Brian,

Thank you for you responds. This is my 100th answer. I am glad to see that my answer got a response.

If you think that I pointed you in my answer, No, I did not. If you feel uncomfortable, I am sorry.

In Trulia, I always focus on behaviors, conducts, or groups. I would not like to talk about any particular individual. I believe that any individual realtor or licensee can be forgiven morally but as a career, a group, or a business style, each of you, all of us have our responsibilities at lease, morally.

When I talk about short sale, buyers, agents, specialists, I focus on the career's behavior and their conducts. You may be an ethical licensee and a real short sale specialist but I would like to know that who believes that the majority of our licensees and those specialists that clients have to face to are the same as you.

IMHO

Andy

Thank you all for your help.

This market is frustrating to say the least. I know of another home seller who, upon receiving an offer pending several things, spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to fix most of the things and the potential buyer walked away because they wouldnt fix everything. The buyers picked every little thing that looked off to them (a cracked light switch cover for example) and demanded that they be fixed to their standards. The house is over 40 years old, if they wanted brand new, in my opinion they were looking in the wrong neighbourhood.

The worst part though is when you feel like you have done everything by the book and still there is no help. We did not "over buy" nor did we buy at the height of the market. We simply paid more than what the house is worth today. Due to no fault of our own we have to sell at the bottom (I hope for everyone left here) of the market. Its the risk you take I suppose when you own a home. Still stinks though.

At any rate, thanks again for all of the help and input.

@Andy, I couldn't agree with you more. To date I haven't had to short sale one of my past clients houses. Although in this market just about everyone is feeling the bite of the decline.

@Mike, that's very gracious of you to recommend Tom, it sounds like he is one of the good ones. Although I would tell you that you'd be shocked at how few agents in the Valley know how to handle short sales properly. Our short sale classes offered at Keller Williams are filled with agents trying to figure it out.

Some are legitimately trying to help and others are looking to make a quick buck. The devil is details, anybody who's taken a class are calling themselves "specialists" but the close ratio's will always tell the truth.

@Bj, thanks for posting such a great question. There are obviously some strong opinions out there.

Are those short sale specialists the same agents who helped buyers to buy the properties which are short sale or REO, in the past few years?

I believe that when some people throw ethics to a toilet, we still have logics to protect ourselves.

You can not go wrong with Tom Ashworth. He is very professional and friendly. He is not the used car salesman type that will flood you with posting on here how wonderful they are. He doesn't have to do that because he treats his client fairly and honestly. He is not trying to sell, he is trying to help.

Also, just a note. I don't think there are any agents that don't know how to do short sales. 50% of the Boise marke is a short sale or Bank Owned.

I have included Tom's web page for your convenience, you won't go wrong by picking him.

BJ,

It's great that your bank is willing to work with you. They are now being provided incentives to close short sales which is getting them to be more pro-active in the process. Your situation is unique in that you are still current and if you continue to remain so it will limit any negative effects on your credit depending on how they report the short sale.

I currently have two clients in the exact same situation you're in where the company is relocating them and they do not have any relocation benefits. Those situations provide you with a legitimate hardship and you'll need to build that case for the lender.

Bjnelson,

cc: Trey

Like what Trey said here, as a real estate observer, I would like to know how many specialists will respond you. Your question is going to make a lot of real estate pros as crazy as possible especially those specialists.

Baseds on the professionalism, Real estate as well as legal, and financial field, the general concept is no any two cases are the same.

Highly recommend you to click my profile and read the Experience section before you deal with any specialist. If you have time, go ahead to read my “About me”, “Specialties”, and “Certifications & Awards” sections. I hope those sections in my profile can help you to shopping around them.

Good luck,

Andy

BJ,

I would be happy to give you names and phone numbers of clients I have done short sales for.

If you want to know how it works, talk with my satisfied clients. My last one was done in less than 60 days.

David O'Dell, GRI
Keller Williams Realty Boise
208-602-9052

Mr. Nelson,

That's a tough one!
All over the valley and the U.S you can notice realtor advertising "short sale specialist" well they’re not, unless they went to some specially accredited classes but even the association of realtor doesn't yet offer a short sale designation.

Now that you have a 1st and a 2sd is a bit harder, even though some banks are finally loosing up a bit!

