Pretty interesting find over at The Big Picture, detailing how to use Google Maps to find foreclosures:

Google Maps keeps evolving, expanding the ability to drill down into granular detail. The latest updated trick? Mapping foreclosures for sale.

Our friends at Chart Porn — a blog that got its name from one of our posts (honest!) — remind us of this, with a step-by-step lesson of how to use Google maps:

Google Maps Foreclosure Listings

1. Punch in any US address into Google Maps.

2. Your options are Earth, Satellite, Map, Traffic and . . . More. (Select “More”)

3. The drop down menu gives you a check box option for “Real Estate.”

4. The left column will give you several options (You may have to select “Show Options”)

5. Check the box marked “Foreclosure.”

I wanted to demonstrate the full extent of Foreclosures in the US, so after setting GMaps on foreclosure listings, I slowly zoomed out of the map. Voila! Most foreclosures that are for sale in the USA are now showing on your screen.

Note: This map does not reveal any of the millions of REOs that have already been sold by the banks that hold them.

But the maps do reveal an entire nation littered with foreclosure sales. It is an ugly and graphic depiction of how much inventory is out there, and why housing is stillmany years away from being healthy.

Take a look at this example from Las Vegas:

Unfortunately, it can’t help you find underwater homeowners (you are better off reading our blog post on keeping your pipeline full of short sale leads for that) but it’s still quite an interesting look and when you view the map nationwide, you can see the trouble areas of the country pretty easily.

There has been a lot of talk on the Internet the past few days about so-called Short Sale Guru’s and some of the scams they may or may not perpetuate. We have strong feelings about scammers at Short Sale Artisan, and that is: Steer Clear at All Costs!

Like any industry, there are always a few bad apples that can perpetuate the image that the entire industry is corrupt or full of selfish, greedy individuals looking to take advantage of other people. Real estate in particular has always been a trap for that. It’s hard to visit real estate sites anywhere on the Web without seeing promises of “Getting Rich in 30 Days” or “Make $10,000 In 5 Days without Having to Do Anything!”.

Let’s be clear – there is a lot of money to be made in real estate, and real estate can be an incredibly lucrative industry. But don’t think for a second that it’s easy or painless. Being successful in real estate, like any other industry, requires work, perseverance, and constant self improvement.

The old adage rings true: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Psychology behind being “suckered”

In a lot of ways, people get suckered for these get rich quick schemes the same way they do with diet pills. Many individuals, particularly those who are in a difficult position in life, will spend their last few dollars trying to buy some course or program that they think will just pile in money for them. It just doesn’t work like that, just like a pill won’t melt away the Bacon Double Cheeseburger you ate last night.

Even MSN posted a great article on so-called real estate riches, doing some hefty analysis into the real estate investment psychology.

“It’s the jackpot mentality,” says psychologist Patricia Farrell, author of “How to Be Your Own Therapist.” Just like the schmoe who buys a winning lottery ticket — every once in a while, someone, somewhere really does use these edgy real estate investment techniques to make millions.

“It’s not the principles that are flawed,” says Bour. “It’s the simplicity and ease that are overstated.”

Most of the information that is taught by the so-called gurus is available free on Internet forums like Bigger Pockets or REI Club and can be gained for free, by talking with other investors in user forums who have or are in the process of actually doing the type of real estate investment you’d like to do (be it short sales, commercial properties, investment properties, rental houses, or fix & flip). It requires you to search out information and be proactive about it -but if you aren’t willing to at least put in that level of effort, don’t expect to gain anything more just because you shelled out $2500 on a spiffy real estate course.

Evaluating a real estate investment product

That’s not to say all products are bad. You just need to be very careful with how you invest your money. Many courses are education, and education is invaluable. Next to a $100,000 college degree, a $2500 course can sure seem quite reasonable. But, like the college degree, its what you do with that information that determines if your up front investment was worth while.

Research the company and the owners of the company

This is such an obvious step, but spend the time to research what you are investing into. Find out how long the company has been in business, and where they operate out of. Find out who the owners of the company are, and if they have true experience in the industry. The great thing about the Internet nowadays is that it’s quite easy to find out if people are scamming, because people are very quick to post about bad experiences they have, and it’s hard to hide from bad press.

