I agee with Elizabeth...keep calling, I have had to call and talk to supervisors before. I made up to 20 calls in one day on one sale to 2 companies. The easiest one i have worked with so far was suprising USAA. Get in a TON of compliments to the person you are on the phone with, remember to empathize with how busy they must be (we all love to be understood and appreciated). Let them know how much you appreciate their knowledge and integrity. I have gotten their office mailing address and sent thank you cards. Most times they are over worked in this market, and if you make them feel super special...they will remember and work hard for you.

Its funny how everyone likes to complain about short sales. I personally am doing pretty darn good with them! And you can pull my stats any time, Right now out of short sales that I have taken that I knew would close we are closing 66% of them. Now back to your questions. Only submit 1 offer with a good HUD1. When you submit more than one it just confuses the lender. They are not agents and they have no idea what to look for oin a contract, and that why require a HUD1. Get on the phone call them 2 to 3 times a week until you get an answer. GMAC seems to be fairly easy to deal with and once countrywide get their restructuring done they will be more efficient as well. Remember, it is your job to push that deal through!!! Push them until you get an answer! And if you are dealing with a second always make sure you give them something, whether it be 1,000 or 5,000 make sure they get something!

Precisely, Google "short sales no bargain," and you'll find in the top one and two ranking position two links of mine that answer that allegation. I agree with Jim Walker 100%.

I agree with Jim as I've tracked Short-Sale closes and it comes in around 3.5% of the Shorts are selling. In other words you've got a 76% chance of NOT closing the deal!! So why take a motivated, qualified Buyer and stick them in Short-Sale limbo land? Wait a 6 months and it will be on as an REO. We're seeing our "Continue to Show" listings expanding greatly and while others are saying the sales are finally arriving I wonder if it's just Short-Sales clogging up the system as you can sit around for 2-4 months waiting for the lender to agree and you are a "Continue to Show".

Short sale is a hoodwink. I will let my MLS statistics tell you the story.. In the 16 months - Jan 1 2007 to May 1st 2008 there have been 57 successfully closed short sales in the Elk Grove zip codes 10757, 10758 and 10624. Sounds pretty good, huh? There are also 85 pendings.. Wow, oh that is so much better huh? So how many failed? well the count is 222 active, and 537 expired or withdrawn short sales. in the same period.

I'll do the math for you out of 1011 listings, 57 of them sold Almost SIX PERCENT. Another 8.5% are pending, and pending, and expired pending, and pending some more. Most of those pendings will fail.
Sorry, but true. You think my math is too pessimistic?. OK lets just compare solds to expireds and withdrawns that is still 9 failed listings for every sold listing.

What you and all of us Realtors should do is get the word out that 90% of the short sale market is a hoodwink. if the banks wanted a higher success rate they could get it done in a snap. There are hundreds of thousands of former mortgage and real estate worker bees with the skills to process these loss mitigations. The banks don't want to hire anyone. The banks want these deals to linger.
Don't assume that the banks realize their stupidity and intransigence (at the management level - I don't blame the worker bees ) will wind up costing them extra billions in the long run.

Claire, remember the adage "the squeaky wheel gets the grease?" You need to squeak a little more. I had one short sale where I called the lender four times a day (and that one ended up closing in 30 days). Another, I called first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, for us West Coasters, it often means getting up at 5:00 AM to call the East Coast, especially if you're dealing with, say, Bank of America.

After you listen to the voice mail message (assuming nobody picks up), then wait for other options. Often you will get referred to a general extension for loss mitigation. If you're nice to the person who answers, sometimes they will actually get up out of their chair and go find the person you need to speak with.

Also, try calling just before lunch, like 11:55 or right after lunch at 1:05 and again at 4:30 or 4:45, depending on when they go home. Find out the hours they keep -- the general extension number is good for extracting information about fellow workers.

I have two other short sales finally coming together this week. The lenders appear to be a bit more responsive over the past month or so. But you have to stay on top of it. It's imperative. Because it's unlikely they will call you unless provoked.

