Trying to forecast how many of my short sale offers will clear

[Thomas Dionne]

I am a house flipper. I have bought almost all my houses through mls (we have re brokerage too). For now, all the inventory on mls is snapped up by the big hedge funds.

So 3 months ago I started reaching out to people who are upside down and behind on mortgage or filling out "sell my house now" type internet sites.

Its going ok, I have 6 short sale offers out and a few just regular retail listings. As investor we offer on the short sales day 1 and one of our Realtors starts working with buyer/bank. Haven't CLOSED on one yet and was wondering what I could expect when it all gets dialed in. SO i was wondering if anyone who does this had any insights on the following:

1. As an investor, what % of the short sale offers you make end up selling to you? Meaning the bank didnt ask for some crazy high price and the seller didnt flake out.

2. My Realtor negotiates with bank now and has experience, but i wonder if this is the right way to do it. I imagine a company that does nothing but negotiate could be better. If so do you pay anything up front?

3. We have to generate the interest in selling when dealing with people who are just behind on mtg. Its the hardest part, we tell them about possibilities of non deficient letters, hafa, etc... I want to offer something more but it doesnt seem you can, or what even could be offered. Didnt know if anyone had any other pitch than "this is smarter than foreclosure"?