Working With a Short Sale Negotiator? Top 10 Tips to Ensure Success!

With the ever growing short sale market in today’s real estate community, it is important to have an incredible short sale negotiator that is part of your team. This person will assist you in handling all of the day to day communications with the lender, the mounds of paperwork, provide constant status updates and will allow you to focus your time on income producing activities. While partnering with a SS negotiator, the type of relationship you forge with the negotiator is so important. We’ve found one important dynamic of a successful transaction is that the SS negotiator and Agent’s relationship should be built on trust. The negotiator and real estate agent must trust that each other is going to do exactly what they say they are going to do- it’s a two way street.

As a short sale administrative company, we suggest the Real Estate Agent permits their entrusted negotiator the ability to “quarterback” the transaction. The negotiator is normally the one that’s in contact with every single person during the entire transaction (lenders, sellers, Title, Escrow, Buyer’s Agent, Buyers lender, and HOA company… just to name a few). Yes, this is a lot to handle, but a good negotiator can easily perform these duties.

Here are 10 tips to ensure a successful relationship:

1) Allow the negotiator to have direct contact with the sellers – This will expedite the request for documentation and also will allow status updates directly.

2) Allow the negotiator to coordinate the HUD-1 with the Escrow Company.

3) Allow the negotiator to work directly with the buyer’s agent.

4) If the agent does receive a call from the lender, immediately refer the call to the negotiator. This will eliminate incorrect information being transmitted to the lender. In the end, it will help the short sale run smoother.

5) Respond to all document requests within the allotted timeline provided by both the lender and the negotiator. Again, this will only help the transaction.

6) Always remember that your short sale negotiator is on YOUR team. Short sales can be frustrating at times, but the negotiator is your teammate and will ensure that you and your seller’s interests are of the utmost importance.

7) Trust that the negotiator will escalate the file when it is needed. Being specialists in the field, they understand lender timelines well and know when a file needs to be pushed a bit harder.

8) Ensure that all documents are complete, and have all signatures before submitting them to the negotiator.

9) Be patient with the lenders requests for documentation. Short sales require a lot of paperwork. There are times when the lender states that they didn’t receive documentation, the information was not legible, or they recently updated their forms and now they need the new version – most of these are out of the negotiator’s control and the only thing to do is quickly adapt and fulfill the lenders requests.

10) Always keep communication open. If you are frustrated or worried about something, voice it. This way the negotiator and you can build that trustful relationship. The last thing anyone wants is to have a stressful transaction. Clear lines of communication will further assist a great working relationship.

Being a successful short sale negotiation firm, we understand the frustrations behind short sales. We also know the importance of great communication and positive relationships. These factors are often the reasons behind successful transactions.

Debt Negotiators, Credit Destroyers

Stay away from debt negotiators if you need to repair your credit. They’ll do more harm than good to your valuable credit rating.

In many cases, debt negotiators could be more accurately dubbed “credit destroyers.” If you don’t know what to watch out for when dealing with debt negotiation companies, that’s exactly what they’ll do.

Debt negotiators often make a very bold claim; that they can get your creditors to agree to accept only a percentage of the amount you owe them. While this may in fact be true, your credit may be destroyed in the process. In a worst case scenario you could also end up owing even more money than the debt negotiator promised you would save.

Avoid debt negotiators who make claims that seem too good to be true. Any debt negotiator who guarantees that your unsecured debt can be removed should be regarded with healthy skepticism. The only thing that’s likely to end up being removed is your good credit rating.

You may also have to pay several expensive fees upfront in order to gain some very questionable advice. Unscrupulous debt negotiators may try to convince you to stop paying your credit card bills altogether. If you follow this advice you’ll regret it.

For each missed credit card payment, you’ll be charged late fees and your credit score will plummet. In the meantime you may be charged hefty monthly fees by your debt negotiator who is claiming to be working to reduce your debt.

In actuality, the negotiator waits for several months and then contacts each of your creditors to tell them that you no longer have the means to pay off your debt. The negotiator will try to convince the creditors that they should forgive some of your debt. If successful, the negotiator may reach a settlement with your creditors to close out your account and require you to pay back somewhere between 10 – 50 percent of the original balance owed. If a creditor is convinced that you’ll default on your debt, they may be willing to forgive some of your debt in as effort to at recoup at least some of their losses.

It might seem like a great idea to enlist the services of a debt negotiator if you owe $9,000 and can get your debt reduced to $5,000, for example. The $4,000 you save will be considered taxable income by the IRS, however. Come tax time you could end up losing your yearly refund and even owe money. The IRS is not as forgiving of debts as some creditors may be.

Although a debt negotiator may convince many creditors to forgive some of your debt, there’s no guarantee your creditors will agree to any settlement. In the meantime you could be sued for nonpayment, have your wages garnished and put your assets at risk. Your credit rating will also end up in much worse shape than before you consulted with a debt negotiator.

No “quick fix” solutions offered by debt negotiators will improve your credit score. Only time and a commitment to pay off your debts will truly help you in the long run. Remember, the choices you make today will have a profound influence on all of your possible financial futures.

Making the Environment Right for a Presentation

Giving a presentation to your colleagues at work needn’t be a horrific experience. All it takes is a little planning and preparation on your part to impress the boss and keep your coworkers awake while imparting the information you want to get across.

The environment of a presentation can be key to success or failure. Many a fine presentation was ruined by an uncomfortable or unsuitable environment. The make the environment as comfortable and productive as possible try to arrange the following items:

1) Room size and location. You want to have the room fit the number of people attending your presentation. Too small a room and your listeners may have to stand, or even sit on the floor. Too large a room, and your listeners could be scattered all over the four corners of the place, making it difficult to establish eye contact, or draw in your audience. If at all possible, have a good idea how many people are attending your presentation before you book a room.

The room location should be clearly indicated in any brochures or advertisements for your presentation. You don’t want your audience wandering all over a building looking for your room and missing half your presentation. You also don’t want your room location to be too close to a potential distraction, like a swimming pool, or a bar.

2) Room temperature, seating, tables. You want the temperature to be cool enough to keep your listeners awake, yet warm enough so they aren’t uncomfortable. Ask your listeners before you begin if they are comfortable. Show them where the thermostat is so they can adjust it during the presentation if need be.

Seats should have good back support, and there should be enough seats for everyone. The seats should have armrests and be adjustable.

Tables should be clean of any extraneous items and allow for a unobstructed view of the speaker. You may want to be sure the tables are grouped together to facilitate team work and exchange of ideas. Prepare the tables with any materials the participants need for your presentation, such as paper to take notes, outlines or copies of the slides you are presenting, pens, markers (if needed), and name tags.

3) Comfort. Nothing is worse for a presenter than a room full of caffeine or food depraved listeners. If you have a morning presentation, it is pleasant to offer coffee, tea, juice and other breakfast type items such as cereal bars or muffins for the participants to have prior or during your presentation. For a later day presentation, pitchers of ice water, soda, and energy bars are appreciated. If your room is near a place that offers food, such as a cafeteria, or vending machines, please point these out to your participants prior to getting into your talk. In addition to food, please tell your listeners where the bathrooms are.

Now that your environment is conducive to good listening and your listeners are comfortable and feel a little pampered and special, all eyes and ears will be on you, not on their growling tummies or sore backs. All it takes is a little preparation.