I’ve been on a mad chase for good competent Realtors to handle my short sales and there just not out there. The biggest issue I am having is this line “I don’t make enough money with short sales, they are not worth it” I find this line very irritating to me though I can understand the reasoning behind it. I’m giving these people free leads, ready to go and they aren’t interested. With the market as bad as it is regardless of how much you will make, why would you say no to a free ready to go motivated seller!!!
Ok now that I’ve vented - maybe I am confused about their commissions. What is the general commission an Agent can make on a short sale deal? Who pays the fee, the bank or can it come from the buyer proceeds? Need clarification please.
Exactly how, and what, are you proposing to these agents? And exactly who (what type of agent) are you posing it to?
An experienced and established agent may very well not consider doing short sales a good use of their time. Short sales require ALOT of time and effort for the money paid. If, as an agent, you are already turning X number of deals (whatever you want, in other words), then adding that hassle is not worth it.
On the other hand, approaching a green agent about SS’s, especially someone that is totally green (no RE experience at all) will likely scare them away because they simply don’t know how they’ll be paid, nor do they know what to do. It may be a situation where you could train them.
And that’s where you come in. Are YOU experienced dealing with SSs? If you haven’t already done a number of them, agents may fill that the time/money spent working on a possible deal may not be worth it because you don’t have a track record of successful closings already.
A good, competent agent can actually make your SS deals go smoother, faster, AND more likely to get accepted. Keep working it.
thank you Roger, it seems there are a number of factors involved
Most agents are green
Some review my deal and know they most likely can’t sell because it’s out of their area
I’m not so irritated now - thank you - i realized i need to just keep talking to people and i will find the right agent for each deal - what works for one agent will not always work for the other : )
Im in MN and I do about 2-3 short sales a month. Most agents dont understand how to do them so the money is not worth it. Once you figure it out :biggrin
Heck, I am an investor and I don’t touch short sales because of the time and effort they take. Realtors usually get 2% commission (half 6%, and 1% goes to the broker), so a short sale is not worth the effort specially that success rate is low. They are better off not doing them.
i HATE realtors! I really do! I have had some doozeys over the years and all i can say is money talks. I havent done any short sales myself but i have several friends that have and they have the same complaints. the realtors either dont know what in the hell a short sale is or how to do it or wont because they wont make enough.
One suggestion is to offer up front CASH to the realtor to handle it. unethical? Yes. but it gets the job done. GOOD LUCK!
Didn’t mean to offend anyone raj, was just trying to find out if Cruzvarian was in my area. I have to take a stand for the Realtors out there. There are many who don’t know much but when you find one who does they are worth their weight in gold. I’m an investor who got tired of handing out commissions so I got my license for that reason alone.
I understand how frustrating it can be RealityCo. Put yourself in our shoes though. People call you, you make a plan, the plan changes, they don’t notify you, you waste your time and money for nothing. The only people I work with are investors who understand TIME is our most precious commodity. I don’t do open houses, I don’t run people around looking at fifty houses, I don’t wine and dine them three times a month. Basically, I don’t let people waste my time. It’s like this, if you look at the numbers and the numbers make sense will you sign? Plain and simple. I don’t waste your time and you don’t waste mine and it is like a marriage made in heaven. Sure, there is more to it than that but you get my point. Find a Realtor who understands investing and you’ll never look at one the same again.
The way I look at it is the relationship between the agent and ss person is that it is a partnership - the agent is responsible for finding a buyer and i am responsible for getting the ss paperwork in order and work with the lender - as long as it is not a water and oil relationship, it should work out just fine - i am working just as hard as an agent and making much less - no commission. I’m pretty upfront- show them the deal and if they don’t like it i move on to the next - either way it gets frustrating because i am dealing with people who are about to lose their home and if i don’t have the other half working to do their part, well my objective can’t be met and that is to get these homeowners out of foreclosure with a ss
No offense, novemberman. Just seen too many of those “pm” posts that offer nothing to the general readers. Just my venting. :biggrin
Confused cruzvarian. You say that you make less than an agent off of a shortsale? If so, exactly why are you pursuing them?
Agree with the partnership thing. That’s one point that most investors don’t get with working with agents. However, I think that you’re using your agent (or viewing them) the wrong way. You say that it’s THEIR job to find a buyer. If that is the way that you’re presenting it, then there is your problem. If they list your property, then it’s their job to market it to it’s fullest potential so that as many buyers (and buyers’ agents) will see it and want it. If you’re thinking that it’s the agent’s job to find you a buyer in X number of days so that you can close on a shortsale, then MOST agents will pass. It’s not realistic. It would be a waste of their time.
Also, if you want to get MORE shortsales closed, then you should be using the agent to forward the paperwork AND negotiate with the lender. If the agent doesn’t know how, teach them. Lenders will be much more likely to close when there is a neutral third party involved.
IF you, as an investor, RealityCo, know how to do shortsales (having done a few helps), then teaching an agent to do them shouldn’t be a problem. Same goes for educating them on what they are. Now, if they say it’s because they don’t make enough, I’d wager that your “friends” have come on something like, “I want you to do this SS for me! If we get it, I’m gonna fix it up and sell it!” Guess what, MOST agents wouldn’t touch it. =Forget about the agent not knowing anything, you don’t know what you’re doing.
Make it a win-win for both you and the agent and you will reap the rewards.
