Cape Coral Realtor Asks Winged Foot Title for Help on “The Hardest Short Sale Ever” (Part 2)
On February 14
Fast forward 14 months and YES, “The Hardest Short Sale Ever” had closed!!!
That day was a clear reminder of just how proud I am of our team here at Winged Foot Title. As you may imagine, a process this complicated yielded many useful insights which we employ daily in our operations. But as we surge into 2012, we wanted to share with you three of those insights that may be helpful in your business as well.
We call them our “Three Cs”: Commit; be Creative; and Communicate.
- Commit. Much of our success in orchestrating and closing this Cape Coral Short Sale monstrosity resulted from our commitment to both the outcome and to the processes that would help us get to the outcome. Committing to the outcome was pretty easy and I’m sure that part is for you as well in your business – “I want to get the short sale approved so that we may close the transaction and issue title insurance.” Commitment to the processes that got us to that outcome was, of course, more difficult. Our initial zeal is often dulled by what we cannot control – like unreturned phone calls or obstinate negotiators. Trust me, we talked each other off the ledge many times during the course of this short sale; but we persevered and remained commitment to each process, to each piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, we knew that we would fail if we did not stay committed.
- Be Creative. We faced 12 separate lienholders in this short sale. To say that it was like herding cats would indeed be an understatement. Every creditor involved was looking at taking a huge hit; and many of them had written off the debts as uncollectable because of their lien priority and their market knowledge. We knew that this would not work like your typical multiple lienholder short sale, where the first lienholder offers the second a pittance to which the second ordinarily acquiesces. It would take creativity to make this work and we insisted on being creative at every step. We worked with the real estate agents and buyer to structure the offer in such a way that accounted for the myriad payoffs we needed to make. And we had to be very creative in ferreting out those lienholders who were hard to track down. Had we not stepped out of our normal processes and routines, we would have failed miserably at closing this deal. Competition is fierce no matter what business you’re in. There are many others out there seemingly just like us (you and us), pounding the same pavement and chasing the same clientele. Creativity, though, distinguishes. Creativity and innovation led to the development of our Suite of Short Sale Services (like our the Short Sale Survivor Tool Kit), which resulted in our company’s continued growth and success in an otherwise flat market. Creativity made us memorable and stand out, which created more sales leads and more conversions of those leads in spite of how goofy some of us felt in those outfits – click the link to check out the photos! We are confident that our creativity will continue to distinguish us from others in our industry and we challenge you to be creative in your business.
- Communicate. There is simply no substitute for open and honest communication in business. In this particular transaction, we were sure to communicate early and often the proper expectations those involved should have. This included the buyer and seller and their agents as well as the many lienholder. To be sure, we under-promised and over-delivered. And we made certain to keep our communications frequent and consistent, not letting any of the lienholders forget about us and keeping everyone up to date even if there had been no progress. Had we dropped the communication ball during this long transaction, there would have been little chance of its success. In a computer screen-driven 2012, communication skills will undoubtedly continue to erode. Communicating more effectively, more honestly and more consistently than your competition will set you apart. We have received rave reviews from our weekly short sale updates and from our newly name Consumer Engagement Program (a communication system that actively engages the consumer at eight points during the standard residential real estate transaction). Taking these extra steps has definitely distinguished us from our competitors and has helped to create memorable experiences for our clientele.
Hopefully our Three Cs will be helpful to you and your business in 2012. If you have any questions about our Three Cs or anything else, please don’t hesitate to call on us (239) 985-4142 or contact us online.
-Chris Black
