In all real estate markets there are short sale sellers. For a variety of reasons, homeowners can be in the situation where they need to sell their home, but there isn’t enough equity for them to be able to accomplish their goal. These home sellers have the need, but they don’t know how to get help.The real estate professional that can put themselves in the position to solve their problem can pick up 5, 10, or even 20+ listings every month. Before getting into how to market for these listings it’s important to understand some of the challenges that you will be undertaking by taking short sale listings.Short Sale Listing Challenges and SolutionsAlthough this niche allows for a tremendous source of business it does have some of the following challenges.
Massive amounts of paperwork
A large percentage of them can fail
They can be very time intensive
The great part about these challenges is they can be solved easily, when you have a good system to follow. The massive amounts of paperwork and the amount of time necessary to process a short sale can easily be outsourced. In fact, many of these processes can be contracted out to people who you don’t even pay until closing.To overcome the battle of the ones that don’t succeed, it’s important to take advantage of the buyers calling on the listing. Every short sale listing you take should result in 1-3 additional buyers that end up in a closed transaction. Imagine for every listing you took, you 3 additional closings!Marketing for Short Sale SellersShort sale sellers need help and they need help quickly. Most home owners in the position of needing someone to help them when they don’t have equity understand that they have a problem, they just aren’t sure how or even IF it can be solved.Your marketing messages should be crafted around solving their immediate problem, alleviating their fear, and providing a solution at the same time. For example take the following marketing message:Don’t Lose Your Home To Foreclosure, I Can Sell Your Home in 59 Days…GuaranteedMany home owners don’t understand the term “short sale” but they are aware that they could end up in foreclosure. You can use your marketing message on direct mail, pay per click ads, postcards, and your website. Let homeowners know that you are there to determine how you can help them and you will book fresh appointments weekly.We invite you to discover more about marketing for short sales and closing more sales with our free real estate marketing book.