Questions To Ask A Short Sale Listing Agent

There are many different scenarios of a short sale that a buyer and a seller must be aware of. It is always exciting to get in on a good deal that can save you thousands of dollars so you may be eager to jump in with both feet. However, before making any attempt to put your home on the market you need to have a serious conversation with the leasing agent so that you know if they are qualified to handle the sale of your home.

What is Your Experience?

Ideally, you would expect that any real estate agent would know how to handle any type of sale but that would not be reasonable. Just like you would not expect that any teacher can teach in any classroom in the country. There are many different specialties in real estate and short sales is just one of them. You’ll want to find a short sale realtor that knows the ins and outs of this type of transaction. They will understand how to realistically value your property and what kind of offers the bank will expect. Using a realtor that is not knowledgeable could have you spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.

Can the Complete the Financial Package?

Many financial institutions have their own short sale packages that must be submitted before a short sale can be considered. This information can be very lengthy and detailed and must be submitted along with supporting documentation. Your realtor must fully understand exactly what’s involved in the financial package and be able to put it all together to help you to move the process along. If they are seasoned short sale realtors they will not have any trouble putting these packages together saving you a lot of time and misery.

How Many Offers Will You be Submitting to the Lender?

The answer to this question should be obvious. While you may have a number of offers made on the property your realtor should be focusing on only one. Lender’s have to shuffle through a lot of paperwork and don’t want to be making a decision that the realtor should be making. The realtor should be able to look through all of the different offers on the property and choose the one that is most likely to get the approval of the lending institution and submit that one. Besides, submitting more than one offer to the bank may raise some eyebrows and cause suspicions about the realtor’s ethics and activities and you don’t want to get embroiled in something like that.

There are many advantages to working with a short sale realtor rather than trying to take care of much of this work on your own. Depending on your own personal circumstances a short sale may be your best investment option for the moment but what may be a good deal could turn out to be a total fiasco if you have to work with someone who is poorly qualified to give you the professional guidance that you need.