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By Marty Schulting
Top Foreclosure Training co-founder and coach
www.TopForeclosureTraining.com
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Table of Contents
Welcome Page 3
Military Aircraft and Short Sales Page 4
Real Estate and Short Sales Page 5
Short Sales 101 Page 6
What is a Short Sale Page 7
Where You Fit In Page 8
The Foreclosure Process Page 9
Homeowners Options Page 11
The Process, Simplified Page 13
Find a Seller Page 14
Contact the Lender / Negotiate Page 15
The Short Sale Package Page 16
Loss Mitigation / Loss Mitigator Page 18
The BPO Page 20
Selling the Property Page 22
Closing the Deal Page 24
Conclusion Page 25
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Welcome to Short Sales 101, the first of a three part series that will change your
financial life forever. My name is Marty Schulting, and on behalf of my business
partner David Corbaley, we would like to welcome you to the beginning of a
whole new life; one filled with endless time, energy, potential, and money!
What you are about to read has the ability to change your life; should you so
choose it. It is the core of what Top Foreclosure Training has spent years learning,
designing, and doing.
David and I both started in real estate long ago, and we saw many investors
succeed, but even more fail. As we progressed in our own businesses, we often
wondered what a successful investor was made
of. Was it talent? Was it luck? Was it money?
David and I have found the answer, and we will
share that with you in this three part series. What
is unfortunate about the investors who failed, is that they had no idea how close
they were to making it big in this business. For some, all that was needed was a
little tweaking to make the business run smoothly. For some, a complete overhaul
was required. For both, the financial rewards would have been well worth the
effort!
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This is Not a Sales Pitch
First off, you can relax; we are not selling anything in this or either of the two e-
books that follow. We do mention resources for more information, but there is
nothing here to buy, so dont stop reading until you have gone through all three e-
books. If you do, it will be a huge mistake. If at the end of these e-books, you
decide on a future relationship with us, then so be it. Either way, get ready for your
financial future to change dramatically!
What is in this E-book
What you will find in Short Sales 101 is the foundation of the short sale. With a
solid foundation, you will be able to work your way through the two follow on e-
books titled Short Sales 401 and Short Sales 801. You should start with this e-
book and read your way through the three e-books one at a time. When finished,
you will have the complete knowledge required to do your own short sales, from
beginning to end. If you are already a novice or expert in this business, you will
have the knowledge required to take your business to the next level.
What Military Aircraft Can Teach You About Short Sales
I spent 11 years in the military flying the F-15C Eagle fighter followed by the B-2
Stealth bomber. When I flew the F-15, the squadron would occasionally stop the
day to day grind of flying and go back to basics. What this consisted of was
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starting all over from square one with the very basics of flight and working our
way through, step by step, how to fly and fight.
This training culminated with simulated wars in
the deserts north of Las Vegas (called Red Flag)
where hundreds of military assets participated.
If the military finds it beneficial to do this, then so should even the best of the short
sale experts. This three part series was designed to do just that.
Real Estate and Short Sales
It is no secret that real estate has been (and continues to be) the sure fire way
toward long term wealth. Most every guru out there will tell you that its easy, that
anybody can do it, and that youll be rich in 90 days or less. Whats crazy is that
theyre right sort of.
- It IS easy, but only after spending the time and energy required to learn howto do it.
- Anybody CAN do it, so long as theyre willing to put the time and energyinto learning how to do it.
- You CAN be rich in 90 days or less, but weve found that the more realisticamount of time required is quite a bit longer.
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Were not here to blow smoke. Were here to give you the truth about short
sales and the truth about real estate investing.
The truth is this. If you want to make money in real estate, short sales are the best
way to do it in todays market. Eventually this will change, but not for the
foreseeable future. Did you ever wonder how the rich make money in a down
market? Keep reading, because were going to show you how they are doing it in
todays plummeting real estate market. When you finish these e-books, your eyes
will be open to so many possibilities, that you will never again see declining
markets in the same light.
If you are brand new to real estate and brand new to short sales, prepare to be
blown away.
Short Sales 101
This document is meant for three types of investors. It is meant for:
1. The brand new investor who is looking for the basic information needed toget started in real estate investing and short sales.
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2. It is meant for the novice investor who has done a few deals and isstruggling with some of the finer points of the transaction and just needs a
little guidance to help them break through.