There are also many websites dedicated to reviewing real estate guru’s and their courses. They are worth checking out as well. Here are two to get you started:

Reed’s Guru Rating

Real Estate Course Reviews

Also, you should look also on Facebook and Twitter and see what people are talking about.Remember that these mediums are easily manipulated and affiliates and company shills can easily post “pretending” to be customers of the company. It happens all the time.

Make sure as well that the owners of the company / the Guru – has experience in what they are doing. They should be able to back this up with documentation and proof, and not self-created proof, like we have recently seen with this Karen Hanover scam that is percolating around the Internet. (Can you believe it? Some gurus will go so far as to self-invent designations for themselves that don’t really exist!)

Talk to people who have been through the course

Under no circumstance should you ever sign up for a class or course without talking to someone who has already been through it. Learn from others. You can get a feel then also for the content of the class and the value it provided.

Use common sense

Our rule of thumb: anyone who promises something crazy, is probably crazy. Also – don’t be a marketing puppet. You know marketing when you see it. Don’t fall for it! Use common sense, and look at the features of a package – not just the marketing hype.

Over the past few months,  we have found it amazing that some people can fall for such obvious marketing ploys. YouTube videos, extensive affiliate networks, and more; just go to reinforce the marketing perspective.

At Short Sale Artisan, we take great care not to patronize our clients. We believe every client of ours is a self-driven individual who is looking for tools to make their lives easier. That’s what we promise to deliver. We don’t promise free money, or easy-street, or that you won’t have to work again for the rest of your life in 84 minutes. Anything that promises to do the work for you and give you a 100% chance of success is a red flag, period.

Finally, don’t fall for time-pressure tactics. You will always here that you need to sign up today. You don’t. Your decision to take a course should be based on your desire to take one. Not a pitchperson planting that in your brain. A successful, well designed real estate course will be around tomorrow, next week, and next month. This is especially true on webinars where you will be pressured with “limited time bonuses” and other goodies.

What is the return and guarantee policy

You’d better be sure that if you aren’t satisfied with the course, you have a way to get your money back! Make sure you research this ahead of time!

Price to Benefit Ratio

It’s easy for Gurus to convince you that their courses or software products are worth the steep up front fees, because they can make the easy claim that “All you need to complete is one deal and you will make back many times your investment”. That’s true, but if they are so confident in the ability to deliver that one deal – they should let you pay after you’ve made your first deal.

Our opinion: look at what you are getting. It makes no sense to pay $2500 for a “setup fee” for a piece of software, in our opinion. What software out there costs that much money, unless it is an enterprise level piece of software for a company with dozens or hundreds of employees? We feel that these exorbitant setup fees (charged by companies like Freedom$oft) is almost extortion. These companies aren’t making their money by providing a good product at a fair price. They are making their money by suckering a few people into signing up for empty promises. In our opinion, this is not only scammy, it’s also highly unethical. These types of deals lead people to feel like they have “sunk cost”, that is; they have invested in the system and do not want to cancel, even though they get no benefit from it.

Industry damage

Another unfortunate byproducts of scammers is that they make the industry look bad and shady, when it truly is not.

We’ve all read about the Freddie Mac report on investor fraud. These types of things are strongly perpetuated by the “bad apples” in the investment training and education categories. Overall, views of investors range from “meh” to “unethical”, even though the majority of investors are stand-up people making a living with a true career path, like any other entrepreneur. That’s why it is so important we self regulate and weed out these guru scams and investors who behave inappropriately.

Some scams, exposed!

Just in the past two weeks, a big one has been the Karen Hanover commercial real estate investing.

This one involved creating fake designations and placing falsehoods on an resume.

The “associations”  Karen Hanover  touts as being a member of CCREA NAIA (and the self storage one SSEI?) are all her own creation.  In February she had the balls to create a press release to tout how the CCREA had awarded her real estate course its #1 ranking! I love tenacity and perseverance, but fraud is disgusting and seeing how there are so many dubious characters in this business, it just bugs me.

