It’s a Short Sale People. STOP TREATING IT LIKE AN REO!!! New Hampshire Massachusetts Short Sale

It’s been a crazy week for us.  We had three closings, a lot of scrambling, driving and then two listings came in today that we assigned out to the Realtors we work with.  (Side note: Congrats Cheryl Dwyer on Cohasset!)
On occasion, we have a homeowner call us that lives in an area that we don’t have an agent close by that we’ve worked with.  We LIKE to give our listings out to agents we’ve worked with, who know how to work with us, know how we work our short sale negotiations and can close property smoothly, but the listing came in and it was in an area in New Hampshire that was fairly remote, so I had to reach out to one of our Realtor networking boards to have someone list it.
I got a call from an agent who I’ve spoken with on multiple occasions, but we just didn’t seem to be able to work together for whatever reason, but he was interested in this listing so we assigned it to him.
He immediately got going on the legwork which was great.
He called me tonight and asked a funny question.  Are you submitting multiple offers to the bank if I get them in?  I explained I can’t submit multiple offers.  Only one executed offer goes to the lender and all the rest are put into backup position.  He said, “Yes, that’s what I thought, but I was working on a short sale earlier this year and submitted an offer and two weeks later had an agent demand her offer be submitted to the bank.”
Now, I’ve had that happen myself.  We had a property in Newbury, MA we negotiated and 3 offers came in.  The homeowner selected the strongest offer and went forward.  One of the agents (A CDPE nonetheless) demanded his offer be accepted and when we said no, he said he would submit it directly the lender.  I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair.  AND THIS GUY WAS A CDPE??  For those who don’t know, you CAN’T submit your offer directly to the lender in a short sale.  Your contract is with the SELLER, not lender.
Anyways, back to the story.  I explained to the new Realtor I was working with he shouldn’t have been worried if the property was already under contract.  I guess he had more to worry about that I thought when the pushy buyer showed up at his seller’s door step with a P&S in hand and said, “Did you see this?”  Can you IMAGINE?  Next thing you know he was reported to the NH Real Estate Commission.   I thought, “What for?”
Here is where the story gets VERY interesting.  He explained to someone at the commission that he already had it under contract so legally he couldn’t submit the other offer and do you know what the woman said?  “Why didn’t you submit the other offer to the bank?”  Someone at the New Hampshire Real Estate Commission said that!!!!
Ummm….let’s see.  Because an agent must follow the law and you CAN’T have two executed contracts on the same short sale.  IT’S NOT AN REO where multiple offers are submitted to the lender!!  People confuse the two.  You contract is with the SELLER of the property, NOT  the bank.  I cannot believe someone at the commission said that to him.  Everyone get online RIGHT NOW and look up tortious interference.  Any real estate agent should be VERY nervous about submitting two executed contracts at once.  You could get sued very quickly, buy the buyer, seller and “other buyer” – It is NOT an REO it is a short sale and the seller is NOT THE LENDER.  The seller owns the home.
Maryann Little, VP Negotiations
http://shortsalemitigation.net/
Massachusetts Short Sale Negotiations
New Hampshire Short Sale Negotiations
http://rapidpropertyrelief.com/
Pre-foreclosure acquisition services

Source: Massachusetts Short Sale (http://s.tt/13oCT)

NO – YOU control the list price – Massachusetts Short Sales

We’ve had a lot of new homeowners call us lately for assistance with short sales.  We assign these listings to the more experienced agents we’ve worked with.  We’ve worked with agents from Keller Williams, Remax, Century 21, Weichart, and many others. On occasion we have to work with a new agent.  We work with the new agents if they have questions or want to know about the process.  This past week I had two separate agents ask me the same question.  “How do I know what to set the list price at?  How can I tell what the bank wants to NET?”
This is where their inexperience shows a bit.  It’s ok, because we all had to start somewhere.
On each short sale we mitigate, we have the agents do a thorough market valuation.  They provide comps and we ask them to provide a high and low price, based on similar solds.  We usually ask them to take a look at the local market for the amount of REO’s and short sales.  MOST times, when the lender does their valuation, they cannot look at sold comps for REO’s and Short Sales, however, if you want a TRUE comp you HAVE to look at similar properties in that category.  There are some properties that are extremely difficult to comp, but we all work together to get an idea of what the property will sell at.
The key to remember is WE or YOU the listing agent have control over the list price…NOT the bank (unless you are doing a HAFA short sale) – It’s important that YOU show the bank what the property is worth and not the other way around.  There are MANY times the lender will send out someone to come up with a value for the property and their “opinion” does NOT reflect the local market or condition of the property and then you have an uphill battle of trying to prove why your offer actually supports recent sold comps.  Take control first.  You need to set the list price.  Once you can show market history on the property, it shouldn’t be hard to prove to the bank why your valuation of the property is the accurate one.
http://shortsalemitigation.net/ New Hampshire and Massachusetts Short Sale Negotiation
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Maryann Little, Managing Member
Short Sale Mitigation, LLC

Source: Massachusetts Short Sale (http://s.tt/13Cdz)