Tips on Postponing a Trustee Sale for Short Sales

Do you have a Trustee Sale you need to postpone in order to complete your Short Sale deal? Do not trust the foreclosing lender to get it done. Trust us, we have lost deals when we counted on the lender to save our deal. Take action and put the power in your hands.

First, it is important to note that the only one that can postpone a trustee sale is the Lienholder that has filed for foreclosure. Your job is to make sure it happens and this is important to understand as it can be the difference in getting your commissions paid or wasting your time spent on working a short sale opportunity.

Here is the problem if you keep your hands out of this process, which could jeopardize your deal. The lender's negotiator gets busy and forgets to follow up with the Trustee to make sure the sale has been postponed. Your deal is dead and the time you spent pursuing the short sale deal is dead.

Here is what you can do to make sure you don't lose your deal and make sure you have enough time to close your deal and earn your commissions:

• Make sure you are well aware of the Trustee Sale date for every short sale deal you are working. Note your files with a red marker or anything else to help you note the sale date. We have lost deals because we lost track of a trustee sale date so now we have a system that tracks short sale progress and milestone dates.

• Two weeks prior to a Trustee Sale, ask the foreclosing lender what the process is request a postponement. Typically, a lender will not make a request to postpone a Trustee Sale until two days prior to the sale date. Keep in mind this is two full days before the sale date. For example, if the date is the Friday the 10th, then you will need to call the lender to request the postponement on Wednesday the 8th. Although it can be done, it is very difficult to do a same day postponement.

• After making a request to the foreclosing lender to postpone a trustee sale, ask them when it will be done. It usually takes two hours to complete. It is suggested to call the next day to the Trustee to confirm whether or not the sale has been postponed. It is recommended to make this follow up call in the morning because if it has not been done, you will still have to call the lender to make the request again.

• Keep calling both the foreclosing lender and the Trustee to confirm the sale has been postponed. The true confirmation should come from the Trustee. Do not take the word of the lender that it was done because we've lost deals taking their word. Now we AWAYS confirm with the Trustee since they are the ones handling the sale.

To learn more about how to qualify the best candidate for your short sale transaction visit whbsolutions.com. The number one factor in becoming successful in Short Sale Education, Short Sale Success and Short Sales is to learn how to pre-qualify your deal which includes finding the right buyer.