I have been working on short sales on a regular basis over the last few years.  This has gone hand in hand with clients going into foreclosure and attempting to find a reasonable resolution for them.  I don’t know exactly how many foreclosures I have been involved in, or how many short sales I have been involved in.  I cannot say that it has ever been a high priority to actually keep count.  I am more concerned with doing a good job for my client and giving them an acceptable exit to their stressful situation.  That being said, I can say that a high percentage of the properties that do become short sales are eventually approved and successfully closed.

But there is a magic number that I have heard from a few Realtors on more than one occasion, and that number is one hundred.  As in, “I have closed more than one hundred short sales”.  And, my personal favorite … “I closed more than one hundred short sales per year for the last three years.”  When I hear a realtor boast about their alleged success, I don’t know if they are looking for someone to congratulate them or if they somehow feel that they need to tell me how experienced they are with short sales.  If you are going to keep count, what is so magic about one hundred?  I guess ninety-seven short sales is just not as impressive?  And if you closed over one hundred short sales, shouldn’t you keep a running tally?  One hundred and ten sounds better than one hundred to me.

Short sales are much like snowflakes – no two are alike.  Do I care how many short sales a realtor has been involved in?  Not at all – providing they educate themselves and their clients about the process and how unreliable and time consuming it is.  If they want to let me know that they have closed more than one hundred short sales – I may wish them congratulations – but as Shania Twain says, “That don’t impress me much.”