BiggerPockets

Sean, outsourcing your short sale processing is a great idea. I've been fortunate to be finally feel comfortable outsourcing my negotiations to free up my time as well.

Keep in mind some will charge a small upfront fee to cover costs. Even though your mission is to find a buyer, it doesn't always happen and the processor needs to at least cover some costs.

Also some will charge you if they successfully negotiate and get an approval at the $ amount you wanted regardless if you have a buyer so you better have a buyer.

Others will not negotiate the deal until you have a A-B and a B-C contract.

Most will provide a national title company to handle closings as well as transactional funding for your deals.

I wouldn't disagree with some or all of their requirements as it is their business and I know they don't work for free, I just wanted to give you a heads up on what you'll be expecting so it can help you decide which one will earn your business.

One last thing, there is also private individual processors/negotiators as well that might be more compatible with what you're going to need or want. And as your business builds so will his/hers so keep that in mind if you decide to look for a smaller shop instead of a larger company to process for you.

They don't all charge upfront fee's. I'm only saying I understand why they do.

Out of all the ones I interviewed that did charge upfront fee's they did say they would start to waive them if I could show my ability to perform on a regular basis. They all know you can't win them all but their beef is if they're going to put in the time and effort and office supplies to work the shorts for you and then you can't close any of them then they're losing money.

You can search here on BP for 'short sale processor' and come up with a few threads discussing this exact topic. I'm reluctant to 'recommend' any but at least you have a good start on what you'll want to discuss with them.

your best bet is to find someone personal who does a great job at it. it's much easier to maintain a business relationship when they know who you are.

Hey Sean - Nick is right but pay very close attention to a few words that are key to me in what he said:

"finally feel comfortable"

Finding someone your comfortable with and quite frankly is actually good at what they do VS just charging fee's and not producing many results is no easy task....but it can be done.

I have not worked with a national company but i did find a woman at a local REIA meeting who was awesome at doing short sales but she had no clue what to do with the property after she got a deal.

So I would network locally with realtors and your REIA's and maybe you can find someone who is good locally.