Don’t you just love summertime? The days are longer, the kids are out of school and everything feels just a bit more relaxed.
But, don’t kick those feet up just yet! That housing market comeback we’ve all been waiting for is finally here – just in time for the hot selling season – and you definitely want to make the most of it. It’s a great time for reevaluating how you’re approaching the opportunities at hand and making sure you’re not leaving business on the table simply because you’re operating on autopilot. Here are a few things to think about:
• With short sales running at twice the rate of REO sales, and the debt forgiveness act set to expire at the end of 2013, distressed borrowers mustn’t be overlooked as possible clients. Are you using all available resources to locate and contact underwater borrowers in order to offer help in executing a short sale as an alternative to foreclosure?
• And, with real estate inventory currently at incredibly low levels, are you keeping tabs on pricing trends in your local markets to figure out which homes have moved from negative or no equity to positive positions? If so, have you conducted any outreach to homeowners within your area to see if they want to list their properties now, while we’re in a seller’s market? Along those lines, have you gone through your prospect database to flag homeowners who might finally be interested in selling? Now would be a great time to check in with those people and to review your local MLS activity to identify homes that were listed over the past year only to be pulled off the market. In the current market, homes that previously were hard to sell might be more attractive to motivated buyers.