3. It is meant for the expert investor who has the system nailed and wants tomake sure theyre truly maximizing their deal potential, business efficiency,
purpose, and profit!
This book is the first of the three part series that will help all three types of
investors. Congratulations on finding the right place!
What is a Short Sale?
To get started, lets define exactly what a short sale is. A short sale is a transaction
where the lender accepts less than full payoff on a loan. For example, if a
homeowner owes $100,000 on their house, and they sell it to somebody for
$60,000 (assuming the lender agrees to do it), then the homeowners sold their
home via a short sale. Simple enough, isnt it. Typically, short sales are done on
properties facing foreclosure, however they can be done on homes that are current
on their mortgage. Obviously, short sales are critical to success in todays market.
Why You Care About Short Sales
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Heres why you care about short sales. If you are an investor, realtor, homeowner,
or home buyer, then you really need to understand the significance of the short
sale, especially in todays market. As of the date of this e-book (September, 2008),
we are at a time in history that we will never see again. Real estate prices are
plummeting in many markets. Housing markets are flooded with homes for sale,
homes in foreclosure, REOs (homes that already foreclosed, but nobody bought
them, so the bank owns it (Real Estate Owned by the bank)), vacant homes, homes
tied up in bankruptcy, foreclosures and more. People are just throwing their hands
up and leaving their properties; they are simply giving up. What lead up to this
mess is beyond the scope of this e-book, and what you really need to know is that
the train wreck has just begun. There are millions of homeowners out there right
now sitting on time bombs. Who is going to clean up this mess?
Lets Talk About Where You Fit In
And all of this leads to you, the real estate investor. This is where you can get paid
a whole lot of money for a very specialized knowledge. You are in the absolute
right place at the absolute right time to learn a business that
will change your financial life forever. Not only will you
change your own financial life forever, but you will also help
a tremendous number of people in the process. By doing short sales for
homeowners, you will:
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- Help the homeowner avoid a foreclosure- Help the homeowner avoid a deficiency judgment- Help the homeowner save face with friends, family, and themselves- Help the bank dispose of an unwanted property- Help the neighbors keep up their property values- Remove an eye sore property from the neighborhood- Make a very large paycheck for your specialized knowledge!
And with NO MONEY and NO CREDIT!!!
Seriously, Im not kidding. I used to think that the entire I made a million dollars
with no money and no creditlate night infomercials were all full of it. And
whats crazy is that I STILL didnt believe it even after actually DOING it the first
few times! It wasnt until I started closing deal after deal after deal that I truly
believed that it could be done! Even today Im floored when I get a large
paycheck. Every time I close a deal, I have a hard time believing how easily it
worked! Its the best system out there because it literally puts you at no risk
NONE!!!! If the deal works, you get a paycheck, if the deal does not work, you are
not liable for anything and you lost nothing except your time. So heres what I
propose to everybody new to this business. Every other day, exchange just 1 hour
of television watching and put that time, instead, into this business. Just give it a
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few months, and soon youll be amazed at what youve learned, what you have
accomplished, and how much money you have made!
The Foreclosure Process
In 101, were just going to briefly cover the foreclosure process. You just need to
have a very basic understanding of the process to be able to grasp the big picture of
short sales and foreclosures.
In a nutshell, here is how the foreclosure process works. When a homeowner starts
falling behind on their mortgage payments, the lender first sends a letter notifying
the homeowner of their missed payment, and directing the homeowner to make up
that payment they can be current again on their mortgage. If the homeowner does
not get current on their mortgage, then the loan gets handed off to the collections
department, and the lender will then start
incessantly calling the homeowner
demanding payment. After missing the
third payment, the homeowner is officially
in default. Only when the homeowner is in
default, does the bank have the right to begin the foreclosure process. Each state is
a little different in how it handles foreclosures, and this affects the timeline
required to complete the foreclosure process. In some states, the foreclosure
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timeline is just 21 days. In other states, the foreclosure timeline is 2 months. In
some states, the foreclosure process can take up to a year to complete. For now,
just understand that when a homeowner misses their third payment, the lender has
the right to start the foreclosure process, which can take anywhere from 21 days all
the way up to a year or more.
One more thing to understand about this process is that when the lender starts the
foreclosure process, they will usually hand off that responsibility to a Trustee.
