Short Sale 103

Short Sales Negotiation Process

With the current real estate market, short sales are here to stay. Lenders WANT to do short sales. A successful short sale cuts losses and keeps the lender from owning a declining asset. Here're a few thoughts on taking control of the process situation from the get go.

• With a short sale we are submitting CONTRACTS, not offers, to the lenders. We are not asking them to accept an offer, we are asking them to accept a "short" payoff so a contingency can be removed from the CONTRACT.
• The lender is NOT a party to the Contract. The Lender do not control the purchase price and the commission. They control over how much they are willing to accept as a payoff. If the payoff is too high then a solution needs to be found. The solution may be to have the seller sign a promissory note, increase the purchase price or lower the expenses of the deal.
• If the Lender asked the Seller to sign a promissory note to pay the difference in losses, an Agent can negotiate the amount of this note downward or to make it go away. The Lender always ask for a promissory note to be signed when the seller can afford to make payments.