Anyway I sent an email to Sperry Van Ness’s Human Resources department and got back the enclosed email. According to SVN she has never worked there and their attorneys are looking into it. ))) I have not called Marcus & Millichap.

This is pretty scary stuff. It’s so easy on the Internet to look professional and real, and that is why so many people fall for scammers. It’s not enough to be presented designations – you need to follow up with them!

Now, that’s not to say that Karen Hanover doesn’t have valuable information to help you out in your real estate investing career – we are only suggesting that you need to tread lightly when contemplating courses such as hers. It certainly doesn’t leave a great first impression when you hear about how things like her designations are fabricated.

So what should I do?

We are not against real estate courses or investments at all. We just think everyone needs to step back, take a breath, and not be blinded by the promises that are made by the marketing wizards that run these companies. Evaluate the course for what it really is.

We personally feel that the best courses are ones that aren’t “in your face” marketing, but are more subtle and have some more composure. These courses stand on their own, and don’t need ridiculous promises to drive hype up to people who are vulnerable to the small glimmer of financial freedom with zero effort.

You don’t see real education institutions (like colleges) pulling these types of marketing tactics, so you should be turned off when you see high pressure sales tactics.

We’d love to hear your stories in the comments about companies that scammed you! Exposing them, as we mentioned above, is one of the most important things we can do to clean up the industry. There is a lot of real, legit money to be made investing in real estate, especially short sales with the market today. Remember, even a good course does you no good if you just attend and don’t do anything afterwards. Action is necessary!

I always find it amusing when someone thinks they are entitled to a short sale simply because their home is underwater. We have said it over and over again; but this little Q&A blurb from MarketWatch (paraphrased below) explains it very well:

Nothing is impossible and there are always silver linings in the cloud. When the market does come back, those realtors who succeeded through these times will be some of the best around!

Simply put, the Broker Price Opinion, or BPO, is an valuation or estimation of a property completed by a real estate broker or other licensed individual. The BPO is a “middle of the road” appraisal; and is more thorough than the AVM (Automated Value Model), a system that calculates a value in minutes with no property visit based on historical price, market conditions, and comparables; but not as thorough as an full-blown appraisal done by a licensed and certified appraiser (which can cost twice as much).

For the short sale agent or real estate agent, a BPO is typically ordered by the bank or lender when considering a short sale offer. The BPO value provided by the agent that is a result of the BPO inspection is typically used by the bank to compare against the short sale offer that was made to see if the offer is reasonable. The BPO does not necessarily need to come in lower than the offer being made; but if there is a big gap between the BPO value and the Short Sale offer, the bank or lender will be more likely to question the deal and its validity.

Here’s the kicker: a BPO, like any other appraisal, is still subjective. After all, it is called a broker price opinion. Like anything else in real estate, when it comes to estimating, there is no real “number” for a property, the best there is is a reasonable range. Ultimately a house will only sell for what someone will pay for it, and while we can estimate what that might be all day long, it’s just not possible to know it to the dollar.

The problem with the BPO for the short sale professional is that, as an investor or agent trying to gain short sale approval from the lender, you want the BPO to come in as low as possible (and, of course, still be an accurate number – any lying or shell games here is grounds for serious legal consequences!).  Meanwhile, the lender wants the BPO value to come in as high as possible. Since the lender is the one doing the ordering of the BPO here, you can see how the broker will typically work along that “range” in the lenders favor.

There are really two types of BPO’s ordered by lenders, Full and Drive-By. We recommend always pressing for a full (inside & out) BPO. Since we are attempting a short sale on the property, and the owners are having difficulty meeting their financial obligations, it’s very likely the inside of the property is suffering from at least some neglect or damage. Remember, you want the BPO to come in as low as possible; so seeing interior damage is important for the broker to really understand the true nature and magnitude of the repairs that must be done. Also, having the broker visit the property directly will let you meet him or her; which we will talk more about below.

So, what is the broker actually going to actually do to complete the BPO?

