Our local Realtor Association is holding a lunch tomorrow on short sales, which are becoming more and more of an issue in the Charlottesville market. Despite staff’s marketing the lunch quite effectively to the membership, only seven Realtors (now eight, including me) have signed up.
If the attendance stays this low:
1) I will learn more because the class will be smaller.
2) This will be yet another confirmation that it is clearly easier to complain about short sales (and anything else, really) rather than learn how to deal with them.
Update: Bumped to the sideblog, as this really doesn’t warrant a “front” page.
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It is a great class. We have hosted these instructors twice in our office for our agents. Enjoy.
Barbara –
Thanks – I’m looking forward to it. I think that it is incumbent upon us to educate ourselves on this part of our market. Like them or not, they are impacting us and our clients in many ways.
I’ll be there with pen, paper and questions.
Hey Jim,
I noticed Barbara’s post and it made me realize that there have been lots of opportunities for agents to get up to speed with Short Sales. Like MM, Our company has had a couple classes ourselves and I remember 1st Settlements @ CAAR hosting a class that had over 30 people in it. I hope more that 8 folks will show up today but if not, I think it is important to remember agents may have gotten this information already. Along with that, CAAR is hosting an Education day on March 26th with Lem Marshall going over short sales as one of the classes.
I’d guess about 25 people are here today -a good, good showing.
I am pleased to report the final number was 31.
Jim – We have started a new series of classes to help our associates be better prepared to advise and assit their clients in these changing times. It is called “Project Trusted Advisor” and has been well received by associates at all levels of the spectrum – from the top ten to the newest rookies.
Our first offering was a three hour class called “Short Sales and Foreclosures – An Opportunity to Serve.” It was attended by over 550 associates between our two metros (Columbus and Cincinnati) and attendees also received CE credit.
The material was great and many of the “mystery” of short sales and foreclosures was removed. I also think some people learned enough to realize this is not a niche that they want to deasl with and that’s okay too. Better to make an informed decision and not get involved than jump in and try to learn on your clients time.
Our next session this month will be called “Lender Lessons and Appraising Grace” focusing on the basics of today’s lending guidelines for FHA, VA and Conventional loans and will also feature an local appraiser to discuss their new protocols and what our associates can do to better prepare their listings for appraisals and better position them from the beginning.
We feel our associates will be better able to provide great guidance and service through better education and confidence in their abilities.