Foreclosed homes for sale are everywhere. If you see a home listed for Sheriff’s sale, it is in foreclosure.

The rate of foreclosure has jumped dramatically nationwide. It is no secret that the housing market has seen some collapsing in recent years.

We’ve all heard about the subprime mortgages and the ARMS. We have also heard from people who went in with prime rates. So helping a homeowner avoid foreclosure is a very important ability to have in today’s world.

Short sales are a way to do it. It is probably the best way to do it. It salvages a homeowner’s credit and let’s them get a fresh start. No one wants bank repossessed homes on their credit. They don’t want to file bankruptcy. They are after a new beginning.

These are good people who have had life’s circumstances slap them in the face. It could be a loss of job due to downsizing. It could be due to medical bills.

When you’re marketing to homeowners in foreclosure, you want to handle the inbound calls and establish a rapport. Then meet with the homeowner and get the deed.

We end up putting in a land trust and it’s a land trust deed that we end up filling out. I realize that in some states it’s a little different; I know.

Get a short sale package complete with the homeowners. You have to follow up with them. Those of you who have done short sales know the follow up is essential to meeting with the homeowner. Quite often they don’t get you everything you need.

You need copies of their bank statements. The bank wants to see if they’re closet millionaires who want to get a non-performing property off their hands. Chances are they aren’t. But if you ask them, you will be lightening them up a little bit.

Then you submit your short-sale package to the foreclosing bank and then follow up with the bank. Keep following up with them.

Then you will spark either a BPO or an appraisal. If it’s an FHA loan or a VA loan, it’s going to be an appraisal rather than a BPO. By the way, BPO means Broker Price Opinion.

They send someone to look at the house, run comps, and show what the values are in that neighborhood.

You will try to beat down the price on that house so you can get it moved and liquidated for that homeowner as fast as possible.

What some do now is run the low comps and then do a contractor estimate on top of that. It starts at a low number and then they hand the official a contractor estimate.

BPO agents or appraisers have gotten wise to it. With a lot of them, it goes right through.

Then you want to deploy the exit strategy. Exit strategies can be multiple. You could easily buy this property, fix them up and then resell them at retail or as close to retail as possible.

If you buy low enough it’s a no-brainer to make money.

With a short sale you can buy super low.