1. Pull comparables
2. Take photos of the property and the surrounding area
3. Estimate repair costs
4. Form an opinion of the properties value in the market
5. Write it all up on a short report and send it to the lender

That end result – the  opinion – can make a huge difference in your deals. If the BPO value is $100,000; and the lender is able to take 90% of BPO value, your net offer will have to be $90,000 or higher. If the BPO value is $120,000; now your net offer will have to be $108,000. A high BPO can and routinely does kill deals. You can sometimes get the bank to order a second (or even a third!) BPO, but your goal should be to get the BPO at a value that supports your short sale offer, the first time out.

So; with that said, how can you (legally!) impact or influence the BPO value?

1. Be Prepared! The broker will pull their own comparables, and so should you. Remember, everything is subjective. Bring properties and values with you that you think best represent the value of the listing, and share those with the broker. Create your own repair estimates, as well, so you can compare notes with the broker. Your repair estimates should include both the more cosmetic items (like peeling paint and damaged counter tops) as well as the more serious issues (like foundation cracks or a leaky roof).
2. Show up! Not everyone will recommend this, especially Virtual Investors, because it takes time, but you really should show up, especially if the location is nearby. Also, if you do a lot of business, it will help to develop a relationship with the broker doing the BPO. Don’t be a pain in the ass, but do pay attention to what they are noting! Make sure the broker themselves come to the property (some brokers will unethically send in surrogates for a cut of the lender payment) – and make sure the borrower is NOT home! To control the situation to the best of your ability, you should be the one there answering questions.  We shouldn’t have to mention this, but you are a professional, so act like one – dress appropriately and bring a business card along.
3. Keep the property as-is, no fix-ups! You want the house to accurately reflect the condition it is in. This isn’t an open house; you don’t need light scented candles in each room, dim the lights, put on opera music and place silk Ficus plants in the foyer.  If there is damage, point it out. If the broker missed something, make a note of it, especially in areas that they might not look (like the attic or the basement).
4. Follow Up and Close Strong! When the broker finishes their walk through, you should compare your notes. Ask them if they have an initial ballpark estimate. Many BPO agents will give high values – if these aren’t reasonable, now is the time to speak up. Make sure you mention crime statistics and other neighborhood items if they forgot. You can even give her your suggested property value. Remember, this is your last opportunity to mention anything they missed, so make sure you take advantage of it! Whatever you do, do not be overbearing! Like everything else in the short sale process, you need to be honest with your property, but ethical as well. Being reasonable with the broker will earn you respect.

So, there you have it. The BPO process and how you can help influence the outcome in a nutshell. Any stories on what you have done to handle a BPO? Any horror stories? We’d love to hear them in the comments!

Is a Short Sale RIGHT for the Borrower?

Everyone Wins

Why would a lender accept a short sale?

Lender’s Options upon Borrower’s Loan Default

How is the Borrower’s FICO score affected?

1. Trustee’s Sale – A lender may not pursue a deficiency judgment against the borrower should the lender opt to foreclose by a trustee’s sale foreclosure.
   
2. Seller Carryback – If the purchase money loan for any type of real property is financed by the seller and secured by that same property, the lender/seller may not obtain a deficiency judgment against the defaulting borrower/buyer.
   
3. Purchase Money – If the loan is obtained to purchase a residential 1-4 unit dwelling all or part of which is owner occupied and the loan is secured by that property, the lender may not obtain a deficiency judgment against the defaulting borrower. This loan is entitled to “purchase money” protection.  Note, however, that should the buyer refinance the home, the new loan is no longer “purchase money.”   Thus, the buyer would lose the protection against a deficiency judgment in the event of a default if the lender elects to use a judicial foreclosure process.
   
4. 3 Month Time Limit – An action for a deficiency judgment must be brought within 3 months from the time of judicially-ordered sale.
   
5. Fair Value Limitations – A deficiency judgment is limited by the difference between the amount of the indebtedness and the fair market value of the property, unless the actual sale price exceeds that value.
   

I am current on my mortgage; will my lender consider a Short Sale?

There are two loans; can a Short Sale still be accomplished?