That Trustee is usually associated with a foreclosing attorney, and this foreclosing
attorney is the one that will complete the foreclosure process for the foreclosing
lender. Again, states do it differently, but what I just explained gives you a basic
knowledge base for your short sale foundation.
One final note. The notice of foreclosure can be called a few different things. It can
be called:
- The Notice of Trustees Sale- The Notice of Sheriffs Sale- The Notice of Foreclosure Sale- Lis Pendens (Latin for Lawsuit Pending)
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They are all used interchangeably, so dont get confused when people interchange
these words, as far as youre concerned, its all the same thing.
What are a Homeowners Options?
So what are the homeowners options when their lender starts the foreclosure
process on them? Lets be very clear about something because sometimes people
mix things up a bit when we talk about homeowners facing foreclosure. We are
talking about homeowners that are in foreclosure, but that have not yet been
foreclosed on. We are talking about homes that are in default and the lender has
started the foreclosure process, but it has not yet been completed, meaning the
home has not actually foreclosed yet.
Reinstate/Forbearance/Modification/Deed in Lieu/Short Sale
When a homeowner is in foreclosure, they have limited options. We will discuss
these option in more detail in Short Sales 401, but for now just know that the
different options exist, and they are:
- Reinstate the mortgage- Forbearance agreement- Loan modification- Deed in lieu of foreclosure
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- Short sale- Foreclosure
For now just realize that 99% of the people in foreclosure do not have the ability to
reinstate their mortgage. 80-90% of the people cannot afford a forbearance
agreement. And about 80% of the people will not get approved for the loan
modification. A deed in lieu of foreclosure is not much better than a foreclosure,
and of course most homeowners do not want the foreclosure on their credit or the
ensuing Deficiency Judgment (we discuss the Deficiency Judgment more in
401). This then leaves the homeowner with just one option, and that is the short
sale.
How you present these options to the homeowner will make or break your success
in this business. You must present them in a way that helps them understands what
their options are, because it can (and will) get confusing for them. We will show
you how to present these options to the homeowner for maximum conversion in
Short Sales 801. When you present these options correctly, the homeowner not
only will do whatever you need of them to get the deal done, but they will do it
with complete trust in you.
So Heres How the Process Works (in 4 Simple Steps)
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1. Find a Seller (Homeowner in Foreclosure)
We will discuss in 401 and 801 how to find the sellers. Lets assume you have
found one. Now what happens when the homeowner decides that they will work
with you? The first thing you will need to do is go over paperwork with them to get
started.
That paperwork includes:
- Authorization to Release Information- Purchase and Sales agreement- Disclosure (explaining to the homeowner what you will do and what you
will not do).
- Financial Form- Land Trust Docs, Option agreement, or Revocable Living Trust Docs (we
discuss all three of these in 801)
Other docs you will need from the homeowner include:
- Hardship letter- Last two months bank statements
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- Last two months pay stubs- Last two years tax returns
2. Contact the Lender and Negotiate the Short Sale
The next step is to negotiate the short sale. To do this, you will need to work
through the following steps:
-
Assemble and submit the short sale package
- Follow up with the foreclosing lender- Work with the loss mitigator- Negotiate the BPO- Agree on a price for the property
Lets go over each of these individually to get a better understanding.
The Short Sale Package
In order to negotiate a short sale with the homeowners lender, you will need to
submit what is called a short sale package. Different lenders require different
things for their short sale package, but for the most part it usually includes all or
some of the following:
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- Authorization to Release Information- Purchase and Sales Agreement or Option Agreement- Estimated HUD-1- Hardship letter- Financial Form- Last two months bank statements- Last two months pay stubs-
Last two years tax returns
You simply put all that paperwork together and fax it to the lender to start the short
sale process. The above documents are (for the most part) all you need for a
complete short sale package. Some lenders might require more or less documents,
but in my office we submit the exact same thing every single time. Well discuss
how to automate and simplify your business in later e-books. For now, just
understand that you should be putting together the short sale packages the way we
outlined it above.
Following Up With the Foreclosing Lender
After you fax your package to the foreclosing lender, you will need to follow up
with them. ALWAYS follow up with the lender, do not wait for them to call you.
