Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

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What is the Short Sale Buyer's Agent Entitled to Know About that Sacramento Short Sale?

Somebody asked me the other day how I handle the madness inherent in Sacramento short sale sales. Because there is madness. People are nuts. And I'm not just talking about myself. Other agents are always good for a chuckle, too. I'll tell you my secret. I do two things to maintain my sanity in the world of short sales:

1. Keep my sense of humor

2. Lower my expectations

Everybody wants to be right. I let them be right. Even if they are wrong. It's no skin off my nose to let them be right. Sometimes, I get emails from clients who are making threats to me. They demand that X happen in order for Y to occur. I guess they think that I will relay that message to their bank and force the bank to do what they want. I don't know where or how they believe I possess that much power or, more importantly, that the bank cares. The bank doesn't give a crap. I want to say: There is only one person who gives a crap, and she's not speaking to you anymore.

Along with lowering my expectations, there is a great deal of patience involved when managing a Sacramento short sale. Yesterday, I tried to explain how the commission works to another agent. I repeated it over and over but it wasn't sinking in. Finally, my husband overheard me say, "OK, now imagine you have 6 apples, and you take away 2 1/2 apples, how many are left?" And the agent answered, "Two?" See, I can't make up stuff like this. This really happened.

But the icing on the cake are the agents who demand to know the seller's personal details in a short sale. One of them even sent me an authorization to release information, as if I wanted my seller to sign a blank document like that. The seller's life is private. The intimate details of the seller's short sale negotiation are not public knowledge.

I can see that some buyer's agents believe their buyer has a right to know what's going on simply by the fact the buyer has entered into a contract to buy a short sale with my seller. However, the buyer is not entitled to know the seller's personal details. The outcome is the buyer's business. How we get there is not.

The seller's financial situation is not up for discussion. I've had agents call and demand to know: What is the seller's hardship? What is in the hardship letter?

That's not what they want to know. They wouldn't even know what to do with the information if I disclosed it, which I won't. They want to know if the transaction will close. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I can tell you that it is very rare for a short sale to be rejected. If I am listing that short sale, it's because I believe it will close. Yet, I am not going to disclose the seller's confidential information. It's against the law. But I don't blame them for asking. Because some agents will blab. Just not this Sacramento short sale agent.

sacramento short sale agentcerfified hafa specialist

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Certified HAFA Specialistelizabeth weintraub

 

equator certified platinum reo elizabeth weintraub

Elizabeth Weintraub reviews My Sacramento Real Estate Listings

Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.

Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.

The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.

Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.

 

9 comments • Elizabeth Weintraub, Sacramento Short Sale Agent, Land Park, East Sac, Lyon RE • December 01 2011 09:37AM

How Not to Write a Hardship Letter to Do a Short Sale

Sometimes when sellers call me about doing a short sale in Sacramento, they preface the conversation by saying they don't have much of a hardship, so they think they don't qualify. That's often because they are looking at their own situation and they can't see the forest from the trees. There are others, of course, who think they qualify and they don't. They're just sick of making payments on an underwater home. Banks do grant short sale to these types of people but they make them pay for the privilege -- often through the nose.

Some people think that Bank of America's Cooperative Short Sale program means they don't have to write a hardship letter. But Bank of America wants to hear their story. Everybody has a story. Everybody. Some are worse than others, but everybody has a story. No story, no short sale.

I recall a hardship letter I received a few years ago. The seller talked about the fact she had recently remarried but still lived in the same home, which had lost about 50% of its value. She had read my article about writing a hardship letter. I said be personal. So, she described how each of the rooms in that home reminded her of her divorce and how she had failed in her marriage. For that reason, she had to sell as a short sale.

See, the thing is you don't know who is reading your hardship letter. Why, that seller's hardship letter could be read by a bank negotiator who is in her prime of life and stuck in a horrible marriage she can't get out of. Perhaps she's devoutly religious, too, and doesn't believe in divorce. The negotiator might carry prejudices and unfairly judge a seller who has divorced. This type of person might harbor zero empathy for my divorce-mourning seller simply because my seller is free, remarried, and she is not.

Of course, I am not going to write a hardship letter for any of my sellers. As a Sacramento short sale agent, that is way beyond the scope of my authority and licensing. But I will offer suggestions and assistance to help sellers craft an appropriate hardship letter. That's one of the advantages of working with an experienced short sale agent. The hardship letter is what we tackle first. It's the foundation for a short sale.

I do not, under any circumstances, offer legal advice. You need a lawyer for that.

sacramento short sale agentcerfified hafa specialist

---

Certified HAFA Specialistelizabeth weintraub

 

equator certified platinum reo elizabeth weintraub

Elizabeth Weintraub reviews My Sacramento Real Estate Listings

Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.

Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.

The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.

Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.

 

11 comments • Elizabeth Weintraub, Sacramento Short Sale Agent, Land Park, East Sac, Lyon RE • April 05 2011 11:51AM