The property is in rough shape and needs work; can I still do a Short Sale?

What are the tax effects of a short sale?

If a borrower does do a Short Sale, how much will they have to pay to sell their home?

The agreement to sell is subject to approval by existing lender(s) of a Short Sale at no cost to Seller.  Seller shall not be required to deposit funds to close escrow.

By guest contributor Ted Akers of Investor Funding Alternatives, LLC, a website helping investors get transactional funding (also known as flash-cash or a one-day bridge loan). Ted can be contacted at:

Investor Funding Alternatives, LLC.
1220 Forest Trails Drive
Castle Rock, CO 80108
PHONE: (720) 291-9100
FAX: (866) 405-8750
EMAIL: ted@InvestorFundingSite.com

From the Tip Bucket, here at Short Sale Artisan

Tip #1: Research the Lender!

Each lender is different, so make sure you know what the lender needs in a short sale package. Many lenders have specific procedures that need to be followed and documents that need to be completed for your package to be considered acceptable.

For example, Citimortgage requires you to fill out their specific Financial Application – if you don’t fill out this document you can hurt your chances for getting your package processed in a timely matter. Each lender is different, so make sure you do your research! Short Sale Artisan’s Education and Marketing section in the site which has lender-specific information to help you out and is constantly updated with the latest information!

Tip #2: Make sure you include all your necessary documents!

Short Sale Artisan has a great Checklist in our system to help you get all your documents identified.  There are many documents that are used in the short sale process. Remember, some of these may not be necessary in all circumstances! Make sure that you include everything that is required from the lender you are working with. Leaving something out just gives the loss mitigation department a reason to put your package to the bottom of the stack, and time is critical in the short sale process!

1. Sales Contract or Deed
2. Short Sale Offer Letter – this can be calculated and generated automatically with our Offer Generator.
3. Borrower’s financial statement- get at least 2 years worth of W-2 forms.
4. HUD Statement Draft - this can be generated automatically with our Offer Generator.
5. The Hardship letter - see our blog post for more information about how to write a hardship letter!
6. Paycheck stubs – if the borrower is not working that will need to be explained.
7. Bank Statements - similar to paycheck stubs, accounts may have been closed. If they are, it will need to be explained.
8. Credit Report – if it shows the borrower is having a difficult time meeting all their obligations, it will help make the case for a short sale.
9. Listing Agreement – the bank will want to see that you have the house on the market. Some lenders will require that the property be listed for a certain amount of time before they entertain a short sale.
10. Authorization to Release information – available in our Document Generator, this document allows investors to work directly with the lenders on behalf of the borrowers
11. Photos and Repair Estimate – take pictures of the property and estimate repair costs. Check out our post on great links for short sale professionals for some free resources to help you estimate your repair costs!
12. Executed Bill of Sale – available in our Document Generator – make sure you are  very careful with disclosure when it comes to the bill of sale!
13. Supporting Hardship Information – for example; medical statements if the hardship is illness related.
14. Buyer Approval – if there is a cash buyer the bank may want proof-of-funds.
15. Comparables – show properties in the area and what they are selling for or have sold for to help justify the offer.  Short Sale Artisan makes this easy to generate with integrated Zillow comparables search functionality
16. Crime or Neighborhood Data – if the area has seen depressed home values because of circumstances like crime, include that information.
17. Limited Power of Attorney – available in our Document Generator – more expansive than the authorization to release information. The POA will allow you to negotiate on behalf of the borrower.
18. Additional Documents – many lenders have specific documents, so do your research and know what needs to be submitted!

Tip #3: Professionalism and appearance are important!

Don’t be sloppy with your short sale package!

Make sure your package is well formatted, professional, and easy to read. Remember, lenders are getting inundated with these packages in overstaffed departments. Having a well-assembled, complete, and logical package that is easy to read will make it that much easier to be processed quickly.

Additionally, keeping your package professional will help to convince the mitigator that you are serious about the offer. Whether it is your first deal or your 500th, you will want to give the impression that you know what you are doing. A professional package demonstrates confidence.