What lender are you working with? On short sales, the agent must really be proactive and call the lender on at least a weekly, daily, or hourly basis (depending on where you are and what is going onin the process). Has the seller authorized you to communicate with the lender directly?

Funny...I am on hold with Countrywide right now working on 3 different short sales...

your welcom,
short sales are what I do!!

Thanks John! That was a helpful golden nugget. :) I guess I never thought about asking the "drones" for the timing of each step. I'll definitely have to incorporate that tip.

Claire,
Just a follow up, if you are having major issues with a file not going through you can typically have the file escalated to management. All lenders have time frames that they should be following. Ask the people who answer the phones what the time frame is for each step of the process and then hold them accountable to those time frames. AND make sure you take impeccable notes so that you have ammo if things start to get sticky.
John A Cooper
The Cooper Group
Keller Williams Realty
Roseville CA
jacooper@kw.com

IMO (In my opinion) Select Portfolio Servicing is fast to respond. If they want 1,000 then redo your HUD, and have it reflect the 1,000 going to 2nd lien holder from the 1st .... I always have good experience from SPS....... Call GMAC and let them know you have the HUD and you must know when it will be received by the representative that handles the file. I would also put the loan number at the bottom of every page that you fax in. Once you have a time frame, call that day and do not give up until you get the decision maker on the phone. It should either be accepted or declined........ Good Luck.

Submitting only 1 offer would be my 1st recommendation.

It depends on the bank on how difficult it will be. If its countrywide they just got a short sale department 2 weeks ago and it takes them for ever to get any answers. On the other hand banks such as ocwen, chase, first franklin have been great. It just taking the banks so long to catch up but with all you hard work and efforst its worth it. Just continually call the banks until you get answers even though its frustating.

I agree with everybody, call, call and call. Document, document, document.

I had to deal with a short sale farmed out to India (yes, just read an article that it's more and more common now), and was getting a different person every single time. A fax takes 7 days to process (so they said), but when I call daily+, I will have one that said yes, we did get your fax, and that's after 4 days (better than 7, right?). I kind of shorten the period by doing that.

Document helps, because one will say, oh, this is the status, then I'd say, but you (the company) told me the status is this and that three days ago, he'd double check and tell me it's actually further along than what the status was before. So, I crawl through this India outsource mess.

Then finally, I get the negotiator, and he was quite nice because he knows I worked hard getting there - made great stride since. So, patience, perseverance, hard work, being nice all helped.

Good luck and hang in there..

Sylvia

Welcome to Short-Sale Land! I'm continually amazed at how we readily break all forms of California contract law to work with third party approval parties! You stated the buyer had multiple offers out which in itself consitutes fraud as they are NOT going to be buying ALL of the properties I assume. We had this during the "hot-market" days and it was fraud then and it is fraud now. Our corporate attorney pulls his hair out (what's left of it!) when we tell him our daily horror "short-sale" "REO" stories. Our Realtor Association attorney came to our weekly Realtor marketing breakfast for a Q&A on this subject and when he left he was absolutely in shock as to how we all where attempting to put together these transactions!!
But I concur with all of those who spoke before. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up! If you don't have a complete package on your desktop which you can email to the "next peson in charge" you're at a distinct loss! They remind me of that poor guy out off the shore when the Tsunami hit!

Thanks Erin, I'm working with GMAC and SPS (select portfolio services). GMAC is the first, and I've been getting the run around with them. I just received a fax from the second, SPS, saying they want 1000 to close, but, I'm still waiting for a response from the first. It's the phone game chase, and I finally got through! I spoke to the buyer's agent and her client has put out multiple offers. I understand if they want to back out, since it's been 2 months now. Thanks for your Answer.

Claire Wills, Realtor/ Mobile Notary
PRUDENTIAL CA REALTY

I have seen them take almost 3 months to get a response. Most lenders are trying to shorten the process but it seems like the volume they are dealing with is slowing it even more.
Shelia Simmons