Fighting Foreclosure!

Step 4: Listing Your Home for Sale

 

      Let's assume now you're qualified for a short sale and that you've found an expert to guide you safely through the process and that he or she has created a solid BPO and determined the "30-Day Sales Price", that is, the price that you can reasonably expect to obtain from more than one motivated and qualified buyer(s) within 30 days.

 

      In this stage, putting your home up for sale as a short sale is no different than listing your home for sale as you would a traditional sale except for the fact that you must advise interested buyers that any final sale is subject to lender approval.

 

      There's no ominous sign in the yard to indicate you're doing a short sale.  In fact, there may not be any sign in the yard at all. Every market is different. Leave the marketing up to your expert.

 

      A true real estate professional will want to "fly the plane" so to speak. When it comes to having a sign or not having a sign, whether or not you should allow agents to access your home when you're away, holding open houses or not holding open houses, a pro will gently insist you avoid coming up into the cockpit and trying to fly. Just like you, they don't want their time or resources wasted.

 

      You may or may not already know this but many traditional marketing techniques are great for promoting the agent but actually hinder the sales process. For example, I stopped creating and providing the "pull up and take-one property brochures" a long time ago after realizing through experience that they mostly only served to prevent potential buyers from calling to engage with me.

 

      A flyer cannot sell the house as well I can over the phone and I'd rather a potential buyer actually see the home personally before making a decision one way or the other. Sometimes a picture on a flyer will falsely convince a potential buyer that the home is not for them even when it just might be exactly what they are looking for.

 

      I stopped using them. The end result was more buyers calling the number on my sign to ask about the house. After describing all of the features and benefits of the home and community over the phone and removing their inaccurate assumptions and ideas, I'd invite them for a private tour and guess what, they'd come! Go figure.