Some general tips which shouldn’t be overlooked:

• Spell check – you wouldn’t believe how many investors will submit information to a bank with mis-spelled words. Take the effort to make it right!
• Visual Consistency - be consistent in your documentation. This means make the pages look like they belong together. For documents that you generate or type, make sure to use similar fonts, margins, and headers and footers.
• Data Consistency - make sure there are no contradictions in your package. Your financial statements should tie to your W2′s which should tie to your hardship letter. Any inconsistencies will quickly bring question to the package.
• Make it easy to read - loss mitigators are overwhelmed with these packages. Make them easy to read! Put a little bit of extra space between lines to make it easy on the eyes. The people on the receiving end will appreciate it!
• Ensure the package is complete - Make sure your package has everything the first time out. Submitting a half-complete or incomplete package will almost certainly delay the package and frustrate the mitigators, and you want to keep them happy!

Tip #4: Submit your package and follow up!

Once you submit the package to the bank (make sure you follow the procedures you identified in Tip #1!), follow-up to make sure they have the package.

The old saying, “The Squeaky Wheel gets the Oil” is true. It is a bit political; so make sure you balance out annoying the lender with getting them to continue to move forward on processing. Also, make sure if they identify anything as missing from the package you turn around delivery of that as expediently as possible.

Good luck! Do you have any other tips to share? Add them to the comments!

A well-crafted and ironclad hardship letter is probably one of the biggest components to getting a short sale approval from the bank. Without clear description of the dire straights the borrower finds themselves in, no lender will willingly short the loan. So how do you go about writing a letter that will get the banks attention? Whether you are writing your own letter or helping a homeowner write a letter, here are some things to consider:

1. The Reasons for the Hardship

Be CLEAR about what your hardship reasons are! It could be a number of things, including (but certainly not limited to)

• Loss of a job
• Illness
• ARM adjustment
• Property tax hike
• Divorce

In any case, you first need to compile and assess what the most compelling reasons for hardship are. Put yourself  in the bank’s position as a lender. If there is a way you can make the mortgage payment,they are not going to allow a short on the loan. So be very clear what circumstances have are making it impossible to keep up with the mortgage payment.

2. Be Specific about your Hardship

Once you have established your reasons for hardship, you need to put in the effort to understand how that hardship has impacted you specifically. For example;

• Job loss, and family income has dropped by $2400 per month
• Medical Bills due to “X”, which total over $50,000
• A divorce which puts child support and alimony burdens of $1200 per month
• My ARM has increased my mortgage payment by $800 per month

Secondly, you need to demonstrate how this hardship impacts your ability to make a mortgage payment. If you make $8,000 a month and your mortgage went from $1000 per month to $1500 per month; good luck getting them to approve a short sale! You need to show how the hardship pushed you outside of your ability to make the payment.

Banks often think of mortgage payments in terms of percent of gross income, so you might consider using this. Let’s demonstrate with an example.  Assume your mortgage payment is $1700 per month. Your household income was $5000 a month and then you lost your job, and the new household income is $2200. This means that your mortgage payment went from a reasonable 34% of your income to a whopping 77% of your income.  Any bank will look at that number and say, “Yikes!”

3. Gather supporting information and Market Conditions

Think about circumstances outside of your own that are impacting your market area. Remember, the bank will want to be certain other options have been exhausted – such as selling your house. You will need to show that this is also not an available option. This can be done by doing things like:

• Showing a recent appraisal of your home
• Understanding comparable sales and the general market in your area
• Itemizing pieces of disrepair on the house that negatively impact the properties market value (i.e. an old roof or broken A/C unit)
• If the house is on the market, how long it has been one

4. Writing the Letter

ONE PAGE ONLY! Make sure you keep it concise – no lender wants to read a 4-page hardship letter. Get it into a single page!

Keep it in easy to read paragraph format.

