How does Alise manage to complete so many short sales, when the national average for short sales that actually close is hovering around 60%? She takes it seriously. Alise doesn’t look as short sales as a way to get “leads” for buyers looking for a bargain- all the while hoping to direct their attention to an easier close.  She treats homes that are short sales with the same 5 star service as every other listing she takes on. That service often includes professional photography, staging, graphic designers and ad copywriters. why would she spend thousands of dollars before your home is even on the market? Simply because she knows she can sell the home, and she is confident it will make it to the closing table.  What's the difference between Alise Roberts and the average agent trying to make this happen?   We’ve identified several common speed bumps that keep contracts from reaching a successful conclusion, and developed a solution or prevention for the most common issues. What are they?
  1. Not doing your homework. In order to actually qualify to complete a short sale, some parameters have to be in place. For one, a sale of the home, after expenses like excise tax, closing costs and real estate commissions, has to net less than the amount owed on the home. Simple enough. The proceeds have to come up “short” hence the name. Second, there has to have been a change that created the hardship requiring the sale. This is definitely a subjective evaluation, but suffice it to say you cannot just be tired of your home. Has your income been reduced for some reason? Have your payment amounts changed, due to an ARM? Have you had increased expenses due to medical or familial issues? Any and all of these can create a hardship that qualifies your loan to be CONSIDERED for a short sale. A good Realtor will go over your situation to help you determine if you meet the criteria LONG before slapping a sign down on your lawn.
  2. Incomplete documentation. Your agent will need to document a well planned attempt to market the home at a high enough price to not make it short, or have sufficient time pass with the suggested list price in order to get the bank to agree to the price set for the short sale. You (or your agent) can’t just throw a random price on your home and demand the bank take it. If they loaned you $400k two years ago on a home they believed was valued at $480k, and now you are trying to tell them it’s only worth $350, they are going to want some proof. Alise uses 7 different valuation and documentation methods to establish that the asking/sale price is reasonable.  In fact, our method is so thorough that several banks we deal with have commented that they were able to skip two or more departments that would have been involved in valuation of the property and validation of the hardship. This is a huge bonus for Alise’s clients, as it shortens sale times and long negotiating periods are often when buyers get disheartened and walk away.
  3. Being Passive. Yes, the bank has every scrap of paper they could possible ask for in order to make decision. Is your agent patiently waiting for a decision? Hopefully not. Short sales take nurturing and direction. The bank and their reps are overloaded. It’s not about being a squeaky wheel, it’s about being an unceasing foghorn. Seriously.  Every day, banks tell me that they will not have any new information for <insert extended time period here>, their recorded messages tell me that a live agent doesn’t have any better intel for me than the automated program, and new reps tell me “this isn’t how it’s done, you have to wait for us…”. While doing everything possible to not get my number banned, I call and email and call again. Eventually, almost always, I will at last reach someone who has the authority and understanding to work with me on the level we need to in order to complete the sale.  
  4. Uneducated Buyers. It’s not their fault. It’s not even their agents fault, really. Until an agent has successfully navigated multiple short sales from a sellers end, they will have no idea of what kind of blindsides can come their way. Short sales CAN take a long time. True, we’ve some close in under 60 days, but that’s still rare. I would guess 100 days is about average. If a buyer is not in it for the long haul, they will get bored or impatient and move onto to another propery before we even have bank approval. Alise makes it a policy to commit to the buyers on her short sales. She asks that they agree NOT to pursue other properties until we get an answer from the bank. In exchange for that commitment, she doesn’t pile offer after offer on the bank, and commits to sticking with one qualified buyer and their agent to closing. Aside from the wait, there’s often a long line of people who have claims to the sellers proceeds. Those can include attorneys, HOA’s, county and federal tax liens, private notes, utilities just to name a few. While we can often get bank to cover up to 3% of BUYER closing costs, the seller is usually in a situation where they CAN’T pay these liens off. Often there’s a couple thousand dollars of expenses that the bank won’t allow and without someone to pony up, the deal can die. We really try to find buyers who are prepared to step up and cover situations like this. If they expect these expenses, it doesn’t seem like a blindside and they are still getting a killer deal on a house!
This is barely scratching the surface of glitches that can derail a short sale, but hopefully gives you a good idea of why Alise has such a great reputation and stellar system.