Where can I find clients if I?m interested in specializing in short sales?

Where can I find clients if I?m interested in specializing in short sales?

You can certainly use any traditional marketing means to reach potential short sale clients. Contacting owners that have recently had a notice of default filed is also a sure way of finding sellers that are motivated to sell quickly. Using a service like ForeclosureRadar.com you can pinpoint your farm area and export complete contact details for direct mail or door knocking, and in some cases phone numbers are available as well.

For Sale By Owner properties are another good source since many upside-down sellers think they can?t afford to pay a commission and so try to sell on their own. Many don?t realize that in a short sale, the lender pays the broker?s commissions.

Sean -
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What marketing strategies would you recommend if I wanted to get 20 short sale listings in the next 3-6 months?
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We could get info off your website on recent NOD’s and send a postcard and/or letter - We could follow-up call if there is a number.?We could stop by their home and personally introduce ourselves.
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Anything else you can think of? Is there a way to get leads before they have an NOD?
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What would you do?
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BOB

Hi Bob,
Seems that you’ve covered the basics - directmail, cold call, door knock. Thinking out-of-the-box, one strategy I’ve thought about is to target new home developments that primarily sold from 05-07 that have a high number of foreclosures (using ForeclosureRadar set age 1-3 in your search criteria then look for clusters of foreclosures in the map). When you find a development, target the whole project. Chances are that even those not yet in foreclosure likely will be. This has the affect of not only giving you listings, but becoming a neighborhood expert. You may even find a lot of folks have the same lender, and you might be able to do some collective bargaining on the borrowers behalf for loan modifications, or to schedule the short-sales out over time for less community impact (which is in the lenders best interest as well). The first Realtor that pulls off a multi-family loan mod in a new development is going to get a lot of press, and a ton of business.Sean

Sean -
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great idea - i have notice that in those age developments and I agree in getting to the Sellers sooner vs later. I tried talking to CW today about a Seller that has 8 properties with them and wanted a note mod on one and short sale the others - if the person had a clue what i was talking about they may have at least laughed at me, however, I was told submit each package individually only when we have a bonafide offer on the property - and we’d likely get different negotiators -
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I also spoke with someone who has 150 short sales in process and told me that only a handful of the packages are complete - I submit 100% complete packages 100% percent of the time - seems like they should have a fast track for complete real packages vs everyone being slowed down by the greatest misnomer in our industry, namely, the “short” sale – every one I have worked on seems rather long…
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I like the new neighborhoods - they are really hurt and there are probably a slew of other short sales that are pre-preforeclosure.
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Thanks for your support - I’ll keep you posted as I blitz in this area.
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BOB

Good stuff Bob, thanks!
Keep in mind that part of my thought on the neighborhood approach was to get the press involved. If you can put together a real story about how 10 people in a small neighborhood are all underwater on CW loans, you will likely find someone in the media interested in that story. And you may find the lender more proactive about getting something done. In the end you win with some great exposure, the homeowners win be getting their situation resolved, the media wins with a great story, and the lender wins by not having to foreclose. It will take a bunch of work, but I think the outcome could be huge - I wish I had the time to tackle one myself right now.