Ask the Real Estate Trainers: Aren’t Short Sales a Paperwork Nightmare?

– Strategic Real Estate Coach Real estate trainers at SREC share the secret for escaping a prison of paperwork, freeing you for wild success in short sales.

By now, you’ve gathered that some of the most valuable information you’ll get from the real estate trainers at Strategic Real Estate Coach is about who you need to get on your team. Without a team, you’re doomed to a life filled with paperwork, frustration, and a lot of unnecessary hard work.

When you are looking for someone to handle short sales for you that person needs to have a very good relationship with administrative paperwork! In the world of short sale negotiating, administrative processing work is the step that can ensure success or be a pathway to delays. You need someone who is organized and focused.

The paperwork package that a short sale negotiator needs to organize includes:

• Mortgage statements from seller along with mortgage account numbers

• Contact information for the bank • Account payoff statements • Last 2 years of tax returns • Last 2 months of banks statements • Last 2 paystubs • The hardship letter • Financial worksheet that will show the sellers budget and include income versus

expenses • A balance sheet that shows assets versus liabilities (the bank needs proof of

hardship to approve a short sale) • Original note and mortgage if it is available • An authorization to release loan information so you can discuss the sellers

account with the bank • Listing and purchase agreements • A rehab budget if the home needs repairs

This package needs to be submitted and followed up on. The bank will trigger a Broker Price Opinion (BPO) for the property to be evaluated in person, a process you or your agent needs to be present for to supply them with the paperwork to justify your purchase price.

More paperwork that needs to be shared with the listing agent and the BPO agent is:

• Appraisal you have done • Your market analysis • Retail repair costs and scope of work • A listing history of the property • Purchase and sales agreements • The hardship letter • Any crime reports on the area that may drive the value of the home down

If your offer is acceptable, now the process of handling the closing begins. That involves – you guessed it – more paperwork. The short sale negotiator gets title work to a title company or a real estate attorney, practices due diligence and ensures property taxes and liens are paid, and arranges a closing date and funding.

It’s a great deal of paperwork, time, and determination to bring the project to a close. The approximate cost of employing a short sale negotiator could be $1500 per closing or 1.5% of the purchase price, whichever is greater. It is an investment worth making and all parties involved: you, sellers, and your short sale negotiator will all benefit.

You caught our recent podcast on working with a Short-Sale Negotiation Manager, didn’t you? Information like we shared on this podcast is pretty typical of the “dig in deep and show exactly what to do” kind of training we offer at Strategic Real Estate Coach. Many of our coaching students began by listening to the podcast, and then decided they wanted even more from our real estate trainers. Will that happen with you, too?