One of the biggest mistakes I see being made over and over again by those that need to short sell their Massachusetts home is picking the wrong Real Estate agent to work with.
Don’t make this mistake and turn into Realtor road kill!
The are an abundance of Realtors that are listing short sales and don’t know the 1st thing about what they are doing! Who suffers the most from this? YOU…the seller!!
When you need to do a short sale on your home it is not like selling your home in a traditional fashion. The Realtor you choose to work with can have far reaching consequences for you. If you don’t get the short sale right you are more than likely going to end up in FORECLOSURE. The very thing that you are trying to avoid at all costs can often times be the direct result of a Realtor that has no business representing you.
Working as a Massachusetts Realtor, I constantly see things being done that just make me furious when it comes to short sales. Below are some examples of things that Real Estate agents are doing that very well could spoil any chance of getting a short sale approval:
Presenting Multiple Unsigned Offers to the Bank
This is by far one of my biggest pet peeves. When you are doing a short sale you DO NOT send multiple unsigned offers to a lender. Inexperienced Realtors who don’t work with shorts sales routinely make this mistake. A short sale is NOT a foreclosure and should not be treated as such. As the seller you still own the property and still make all the decisions with your home.
As the home owner of record, you see the process all the way through to the closing just like any other transaction. The lenders function is to approve or not the contract you are providing them.
When you don’t sign a contract you don’t have a buyer! Lets say your home is on the market and you get 3 offers. They all look pretty decent and your Realtor submits all of them to the bank unsigned. If you have done any research on short sales you probably know that they can take quite a long time for approval. As crazy as it sounds, there are some cases where short sales are taking between 6 months to a year to get approved. On average the time for approval is around 4 months.
How many buyers do you think get frustrated and walk after a few months of waiting? The answer is A LOT!! When you don’t have a signed contract there is no consequences for a buyer walking. It is say la vie and you have just wasted an enormous amount of time. Enough time that perhaps the foreclosure proceedings could be at your door step!
When I am representing a seller in a short sale it is a REQUIREMENT that the buyers waits for at least 90 days for short sale approval.
When you have multiple offers, it is just like any other transaction. You pick one offer and go with it. As a seller you should be picking the offer that has the greatest chance of getting approved. Along with the price and all the rest of the terms, you need to know the buyer is committed to your home and is willing to see the short sale process to conclusion. In addition, the bank is looking to work with an offer that makes sense. Their function is not to become the judge and jury for a Real Estate transaction.
Having a Seller Sign an Offer That Has No Chance of Being Approved
This is problem #2 and one that I also run into quite a bit. This is just the opposite of submitting all the offers to the bank unsigned. While this has happened recently while I was working as a buyers agent, I am going to relay a story about a buyer who is not my client but called me for advice because he has read a number of short sale articles I have written.
This gentleman was interested in purchasing a short sale in the Boston area that was listed for a little over $400,000. He told me he did his research and felt the home was worth close to the asking price. He met the listing agent at an open house, liked the property and thought about it for a few days. He called back a few days later and told the agent he wanted to make an offer for $400,000.
The agent told him “I am sorry but someone put in an offer yesterday and the owner accepted it”. The buyer asked the agent what the offer was that the seller accepted. She told him $300,000! On so many levels this Realtor is a complete moron. As anyone in the business knows, it is a violation of the code of ethics to reveal what a seller has accepted for an offer on a property. Beyond the fact that the Realtor does not follow the code of ethics, this short sale is more than likely going to be flat out rejected by the lender.
This guy told me that the seller said to his agent “the 1st offer is almost always the best so I think we should take it”. The home was on the market for ONE DAY! A Realtor that knows what they were doing would have told the seller he can not accept this offer because it will not be approved by the bank.
When lenders are evaluating whether to approve a short sale or not one of the steps they take is to send out an appraiser to verify the value of the home. The accepted sale price needs to be within the ball park of the market value. In the above scenario what you can expect is a SHORT SALE rejection.
It is such a shame because this buyer wanted the home and was willing to pay 100,000 more than what was accepted.
If this Realtor had done their job there would be one less seller that may not end up in foreclosure. Sadly, there will probably be another short sale that will never make it to the closing table because of pure stupidity. This is not some random story. This kind of thing goes on all the time in Real Estate.
Don’t let the joke be on you! Do your research on selecting a short sale agent to work with. They should have experience closing short sales and have a complete understanding of the process.
Thinking of selling a short sale home or condo in Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.
Get in touch I would love to interview for the chance to represent your best interests. I am successfully completing short sales throughout the entire Metrowest area. So far, knock on wood, I have a 100% success rate for short sale approval.
Click on the links below to see other important information related to a Massachusetts Short Sale:
Picking a Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor
If you are not in the Metrowest Massachusetts area and need to do a short sale please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to refer you to a Realtor in your location that handles short sales and knows what they are doing!
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About the author: The above Real Estate information on Massachusetts short sale Realtors was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 25+ Years.
Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!
I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.
Hey Bill,
Excellent post! I too see these things happening all too often.
Realtors need to know short sales to be effective in today’s economy. BTW, “hello” from another Bay State based company 🙂
Hey Bill:
Great post…you are right on the money with the information about short sales.
I like this format for your blog very much.
Bill
Bill – Thanks! I am glad you like the new Real Estate blog.
You are right on Bill! These, an dothers, are my warnings/pet peeves as well.
Bill that heading was really funny but true. When facing such a situation you really need to work with people who knows what they are doing.
Love your blo, still waiting for the release of my new wordpress website and blog….
Like the new blog – short sale sellers better have a good realtor who knows how to handle it – their time might be up.
Oops- another comment while you are moderating my first one 🙂
Sending unaccepted offers to the bank is stupid. In Nevada, only when you have an accepted contract on a short sale property can you send it to the lender. If you send any more offers to the lender, it is interference of contract. The buyer in contract can sue the seller, the bank, the listing agent. So many agents here do not realize it, and argue ‘my offer is cash, my offer is above list, etc., send it to the bank and see what they say.’ I don’t argue, but send them a letter from the NV legal counsel, usually they quit bothering me. Representing a seller on a short sale is an art and a science. You got it!
Virginia there is no doubt that not securing a contract is just plain foolish and does nothing to serve your client. The are far too many Realtors that are representing short sales that are just clueless. It is a shame given the fact that on many occasions the Realtor could have prevented the foreclosure if they followed proper procedures!
THANK you for the link, Bill! I plan to return here often to pick your brain (and link back).
Kathy any time you need any help with short sales or any other Real Estate matter please feel free to get in touch.
First of all that first image made me chuckle. Second submitting unsigned offers is plain dumb. What banker in his right mind would even consider such an offer? You stand a better chance of getting hit by lightning… several times.
Again a nicely written article that easily educates the consumer.
Regards
Ray
Most people who take the option of short sale do not know what it entails. So, they end up trusting the first guy they meet advising them. More research is required to sell your home than that. Quite an informative post from that angle.
Bill, great job on informing folks that may need to short-sale their home. Un-signed offers and low-ball offers are not only time-wasters — they can poison the seller’s prospects for a successful sale.
“Time is of the essence” is never more true than in a short sale situation. The terms accepted by the seller must be in the “target zone” for their bank to accept or, why bother with that buyer?
No doubt about it John. In a short sale you need to make sure that you not only have a committed buyer who really wants the property but also an offer that makes sense. The lender of course will send out an appraiser who will make sure the property is being sold within a range of fair market value.
This information is crucial and well thought out and researched
Thank you for your Blog