Well short sales are good but you have to keep in mind that throwing the towel is not free:
* There are tax consequences
* You may be liable for the difference owed
* It may damage your credit severely
* You may rather do a loan modification
* You may not be allegeable for a short sale,

Surprised by the last answer?
Well it happened to some of my potential clients, they find out after spending 2hours on the phone that they were $75 short of qualifying for a short sale, so they decided to rent their home without even putting it on the market, crazy uh?

Well, need more info? Contact me, I have been closing short sales and there is nothing short about them! I am blessed to have a short sale negotiator working with me and together we are aggressively following up with the bank while marketing your home to get it sold.... not just listed!

Always look at all the options before doing a short sale!

Keep me posted,

Angelique Kenney | RA, Realtor, GRI, e-Pro, Coldwell Banker PREVIEWS and Relocation Specialist
Coldwell Banker TG - Boise
4720 Emerald St | Boise, ID, 83705

C: 208.695.4662 | F: 866.422.0641
aksoldfast@gmail.com

Thank you all. I should mention that we are current with our mortgages and the only reason for the short sale option is to get to our new location ASAP. We have had MTGs with the same compnay for 8 years now and have never been late or missed a payment. When I called to ask for help the said "Go ahead and list it as a Short sale"

We cannot rent this one out as it is "too large" according to several rental companies. There is apparently no market for houses over 3000 sq ft

Frustrating to say the least.
I appreciate the input so far Thank you for taking the time to answer my question :)

BJ,

I wanted to specifically address your question about keeping your credit intact. According to a credit counselor here are the three ways they can report a short sale in order of preference:

Paid As Agreed - Won't hurt the score at all as long as the borrower has kept payments current.

Unrated - May drop a few points.

Paid Settlement - Credit score will drop 50-150 points.

BJ,

I do a lot of short sales a well and I consider David to be a very competent agent but I have yet to see a short sale that didn't have a negative affect on your credit. It's not the short sale that has the greatest affect on your credit it's the late payments. I've talked to lenders and credit counselors and all seem to have the same general consensus that the time for a short sale client to be able to buy another home is around 2 years.

My group the http://www.MikeBrownGroup.com handles a lot of short sales in the valley and Mike and I are very experienced in the process. Anyone promising they can have a short sale completed in less than 60 days is not telling you the full truth. You have to take into account the time to market a property and you also have to build a case for the bank to show you're trying to get them as close to fair market value as possible. Anyone can discount a property and go out and give it away. The banks know this as well and if you dump the price to generate quick offer you run the risk of the bank rejecting it.

If you're interested I would suggest you go to http://www.HopeForIdaho.com and take a look at the short sale and foreclosure process. This is a site we developed to help our clients get a solid understanding of the process. It is a complex process and it requires more than a couple short sales under your belt and one or two classes. As Paul says, each situation is unique and but the processes and systems of experienced short sale specialist can be developed to generate a much higher success rate than your average agent.

Take a look at the sites I've provided and if you've got any further questions I'd be happy to answer them with no obligation on your part.

Suprised you have not been flooded with responses yet. Every deal is different on a short sale and I have never had two the same yet. David sounds competent. Sergio Sigmond is a very competent Short Sale Agent. I usually recommend my buyers to consider a short sale only if they have time on their side(weeks, maybe months to just get a response yes or no on your offer), if you don't have time to waste then go with bank owned REO's as they close relatively quick. In the end, no matter how good you are as an Agent, some banks just suck and you have to wait on them and their lack of urgency. If the home has two or more mortgages then you potentialy can waste some serious time depending on who the lenders are and how far they are into foreclosure. Short Sales are a great opportunity but calculate your cost and time first, because you will need to be patient.

Best wishes in all your endeavors.

BJ,
You'll get flooded with answers on this one. Everybody who got their license in that last 30 days seems to think they are "short sale specialists".
I have been doing short sales for nearly 8 years. Though there are more going on right now, having that foundation is what you're looking for. If we can get an offer in the first two weeks, we could probably meet that deadline. The banks in my last two transactions reported the sale as paid in full, which means my clients could buy again next month if they wanted to.
David O'Dell
Keller WIlliams Realty Boise
208-602-9052

I am eager to see how many people respond to your inquiry?