Is anyone actively doing short sale negotiations for clients? How are you making money? Are you negotiating a commission or a fee as part of the deal with the bank?? I had a call yesterday that prompts me to figure this out quickly in case she decides to go this route. The home owner doesn't have much money to pay for anything. Anyone know how attorneys who do this get paid?

Thanks, Melinda

Okay, here goes my first post!

On August 1st, I'm holding a free teleseminar (NO, this is not an infomercial!) on the topic of "Alternative Business Models." Mollie has agreed to be one of my guests, along with ACRE® Margaret Rome. The grand plan is to discuss four different real estate business models, with ACRE® being one, Flat Fee being another, Discount Brokerage and, for lack of a better term, "Luxury Brokerage." (That's not at all what Margaret is going to talk about, but I can't think of an alternative at the moment).

However, I've been warned by a CRS instructor friend that ANY discussion of business modeling, even without using real numbers, among a group of real estate agents is asking for trouble with the anti-trust police. Here's what she said:

Here is important information on the SmartPlan™ cost, licensing, coaching and payment:

COST: The SmartPlan™ templates are free. You only pay for two hours of consultation on how they are built and how to use them with clients. A single purchase is $350 for individual one-on-one coaching. You CAN "buddy up" with one or more agents and the cost is $200 each. The coaching will be done simultaneously with all "buddy" participants via a conference call.

3agents.doc
Here's that little piece I made up showing a buyer expecting multiple agents to find his single home purchase, and only one of them gets paid.

Has anyone thought about helping people who MAY be facing foreclosure? This seems to me to be an ideal application for consulting. I have read in the Washington Post that 50% of the people going into foreclosure failed to contact their mortgage company. As a consultant we could offer to negotiate with the mortgage holder to lower payment or go interest only for a short period or other terms that would be in the home owners best interest. I would be interested in any comments.