What is your process?

[Steve Londeau]

Hey all. I had a situation come up, which I will explain below, that made me think to bring this to the community to get your thoughts on it. I wonder what everyone's process is like when you do a short sale. I'm talking about once you have the contracts to begin the process, how do you market for an end buyer? Do you use a realtor or not, etc.

Specifically here are my questions on your process:

Do you list the home for sale on the MLS?

So you list it right away, after you secure your interest with the purchase or option contract?

Do you wait until the BPO is completed, and then list it on the MLS? If so, do you market it as FSBO until that time?

Do you stay away from Realtors altogether?

Here is the situation I had occur today. I have a property in a pretty desirable area in one of my farms under option contract. I have good rapport with the seller. I have sent the Authorization to Release to the bank, but nothing else yet.

The property has been listed for about 2 weeks at this time. My agent, who is a member of our team, received an offer on the property today, from another investor. In that offer, one of the contingencies was that a specific person affiliated with them handle the short sale negotiations. Basically, they are offering to the seller, precisely what my company is offering, however we generated the lead, built rapport, etc. This investor simply found a short sale listed on the MLS and submitted an offer, similar to how one might blanket offer on REOs.

The issue is this. The agent has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller to present the offer. He of course is in good rapport with us, and will reject it, as we are already doing what this investor intends to do anyway. However, here are my many questions.... when listing the property, and we have a vested title interest (our option contract and recorded Memorandum of Option) do we have a right to reject the offers? Can we list the property ourselves, and have the seller simply sign the listing agreement for their title interest? Who is the agent's fiduciary responsibility to, us, the owner in trouble, or both?

This is why I ask above, what your processes are, and if you do use Realtors, when specifically you list. I've done about 8 short sales, and I've never used agents until now. I either bought to rehab and sell, or found buyers for simultaneous closings via our own means.

Thanks in advance for your responses!