Monday, June 15, 2009

In the trenches

I mentioned I have a difficult short sale situation in progress. I have to say it's sucking the life out of me. My clients have been great. The other parties in the deal: not so much.

I'm posting about this because there's a lot of buyers out there searching for short sale and foreclosure properties. I mentioned a few of the pitfalls last week that I learned in CE class. Here's a few real life pitfalls as well:

1. Be educated. I'm currently dealing with a seller who thinks that declaring bankruptcy vs. a short sale is going to mean exactly the same thing to them. Ummm...actually the two situations are really different. Hire an attorney and/or do some research about exactly how these two options impact your credit. I'm not an expert so I'm not expounding any further on this one.

2. Hire an agent that has experience with shorts sales and foreclosures. I can not stress how important this is for buyers and sellers. Short sales and foreclosures are painful for a number of reasons. You want the process to be as easy as possible. Do yourself a favor and use an agent that's familiar with the procedures.

3. Document, document, document. And then document some more. It's a lengthy process and lots of things can go wrong. Make sure you have an accurate, written record of what's happening. Keep all your emails. Transcribe all your phone conversations. Protect yourself as much as possible.

No comments: