Sellers Have To Help Us Help Them In A Short Sale

 

Articles and blogs nationwide report that only 15% to 25% of short sale transactions close. However, I close dozens of short sales a year with a success rate of about 80%. We are striving to increase our success rate to above 90%.

Guess what the primary reason for short sale failure is in our office;

Lender inefficiency? No

High BPO’s? No

Buyers backing out? No

The number one reason? The sellers themselves!

We can persevere with the lender.  We can appeal the high BPO. We can find new buyers if the current one backs out. But when the seller loses focus it’s hard to get them back on track.

The vast majority of sellers that we are helping are extremely responsible, organized and focused on the task at hand. They are great team players and are appreciative of the monumental hoops we have to jump through with the lenders. However, some sellers lack the commitment.  Their reasons vary from divorce issues, bankruptcy attorneys convincing them to give up and file bankruptcy, or just plain being too stressed out to think clearly.

We can only help those who are willing and able to let us help them.  If the sellers delay the delivery of financials or cause other delays it will delay the submission of the short sale package and delay the negotiations and may cause the seller to lose the house to foreclosure.

Non cooperation on the part of sellers is reflected by:

1. Seller delays delivery to our office critical documents required by the lender.

2. Seller delays or ceases to respond to our communications.

3. Seller delays response to offers or counteroffers.

4. Seller filing bankruptcy or telling us that they will file bankruptcy. We have helped many sellers during and after bankruptcy. I’m referencing sellers who file BK and claim that they don’t need a short sale anymore, which is usually not the case but they are convinced otherwise.

5. Seller changing their mind, telling us they don’t want to deal with it, and that they’ll let it go to foreclosure.

6. Seller’s internal disputes, specifically in cases of divorce or separation.

7. If the seller is indecisive, and their bankruptcy lawyer, divorce lawyer, CPA, or other professionals or non-professionals or family members are telling them not to do the short sale, we cannot help them. Please keep in mind that we can only help those who are willing and able to let us help them.

Foreclosing lenders routinely reject or ignore short sale packages that are not complete. If the seller does not deliver their required financial documents to us, we cannot help the seller.

Too often I hang in there with the sellers even though the writing is on the wall. The more time I spend with uncooperative sellers the less time I have to dedicate to those sellers who are committed to the process. Lately I find myself writing polite and professional termination letters to sellers who just can’t stay on task.

I hope you will learn from my experience. Please post your comments if you have found solutions to this problem or if you have had similar experiences. Let’s all learn from each other.

Dave Halpern

Louisville Short Sale Expert

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Many Realtors in the Louisville Kentucky area recognize us as the short sale leaders and bring us in on their short sales. We get it done!

Copyright 2009 Dave Halpern LouisvilleShortSaleExpert.com