I have tried several programs that offer services for "loan modification" in an effort to get short sale listings.  These programs (with monthly fees) provide marketing material to distressed owners leading them to believe that they can or may be able to get their mortgage modified.  During their training they will tell you that most will not be able to modify so they will end up as a short sale or foreclosure.  I have found that the owners I have met with really believe they can get their loan modified just because the President and Congress has made the opportunity available.  When you get to the bottom of it all they do not qualify to modify. 

My concerns are I feel these programs are very misleading and I am not happy with that approach of getting short sale listings.  Do any of you have any suggestions as to marketing for short sale listings? Would love to hear from some of you.

Thanks

My short sales are a result of loan modifications, and I believe many who apply for modifications or even get a loan modification will eventually short sell. However, I am not going to market for loan mods to get my short sales. My preferred marketing is expireds and cancelled listings. I pull up the title to see if they are in default, if they have a sale date. If they don't have a sale date yet, to me, they are a lead to pursue.

I do not do the processing, have no desire to and do not have the experience to process. I work with another agent who doesn't like to sell real estate but likes to do loans and processing. He's very good at it and has been successful with every short sale, so far. So, I do the real estate, he does the processing, I send him my buyers for loan approvals. We both are able to make money and the effort is split. When he has a loan mod that wants to short sell, he sends me them and I do their sale, he does their processing. It's a win-win-win situation.

One thing I can tell you about short sales. When you have your own buyer for your listing, the lenders want to cut your commission to where you are basically only getting paid for doing one side of the transaction. I can see dropping it down from 6% to 5%, but they want to drop it down to 3%. So, if you have a short sale listing, don't waste too much of your time trying to put your own buyer in that property. It doesn't pay. It would be better to get them into someone else's listing and sell your property to a different agency's buyer. That way you are getting paid for your work.

I have sent dirrect mail to NOD's (first week out and then followed up with sellers) But since March I am noticing that everyone I talked to beliefs, they will qualify for a L.M. Under President Obama's new rules/regulations?

In the mean time, I will keep following up on does leads and will be prepared for when they realize it was not what they expected to get in a L.M. If any... :(

I get a weekly lis pendens list for my desired towns and I send out my mailings letters and/or postcards. If I do connect with someone, I suggest the loan mod first (the right thing to do) and I keep in touch because I know 9 out of 10 times the inevitable is going to happen and I'm going to called to short sale the home. I keep it pretty simple.

Do any of you use a short sale negotiation group. I have been approached by painfreeshortsales.com and home-rescue-usa. One only selects luxury homes and the other charges $2,400 (minimum) for short sale negotiation.

Can you recommend a good outfit? I have been negotiating with the LM myself but I could use some relief.

Thanks!

I can certainly relate and I am currently checking out the following who offers a negotiation service. I have attended a webinar and So far I have not been disappointed. scotkenkel@gmail.com

David you might just to simply want to work/partner with an attorney that specialize in short sales. You find the homes and the buyers and let the attorney do the negotiations. I'd watch out for so called short sale specialist groups particularly if an upfront fee is required.

Market to fellow real estate agents offering a referral - many agents do not want to work short sales and will gladly refer to you.

Dee, I understand the delima. after running into simialr issues, I knew that there was a major disconnect in terms of  not only educating distressed home howners, not only in what the options that were out ther available to them, but also the process of a shortsale. We need a tool to help educate them, match them to potential buyers (investors) and Real Estate professionals,  and pull them through the system and execution of a short sale. I am now working with a development team here in Seattle to create such a tool for all of us to tap into. We should have the product launced and on- line July 17th.. if there are no delays. It should solve a lot of the challenges we face in terms of finding short sale clients and buyers and educating all parties involved.  I'll post back here again when its on-line and up and running.  Until then...hang in there. There are lot more potential forclosures coming in early 2010.

Short sale listings are not difficult to generate provided you use strong grass roots marketing in your area to let people know you are "not afraid" to handle the process. 1 in 4 people would need a short sale if they found themselves in a financial hardship and need to sell their home.N Never before has there been such a need for true professionals to assist homeowners in distress. I recommend social web-networking, local press release sources. I also recommend farming neighborhoods you work in announcing your skills.

In answer to the short sale negotiations --- There are really great companies you can work with that DO NOT charge upfront fees and are successful even at garnering fees that will not impact commission or be from the pockets of any parties to the transaction. BUT - there is also the option of using a tool that can help you make the process more efficient - try:

www.ManagesMyShortSale.com.

This tool is a web-based comprehensive program that includes everything necessary to get more shorts approved then the national average.