Posts from — April 2010

Short sale sellers – Know about your short sale agent!!

I was at a networking mixer this week and had the opportunity to meet quite a few local Phoenix/Scottsdale business men & women in all walks of life. One encounter I had another real estate agent was quite interesting and thought I would share.

I was introduced to a real estate agent and before I could tell them that I too was in real estate he blurted out “I’m a short sale expert and I specialize in short selling people’s homes. Know anyone upside down in their property?” Wow, my name is Sean and it’s nice to meet you too!!

I thought i’d have a bit of fun and learn a bit about my “competition” so I told him “Yes, I know someone upside down in a property. What is it exactly that you do?”

The next 8 minutes seemed like 8 hours as I was subject to an onslaught of misadvice, miscalculations, and misinformation. When I asked how many listings he had he told me 3 but ALL of them were short sales. When I asked how many short sales he had closed he told me that ALL of his listings were closing soon and he hasn’t lost a deal yet!!

When I asked about his experience he touted that he had some letters after his name which made him a expert. (note: I am not going to name the short sale class that he attended as I have nothing against this particular short sale seminar…however simply attending a short sale workshop or class certainly doesn’t make someone a short sale expert and I certainly wouldn’t go for brain surgery from a guy just because he went to a weekend brain surgery retreat up in Flagstaff….)

I wasn’t even about to get into lender specific questions because obviously this genius had no idea who I was, how many short sale deals I deal with on a daily basis, nor how many deals I have successfully closed. It was pretty obvious that this “short sale expert” was nothing more than another overly anxious local agent wanting to join the short sale world.

Unfortunately without experience, a short sale mentor, or an unsuspecting group of clients I can’t see this guy getting very far in the vastly difficult short sale arena that makes up 1/3 of the Phoenix/Scottsdale real estate market. Hopefully he doesn’t spill his pile of beans on some poor client out there that really needs help.

My point is this — If you are looking to short sell your home, go with someone with experience, daily workings in the short sale world, and someone that can answer your questions and direct you to the right places.

If you are an agent and you’d like to work in short sales, please find another local short sale agent to work with that has experience and knows what they are doing and work with them for some transactions.

It’s not only what’s best for you but definitely what’s best for the client.

WE LOVE SHORT SALE REFERRALS!

One of the best compliments we can receive are your short sale referrals!

If you know someone who is upside down in their property and could use our no-hassle, no obligation, short sale service with a smile then please send them our way!

We offer FREE consultations, FREE advice, FREE listings (we charge the bank, not you!), FREE referrals to other professionals (including tax accountants, CPA’s, legal counsel, etc) and our short sale experts work 7 days a week!!

We can be reached daily at 480-241-4406 or visit our #1 Short Sale website at http://www.AzHomeHelp.com

Here is another reason why this entire economy is in the mess that it’s in and further proof that it’s not getting better anytime soon (at least not from the real estate side):

We have a property that we are short selling that was set to foreclose at noon today. We started the postponement process last week and the negotiator for the lender completely ignored our emails, voicemails, and multiple requests for postponement.

We went over their head and went to their supervisor and then even their supervisor’s supervisor who FINALLY called us back today about 2 hours before the foreclosure time. After about a 1/2 hour argument with this individual I got him to take a look at some recent comps, photos, and a bunch of information about the property that I stayed up late compiling. He said he would take a look at it but wouldn’t make any promises.

Here’s the kicker — our offer for the property was at $140,000. Comps for the property showed about $130,000 market value. And do you know what the bank’s opening bid for the foreclosure was?

150k? No.
175k? No
200k? Keep going…
250k? Nope…
294k? Yes!

A property worth less than 130k with a 140k offer on it was supposed to be sold at a foreclosure auction on the Phoenix courthouse steps for $294,000??? And the bank thought this was a better idea than taking our offer?

It’s situations like this that make me totally understand why we are where we are today and why we will still be in this mess 3 years from now. If this property would have been foreclosed on the bank would have taken it back and ended up selling it down the road for probably about 100k, it would have added another property to the already hugely growing “Shadow Inventory” problem nationwide, the values of this neighborhood would have dropped due to another foreclosed property on the block, and the bank would lose even more money for it’s shareholders.

Luckily we got it postponed another 30 days due to our ridiculously large short sale comp package that we put together in order to save the deal. Now we’ll try to close this one before this foreclosure business starts up again.

But anyone who is looking for “logic”, or answers that “make sense” — don’t look at the current real estate market because those words don’t even exist!!

Short sale home in Mesa — Award winning community!

Short sale home in mesa — New to market!! Big Backyard