The layout of your letter should look something like:

1. At the top of the letter, put the bank’s name and address. You might want to address it directly to the loss mitigation department. Each bank has unique ways of handling transactions so it helps to do some research ahead of time.
2. In the RE: line, put in “Request for Short Sale”, and your loan number
3. Your first paragraph should describe what happened briefly and make it clear you are unable to afford the mortgage. Don’t be ambiguous here – you can’t afford it!
   1. RIGHT: “My family has gone through significant hardships recently that make it impossible for me to afford my mortgage.
   2. WRONG: “I recently lost my job and we have had to cut out cable TV and gourmet dinners…. it’s getting really tough to afford our payments!
4. Your second paragraph should talk about the market conditions that have driven down your home value
5. 3rd and possibly 4th paragraphs are details, details, details. Use the information you gathered up above to make your case more clearly.
6. Closing a- restate that you cannot afford the mortgage, and there are no other options besides a short sale.
7. Make sure to sign and date the letter, and include your own contact information.

5. Distribute!

Send the letter to the appropriate party (bank, attorney, investor, or real estate agent you are working with).

Once the letter is with the bank, you can feel confident that you built the best possible case towards convincing the bank to accept a short sale!

What do you think?

Do you have other tips or advice on what makes a successful letter? Go ahead and share in the comments!

I was reading this blog over the weekend and it gave some of the reasons short sales are rejected by banks:

The point is short sale involves a loss in the part of the lender. That is why before they accept any request for it, your package, the reasons and all details of your short sale needs to be evaluated properly. Lenders are being strict about this and as much as possible, they would want a loss to its minimum. They would even compare it to the loss they would incur in foreclosure. If the loss is greater, chances are they would rather go with foreclosure.

Reasons for Rejection

Aside from comparison of losses, bank may reject offers for the following reasons:

1. Banks require heaps of documents before a short sale could be accepted. Believe it or not, with so many applications on file, your package could end up missing one or more document. If this happens, your request may be rejected even if it not your fault.

2. The offer was too low. Banks use brokers price opinion to determine if your offer is just right. Remember, offering way below the outstanding balance of their loan would normally mean bigger losses in the part of the bank.

3. Your reason for having a short sale is not justifiable. In short, you are unqualified.

These are just some of the reasons that could lead to short sale rejections. When this happens, there are two things you can do. It is either you just allow the foreclosure to go through or you can still try the second time around.

Counteroffer for Rejected Short Sale Offer

You can always make a counteroffer if your request was rejected. However, bear in mind that the waiting could bring you closer to foreclosure. If you think, you have time, why not. First things first, you need to do the following things:

1. Learn the reasons for rejections.

2. If it was about the price, keep your offer near to the brokers price opinion. However, if you get a BPO for your property, the best thing to do is to use comparative market analysis to keep it close to that value.

3. Your reason for short sale should be hardships. And you must know what kind of hardships is accepted. It should not be about break ups and shallow problems. It should be anything that has lead to financial crisis. However, there should be enough evidence to back it up. So always, have documents on hand to prove such state.

As you can see, these things do not guarantee you that your short sale will be accepted for the second time around. However, it increases your chances of not being rejected. Lastly, just be diligent in making follow-ups so that if problems are encountered along the way, you can do something about immediately.

What comes to mind immediately is how Short Sale Artisan can help with these common problems. Looking at the reasons given for offers being rejected :

1. Missing / Incorrect Paperwork – Short Sale Artisan makes it easy to generate documents, and see what has been generated and what remains to be done. Documents are always accurate  and properly formatted as they are pre-filled with entered data.
2. Offer Too Low – It’s always easier to lowball an offer and then go up from there; (it’s a lot harder to go the other direction!) , but your offer does need to be reasonable. There are a lot of variables in a short sale transaction and our proprietary offer calculator takes the guesswork out of coming up with that magical number.It will give you suggestions and then you can use your intuition to decide whether to use the offer that is calculated or create your own offer. But creating a reasonable offer which takes into consideration all the factors is a critical step.
3. You are unqualified - Short Sale Artisan provides you with all the tools you need to be qualified – properly formatted paperwork, professional templates, and task management abilities that put you in charge of the process.

Short Sale Artisan fills the needs and helps you be more profitable by tackling each of these common hurdles. Check us out today!