There are times when you will need to wait for them to call you, and well talk
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about that in later e-books. For now, however, just understand that you need to be
in charge of pushing your file. When you follow up with the lender, you need to
find out a few things from them. You need to know:
- Did they receive the short sale package?- Are they showing the package as complete?- If not, what are they showing that is missing?-
If it is complete, has it been assigned to a loss mitigator yet?
This brings up our next topic, that of the loss mitigator.
Loss Mitigation and the Loss Mitigator
Realize that banks have many departments, including Customer Service,
Collections, and Loss Mitigation to name just three. For now, we are only
concerned about these three departments. Lets go over each of them briefly and
discuss what they are used for.
Customer Service This is the department that is very kind, gentle, soft spoken,
and nice. This is who the homeowner gets to talk with when they are current on
their mortgage.
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Collections This is the department that is not so kind, gentle, soft spoken or nice.
In fact they are the exact opposite of that. They are usually nasty, mean, and
abrupt. Their job is to collect money, and they will call a homeowner incessantly
and demand payment. Their job is to hound the homeowner until the homeowner
pays, or until the property enters the loss mitigation department or until the
property forecloses. (What I just told you will help you to empathize with the
homeowner. Many times a homeowner will tell you how nasty the bank is being to
them. Now you know why that is. It is usually collections that is creating the anger
and frustration.
Loss Mitigation This is the department that handles all the workouts for the bank.
This is very important, so if you missed that last sentence, go back and read it
again. Loss mitigation will do forbearance agreements, loan
modifications, and yes, short sales! Customer service and
collections will not do short sales**. This is important
because if you keep speaking with the wrong departments at
the bank, you will get nowhere. You must make sure that
you are speaking with the right department when you are doing this business.
** There are rare exceptions to this rule. The only bank that ever allowed another
department to do a short sale was Chevy Chase bank, and their collections
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department did that short sale. This is the only exception I have ever heard to this
rule.
Loss Mitigator The loss mitigator is the person you will work directly with when
you are negotiating a short sale. He or she is the person who is specially trained to
negotiate short sales. Their ultimate goal is one thing, and one thing only, to recoup
as much debt as possible from a property that has gone into default. And yes, they
will do almost anything to recoup that debt, including using tactics and strategies
to persuade you into paying more for the property than you should be paying.
Many people feel as though loss mitigation uses unfair tactics. Many loss
mitigators will stretch the truth about information regarding the property (including
BPO values) in an attempt to recoup more money for the bank. For example, a
BPO agent might tell you that she submitted the BPO at $100,000, and the loss
mitigator might tell you the BPO came in at $120,000 in an attempt to get you to
pay more for the property. Does this sound fair? We dont think so either. In Short
Sales 801, we discuss ways to counter these unfair practices that the banks use.
Gate Keepers Gate Keepers are the people who screen calls for the loss
mitigators. They will verify the account information, feed you information, and
basically take the heat off the loss mitigators who are working the files.
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The BPO / How the Bank Determines the Sales Price
The bank is going to determine what they will sell the house for, not you. That
being said, you still have an opportunity to influence what the bank will sell it for.
So how, then, does the bank know what price is a fair price for each house, and
more importantly, how do you influence what the bank will take for the house?
To determine the value of a house, the bank will sub contract a company to do an
evaluation. That company hires a real estate agent to go out to the property to do
what is called a Brokers Price Opinion (BPO) on the
property. Heres the key. You want that number to
come in as low as possible. Yes, as LOW as possible.
The lender will drive the propertys sales price off of
that number. The banks will usually take a discount off of what the BPO agent says
the house is worth. So if the BPO agent says a house is worth $100,000, then the
lender might take somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000 for that house. So
you can see why it makes sense that the lower you can get the BPO agent to submit
this number at, the better price you are going to get for the house, and thus the
larger your paycheck will be.
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NOTE:
Sometimes the lender will hire an actual appraiser to evaluate the property. You
should treat the appraiser the same way you treat the BPO agent, so for the
purposes of this e-book, were just going to call them all BPO agents. Also realize
that when you are speaking to the lenders, they will sometimes interchange the two
terms (BPO and appraisal), so dont get confused by the two. The bottom line is
that the lender is going to send somebody out to assess and evaluate the value of
that property.
