Working with MLS Short Sales

[Alex Locklear]

Is it worth trying to flip short sales already on MLS? Often times it just says "short sale possible" and no negotiations have begun.

Anyone think these are worth while?

[Nick J.]

I'm going to come out of left field and go against my normal recommendations here and say it's worth it in 'most' cases.

I used to do this a lot when I didn't have a pipeline. Of course it's much better to deal with homeowners directly.

Here's exactly how I would do it.

I would call up a listing agent that had a short sale and ask them if they've received any offers on the property yet. Of course they would say 'No' b/c so many of them do it the wrong way. I would ask them if they would like an offer on the property, guess what they would say?

I would then tell them that I was an investor interested in making an offer on this property they had listed only if I was able to negotiate the deal myself. I would tell them it was nothing against them but if I were to use my own money I would obviously feel comfortable being in control. I would point out the benefit that they wouldn't have to worry themselves with the tedious work as I knew they were trained to get more listings so it worked for the both of us. I never actually had money when I was doing this so I would tell them that I would need all offers sent to me instead of the bank and that we would just do a double close.

Some baulked, some were receptive, some got hung up on and some got my time. More importantly the some of them earned commissions I would bet that they wouldn't have gotten if it weren't for me.

For me cold calling these listing agents were no big deal to me, I'd go through 5 or 6 before I'd get one, but I could guarantee that I could get a new short sale deal every single day by cold calling. I haven't had to cold call Realtors as of late, but if you seriously want to fill your pipeline QUICKLY then consider cold calling these listing agents.

You'll have to be very good at closing the Agent though but once you do and you actually close a handful of deals you won't have to be cold calling anyone anymore and your pipeline will stay full.