How "Dead Deals" Brought My Mortgage Business Back to Life

A few months ago, after 22 years in the mortgage business, I found myself on my absolute last leg. Although most of my competition left the business, what remained of viable transactions in our marketplace was still slim pickins'. One thing was for sure, nearly half the purchase transactions I was involved in were short sales. Unfortunately, the nature of the short sale beast is that many transactions fall apart just before the expected closing. Anyone that?s been involved with short sales knows the biggest frustration is when you work hard (very hard) for months and finally receive an offer accepted by the bank, only to find your buyer, for whatever reason, is no longer interested in proceeding. The buyer may have had a number of different offers in on other properties that came together first, or they may have lost their financing in the time that passed. In many instances, the due diligence clock doesn?t start until the offer is accepted by the bank and the buyer can then choose to walk with limited consequences. Time is everything is much more than a clich