington state facing foreclosure will benefit from this new law (especially families where there are children involved and new schools have to be found sometimes) but for those who exploit the system, it puts more sand in the machinery.

Please click on article below defining the new law our governor has just signed:

http://www.raincityguide.com/2009/06/19/longer-waiting-period-to-evict-tenants-after-foreclosure-in-wa-state-effective-july-26-2009-and-free-legal-aid-for-wa-homeowners-facing-foreclosure/

I am interested in anyone's take on this and what effect positively or negatively it will have.

I have been reading some blogs recently about listing agents who are taking on short sales and having no idea what they are doing; I have found a few questions that could help you ascertain where you are in the sale when your buyers want the house that the listing agent on the transaction has no idea how to handle a short sale:

Q1 - Have you ever done a short sale before?

Q2 - Have you ever closed a short sale before?

Q3 - How many short sales have you closed?

Q4 - What lenders have you worked with?

Q5 - How many lenders/liens are on title?

Q6 - How did you come up with the selling price?

Q7 - How many offers are you going to submit to the lender?

My goal is not to embarrass nor discredit the listing agent, but see where we are in the process and hopefully help where I can so that my clients get the house they want. The more agents that are willing to be educated on these sales, the faster we can transform our own local markets.

Hope some of this helps.

Jim