Do it With Integrity
There are many techniques for influencing the BPO, and whatever technique you
decide to use should be done with integrity. This business is very easy to make
money in; there is no need to do it unethically. So how, then can you influence the
BPO? We will discuss this in 401 and 801, for now; just understand that every
property has a range of numbers that it can come in at. Your job is to show the
BPO agent the true value of the property and have them submit the value in the
low end of that range.
Agreeing on a Price (Counter Offers)
After the BPO is done, the lender will probably counter your initial offer. You and
the lender will probably go through a series of counter offers until you agree upon
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a price for the property. For now, just know that its going to happen. We will
discuss in later e-books different strategies for this that will maximize your profit
from these deals.
3. Sell the Property
At some point in this process you will need to start selling the property. There are
many strategies for selling these properties, and for now we want you to
understand the basics of the process. Your ideal situation is to have the buyer lined
up and ready to close the transaction on THE
SAME DAY that you buy the property. This
type of closing is called a simultaneous
closing or a double closing and is a great
strategy for buying and selling houses.
Simultaneous closings are how you are able to buy and sell a house with zero
money and zero credit! Yes, it can be done, and it IS done every single day all over
this nation. This strategy should absolutely be used every chance you get,
especially in the rapidly declining markets throughout the nation today. We
currently have students using this strategy in California and Florida where home
prices are dropping $20,000 and $30,000 every couple months. Declining markets
are NOT the place to be buying and selling houses by funding the transaction
yourself and holding the property for a few months. In markets like that, you can
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very quickly have a profitable deal turn ugly and you end up needing to pull money
out of your pocket to get it closed to the end buyer. The only way to safely flip
houses in todays market is to do it with a simultaneous closing. We will talk more
about this later.
So lets talk a little bit more about selling the property. What you need to do is use
every technique possible (we will discuss them later) to market your property to
the end buyer. When you find the buyer, you simply put the property under
contract with him or her and have that person get their financing in order to close
by a certain date. You then work to get your approval letter from the foreclosing
lender so you can close (if you dont already have it). When you get the approval
letter (also known as the payoff letter), then you close the transaction on the same
day, meaning you buy it and sell it on the same day. The closing agency (Title
company, Escrow Company, or Attorney, each state can be different) will then
close the transaction for you, which well talk about next.
4. Close the Deal
Ok, so now you have negotiated your short sale with the lender and you have your
payoff letter from them. You have also found your end buyer and they are ready to
close. So now its time for your closing agency to get the deal closed and for you
to collect a very large paycheck!
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So how does this transaction close? Lets look at it on a basic level to make it
clear. Assuming that you will be buying and selling the property on the same day
(doing a simultaneous closing), then there will need 2 purchase and sales
agreements. There will be:
1. One purchase and sales agreement between the person in foreclosure andyou, the investor.
2. One purchase and sales agreement between you and your end buyer.
*** There are ways to make this transaction easier by utilizing Land Trusts,
Revocable Living Trusts, or Options. These will be
discussed in Short Sales 801.
So what happens is the end buyer will fund the entire
transaction and whatever money is left over is yours to keep. Lets go over an
example to make this more clear.
You negotiate a short sale on a property and have a payoff letter for $100,000. You
find an end buyer that is willing to pay $130,000 for this same property. You buy
the property from the bank for $100,000 (and because you are using a
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simultaneous closing, you do not have to bring money to the table), and your end
buyer brings $130,000 to the table to close. After taking out all the closing costs,
agent commissions (if applicable) etc, you would have a $20,000 - $25,000 profit
from the deal! Not a bad days work. Thats basically how the closings will take
place, and again it is all done without you needing to bring any money to the table,
without you needing to get a loan, and without you putting anything (except your
time) at risk.
Conclusion
We really hope this has shed some valuable light on the short sales process and
what it takes to accomplish a short sale from beginning to end. By using this and
our follow on e-books, you can make this time in American history one that will
change the financial life for you and your family forever! Dont let rising fuel
prices and falling home prices get you down. Do what so many other people have
done and continue to do, profit by learning
how to fix this problem that the banks
have made for us! You will be so happy
that you d
id!
To your HUGE success!!!
Marty Schulting along with David Corbaley (TFT founding members and coaches)
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If there is anything our office can do you help you, please contact us at
You can also visit us on our website at: www.TopForeclosureTraining.com.
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