Key Questions For Determining Short Sale Expert Status
Last time we talked about the other people that try to help. There are certainly well meaning individuals out there that are qualified and can help. However, more often then not, these “other” people are looking for another angle to get paid on the short sale than just what the bank has to offer.
Real Estate Agents
Although it’s a bit biased opinion, Real Estate Agents are typically the ones that you should be turning to, especially if the only debt you are dealing with is your home.
They only get paid if the short sale is successful. The problem is that there is no real way to know if they know what they are doing. To make matters worse, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) likes to hand out “Designations” like they are candy. So you can be a Certified Distressed (Short Sale) Expert by attending a few hours in a classroom without actually ever calling or talking to one bank.
Typically, Agents will work your short sales in one of two ways.
- They or their team will negotiate and take care of the short sale from start to finish.
- They will take your personal information and send it to a 3rd party to negotatiate that might be out of state, country, etc.
At the end of the day, there is one question that will help you sift the, well you know.
- How many short sales have you closed and represented the Seller? (Generally speaking, after about 10 short sales, the person should have adequate experience)
Follow that with some additional interview questions and you might just find your perfect helper in this “perfect storm.”
- Who negotiates with the bank? Who sees the files, etc?
- How many active short sales do you currently have? – (this is loaded – and should lead to additional questions. – How do you manage so many? Why do you have so few?)
- Who’s on your team?
- How often do you contact the bank?
- Which banks have you worked with (get specifics!)?
- What is your “favorite bank?”
- What’s your least “favorite” bank?
FINALLY, the real question should be: ARE YOU A FULL TIME AGENT? – agents that are full time and feed their family with this business have everything on the line and have enough “skin” in the game to really help you, expert or not.
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