My team and I have completed hundreds of short sales with just about every lender out there. What I wanted to put out there today are some questions you might want to ask an agent if you’re thinking about letting them help you with your short sale. Whether it’s our team here or a completely different short sale agent, one of the things you want to ask them is how many short sales they’ve completed.
One of the interesting things to note is that the average real estate agent completes less than two short sale transactions a year. If you ask an agent how many short sales they’ve done and they say a lot, their perception of the number of short sale transactions could potentially be skewed. An agent that specializes in short sales or works on a number of short sales closes between 50 to 100 short sale transactions a year. They’ll have much more experience with the different lenders and be on top of everything that’s going on with your transaction. Just make sure you have your real estate agent quantify the number of short sales they are actually completing every year.
Also ask the realtor what you can expect and what the short sale process is going to be like. If they go to the extreme and are telling you that short sales are a nightmare to complete and are horrible, this should give you an indication that this isn’t the agent you want handling your transaction. While short sales can be difficult, they aren’t a nightmare and some can be fairly simple to complete. If they go the other direction and paint you a picture that short sales are all fine and dandy, they probably don’t have the experience with short sale transactions that you want. You want an agent that tells you the truth, that completing a short sale is somewhere in between.
If you have other questions, please browse my website, pick up the phone and call us or send us an email because we’d be happy to help you out and tell you what other questions you should ask a potential short sale agent.