You may already know that short sales can be a long and involved process, and frustrating for everyone involved.  The secret to eliminate many common headaches is getting the property ‘pre-approved’ for a short sale offer, while gently guiding the sellers in order to avoid potential disasters.

Would you like a quick reference for exactly what you need to get short sales pre-approved in record time?  Agent Terrence Hassett explains how to do just that in three simple steps.

Here’s Terrence’s description in his own words:

“Co-op brokers are wary of short sale offerings, due to the risk of last minute fall-out or problems over commissions.  By counseling your sellers to submit EARLY, you can usually get a ‘pre-approved’ short sale offering, and head off some of these problems.  Here’s the best way to approach this…

A. Start by obtaining the submission package from the lender or have your own, including:

B. Counsel your sellers as to the potential problem spots up front, like:

C. Let sellers know that the lender will likely ask for:

If you can get your short sale pre-approved, you can offer the listing with a higher probability of closing.  And these three steps will put you well on your way to a complete package for an offer submission.”

“I am a relatively new subscriber to Service For Life!^® and I had a MILLION DOLLAR idea over the weekend.  I just sent out the last newsletter and got all the incoming calls on Friday with people trying to win the monthly trivia question prize.

I realized that once someone wins, I don’t hear from them again in any of the following months and I wanted to figure out a way to get them to keep calling.  I also thought that some people don’t call because they figured that someone else already won the prize so why bother?  Well, I am working on putting together a ‘Second Chance Drawing.’

My thoughts are, at the end of the year, I’ll put everyone’s name in a hat that called and got the question right but wasn’t the first caller.  I’ll even give them an additional entry for every month they call in.  And they’ll be entered to win a second chance prize that’s even better than the monthly prize.  My ideas for the prize include:  a night at a bed & breakfast, an afternoon at a spa, free housecleaning, free lawn care, etc.

Better yet, I thought if I could get the companies to provide the prize for FREE, I would have them sponsor the contest and give them free advertising in my newsletter in exchange for sponsoring the contest.  It might even pay for my newsletter printing!

I need to work out all the details and make sure I am not breaking any company rules with this contest, but the idea to have a chance to talk to these people every month is huge!  Why wouldn’t they want to call?  And it turns into more consistent business for me.”

Do you remember the value of educating clients from this article? An educated client is worth 8 to 10 times more than an UN-educated client.

Today, many buyers are considering buying short sale properties but they are “UN-educated” and often UN-realistic about the time frame and details involved.

Agent Nancy Biel Stewart uses a unique tool to educate buyers of short sale properties. Using a simple “short sale booklet” she gives her buyers an overview of the process and sets their expectations up front. This helps her diffuse their frustrations with the process AND is a powerful way to communicate her knowledge and value to clients.

Here’s Nancy’s description (and sample below)…

“Selling real estate today can be challenging in many ways. Many of our listings are in short sale situations. I represent buyers most of the time, so I have taken several classes on short sales to better help them. I use the handouts from these classes, combined information from my experiences and created booklets to give my clients who are considering the purchase of a short sale property.

One key to selling these homes is managing your client’s expectations. I let them know up front that they may not get an answer from the banks on their offer for months and that other buyers may submit competing offers even after the seller has signed the initial offer.

My booklet explains the process from both the seller and buyer side so my clients know what they are getting into! If they proceed and become discouraged or anxious, I just refer them back to the book and calm their anxiety. Most read the booklet thoroughly and have a better understanding that all parties involved are under much stress and patience is the key to a successful closing.”

You can click on the image to see a sample booklet as a pdf:

“Recently I’ve been trying to find ways to enhance the ‘stickiness’ of my real estate business. By this, I mean that I am consistently finding ways to stay top-of-mind with prospects and clients.

One idea I’ve been using is that of giving a free gift with any INITIAL appointment I have with a client. For example: I posted an online ad for a lower priced bungalow. I received a few leads, but one in particular was quite anxious to view this property that evening. After calling and setting up the appointment to view this home and a few others, I began to draft a personalized sales-letter to give to them when we met. In the letter I discussed the recent market changes, the jump in inventory, and more importantly the weather (it was raining for about two days straight).

The overt theme of the letter was ‘IT’S RAINING LISTINGS!’. One of the lines I used was ‘With this much choice for the buyer or investor, it’s easy to drown in the overload of listings!’ Another line was “Don’t get drenched with all the choices out there!” All of this was specifically aimed at tying into and reinforcing that *I* was the Realtor they should use to find their next property.

Along with this letter, I included a small gift card to a coffee shop. But it doesn’t end there… Here’s where the stickiness factor kicks in. Since I aim to make every interaction with my clients a memorable one, I ran out to the corner store and picked up a cheap umbrella for about $10. The kind that fold up and you can fit it in your glove box. I purposely picked the most obscenely bright color (yellow with black polka dots to be exact) and upon meeting the clients at the first location, presented the umbrella and the envelope with my sales letter, along with the highlight sheets for our viewings.

Needless to say they were enthralled and have been telling everyone they know that ‘Their real estate guy is Justin and you NEED to use him, he’s the BEST!’ This was only last week and already they’re looking to purchase two investment properties in the next month. Not bad for $15 of gifts and a few minutes of my time.”