Taking over the short sale control ?

Question

Someone once mentioned to me that you can take over control so to speak of a short sale as the investor, EVEN if the homeowner has already signed a listing with a realtor.
Is there a name to the form/contract I need to have the owner sign to cancel their realtor agreement and allow me to do the short sale?

J Scott · Answer

Will -

Most likely, you'll need to get an agent involved at some point, as most short sales these days are required by the lender to be listed.  That said, you want the most experienced negotiator/facilitator to be handling the short sale (this will give you the best shot of getting it sold), and if that's the attorney, then just find another agent to list but do nothing else.

Keep in mind that attorneys will likely expect to get paid by the lender; you want to make sure the attorney isn't expecting any payment from the seller, as most short sellers aren't in a position to be paying atty fees.

Will Sifert · Answer

What if it hasn't been listed with a realtor yet?  All of my pre foreclosure leads are of home owners who just started going through the foreclosure process and likely aren't listed with an agent. I can encourage them to list with an agent (that I know and has experience in short sales) if this helps the process. However, could I have my attorney who also has tons of foreclosure experience talk to the bank instead? If I can, would that be better than going the route of using a real estate agent?

Brian Burke · Answer

More often than not, the lenders require that the property be listed on the MLS in order for them to approve the short sale.  Could you arrange for the agent to step aside and work the deal yourself?  Sure, but you might get a better outcome if you just submit your offer to the agent.

That said, if you were to convince the agent to agree to step aside, the owner and agent would sign a cancellation of the listing agreement.  The agent would provide this form.  In most cases, the cancellation is by mutual agreement of the owner and agent, thus there would be no form that you and the owner could execute to cancel the listing contract.

There is some good advice in the earlier responses in my opinion, FWIW.

Wayne Brooks · Answer

Eric,
Apparently you think there  would be some advantage in you "taking over the short sale"?  The property remains listed so the bank knows it gets max exposure.  Not that it's going to happen, but why would you want to "take over"?

Matt Liu · Answer

I think it's called an unconditional release. I would want to do it on listings that are over a year old and no longer important to the realtor.

Monica Breckenridge · Answer

I strongly don't recommend this.  Why would you want to take away business from another REALTOR who has already started work on the short sale. This isn't good business practice and it's only a way to make enemies really fast not friends.