Welcome to day 6 of the trial version of short sale of your home and get paid to do it. Today we’re going to talk about the number one way to have your short sale be tabled by a lender and never be completed and we’re going to talk about how to make sure that, that does not happen and how to make sure your home is your lenders top priority.
First I want to talk about the loss mitigators that will be handling your short sale request. Loss mitigators are extremely busy people because of the foreclosure crises in this country.
The typical loss mitigator currently has over 200 files on their desk. When you send your short sale packet in, with your offer, typically the entire packet is going to have between 20 to 60 pages of paper work. It’s going to come through the fax and it will be assigned to a person, who is so over worked that they probably aren’t even getting to all of the files assigned to them. That person gets a ton of angry mean calls from realtors, attorneys, sellers, buyers, non profit groups and various other people who have a stake in the deal. They’re completely overwhelmed.
Because of this it is extremely important that you send in a complete packet. If you, for any reason at all, send in a packet that is either incomplete or even looks like its incomplete that packet is going to go in the trash or more likely it’s going to go at the very bottom of a stack of 200 other files. It may never be looked at again, and you won’t get your calls returned because that person is dealing with other more important files that are complete and ready to go.
It is also essential that you have a complete file that looks complete. Her is one of the ways that you can make sure that your file not only is complete but also looks complete. Your lender requires that certain items be in your hardship package. For instance, typically your lenders are going to require that you include verification of income like pay stubs. However let’s say that you don’t have any income and that is why you’re in foreclosure. If you just skip that item your packet will look incomplete. However let’s say that you write a note on the cover sheet saying that “I don’t have the any pay stubs.” It’s a good thing to make a note that you don’t have it, but what you really need to do before sending in the packet is to include a complete explanation on a separate piece of paper. Write it with big old writing filling up the entire 8.5 by 11 sheet. If you are explaining the lack of pay stubs you would write as a heading, “Explanation of why I don’t have a pay stub.” Your explanation would be, “I DON’T HAVE A JOB.” Just let it fill the entire sheet of paper and stick that in your packet because then it will be a place holder in that packet and you now have a document in place of that absent document that will indicate that the file is complete. That’s extremely important. I have had loss mitigators actually call me and tell me if that if I don’t do it like I just described that can’t get me an approval. So I always do it. It really helps illustrate that a packet is complete, and its ready to be worked on.
The more complete your packet is the better it looks, the quicker that it’s going to be processed and the more likely it is that someone is going to want to work with you to complete your short sale packet and it won’t languish. To make sure they’ve received your complete package when you’re faxing a packet in, you need to make sure that you hand write on every single page of the packet the loan number. Another thing you can do to make sure your package is received all in one piece is to overnight it instead of faxing it. When you overnight a package you can make sure that the quality is there. You can also make sure that the package stays together. If it’s in a fax machine it could get divided up when it comes out of the fax. Someone could grab it and it not divided it up properly. That’s the reason why you write the loan number on every page, but pages still go missing. If you overnight it someone gets to feel important by walking over and signing for it. Also you have the opportunity to do things like possibly include a little shameless bribe. You could write a quick note inside there on post-it note and stick in a gift card to local restaurant nearby they bank. Include a $25 gift certificate to Pizza Hut and tell them to go ahead and order the office pizza or their cubicle mates pizza. That will make them remember you and hopefully that will mean your file gets priority. These are just a few of the things that I talk about to help you make sure your short sale is successful. For homework today I want you to study the list of all the things that should be in your file and start preparing those. If you plan on doing any kind of loss mitigation, whether it’s a short sale or any kind of payment plan, you’re going to have to have these things ready. I’ll see you tomorrow when we talk about 30 day’s to the foreclosure sale emergency short sale guide.
