Ben's Short Sale Insights

I met a business owner yesterday that turned her business upside down. In her industry there are certain things that are aggravating. But, she figured out a way to get rid of the aggravations and make the business work for her. Yesterday, I listed a house, and afterwards I went by the house to pr...

When I first started taking listings I had a hard time mentally asking for price reductions. It took me a long time to get over it. Here’s my story of how I did it. I first started taking listings when the market here in Florida was Red Hot. I was working primarily as a buyer’s agent, and doing o...

When I first started chasing expireds, I met with a seller and didn’t close them on the appt. We had a problem with price. I wanted to list the property for $175,000, but they wanted to list it for $199,000. I lost the listing because I fought over price up front. At the appointment, they told me...

If you’re looking to list Pre-Foreclosures, then there are a few things you must know. Rule #1: Never ever let anyone else know that the home owner is in foreclosure. A few years ago, I stopped by a lady’s house to knock on her door. She wasn’t there but her brother, who was there, started asking...

I have a damaging confession to make. I used to be one of those agents that didn’t sell as much as I needed to. I did the typical surf the net on your computer thing I talked about yesterday. Today’s story is going to be about how I raised myself from being an unproductive, working all the time a...

Before I get started today, I got to remind you again about the assumptive close. It worked last night to get a $500,000 listing. When I first walked into the house I saw another agent’s magnet calendar on the fridge. Also, while I was presenting the wife mentioned that they had asked the agents ...

Question: Do you have a number to contact Fannie Mae investment group? Bank of America will not give my seller the opportunity to take back a promissory note and not do a short sale - she said that she has to talk to the investor which is Fannie Mae. My sellers wants to do the short sale. This lo...

I’ve seen people lose sales by talking too much. When you ask a closing question, you have to shut up and wait for the seller’s answer. I had an appointment on Friday that I just didn’t want to go on. My gut told me the seller wasn’t motivated enough to price the home to sell. They were older, pr...

Here’s what to do when you are on the phone with a seller and ask for the appointment. Use a downswing. A downswing is when you raise the tonality of your voice at the beginning of the sentence, and then lower it at the end of the sentence. It works very well, when you are asking for the appointm...

Sellers can be very stubborn on reducing their price. Here’s what to do when you are dealing with a seller that has to move out of town, but won’t reduce their price. Typically the seller will come up with a certain number they need out to move to the new city. They may have found a certain house...