Sherman's Blog

Quick Approvals On A Short Sale! Approval delays are caused by three problems! #1 A bad short sale package! (see Secret #3) This is the biggest problem. Also don't send ANYTHING to the lender until you have EVERYTHING! If you trickle things in it slows down the process. Every time something is mi...

Order! Order In The Court! Order just makes things work better. In all parts of life order is important. Especially with a Short Sale Package. This is the key to a quick approval. (See Secret #4 for Quick Approval) Your package needs to be neat, clean and in the proper order. Think of a Short Sal...

The Loan Number! What is the big deal about the loan number? It is very important. First and foremost you want to see the most recent mortgage statement to obtain the loan number. The reason for this is with all of the new bank takeovers (ie. Countrywide-B of A, WAMU-Chase, Wachovia-Wells Fargo, ...

Do You Know How To Slow Down Your Short Sale Approval! Many agents do it all the time and don't know that it is happening. Do Not Mail, FedEx, or Hand Deliver your Short Sale Package! I do not care how pretty it is or how much stuff you have in it, FAX it! That right fax it to the lender. Because...

The Define Benefit Plan DilemmaFor those of you who know what a Define Benefit Plan is I need your help. I have a client who wants to take $500,000 from his Define Benefit plan and buy 2 properties.  He will spend $500,000 for each property and put 50% down in cash on each. A Define Benefit Plan ...

Short Sale Suicide...and How To Prevent It!Also How To Determine If A Listing Agent Is Committing Short Sale Suicide...A Two Part Series Presented by Sherman SmithPart TwoThe Buyers Agent and Short SalesNow I have told you what to do if you are the listing agent, but what do you do if you have a ...

Short Sale Suicide...and How To Prevent It! Also How To Determine If A Listing Agent Is Committing Short Sale Suicide...A Two Part Series Presented by Sherman Smith Part OneI am about to upset some of my fellow agents but they need to hear this.  However before I do, I want to give you my qualifi...

President Bush signed into law today a new measure giving tax breaks to homeowners who have mortgage debt forgiven through a short sale or foreclosure. The current law states that the debt forgiven by a lender, such as for short sales and foreclosure, were generally taxable to the borrower as deb...

Excerpt From CAR NEW Dept Of Justice WEB SITE EXAMINES COMPETITION IN BROKERAGE SECTORThe Antitrust Division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice launched a new Web site this week aimed at educating consumers about the benefits of competition within the real estate brokerage sector. The site, which is dr...

As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.       -Donald RumsfeldDoes this sound like Real Estate?