Real Estate Investing: Short Sales Explained

Before I begin, you should know my name is Ross Treakle and I interview real estate investors as part of my job. In each interview I try and pick and pry at each investor to get the highest quality information so that my subscribers can hear up to date, high content interviews.

Below I have taken an exert from the very first interview I ever conducted. I conducted this interview with my brother, Graham “Mr. Banker” Treakle. Graham is a short sale investor with special insider knowledge as he has worked in some of the nation’s largest banking institutions.

I always start off every interview asking the speaker to speak briefly about there particular area of expertise. Below is Graham’s answer to what a short sale is and why banks accept short sales.

Here’s the way it affects your foreclosure real estate business. If you’re in a judicial foreclosure State, where properties that are in foreclosure go through a judicial process before a foreclosure is complete; or a non-judicial foreclosure State, where the properties go through a trustee as they’re going through a foreclosure-you’re going to see less and less equity in these properties.

So if you know, like I said earlier, that banks are going to take short sales because of the numbers-meaning they have to pay all of these expenses-and the foreclosed properties aren’t going to have a lot of equity in them, you have to be able to negotiate short sales effectively if you’re going to be working in the foreclosure market.

The foreclosure market represents the most motivated sellers. Traditionally, with motivated sellers, you’ll find really good deals. That’s why banks are going to take foreclosures on the conditions that are spurring on all these foreclosures. It’s an amazing phenomenon that we’re working on right now.

Folks might also ask about a common [inaudible]. Well, what if we’re in a real estate bubble? If we’re in a real estate bubble, that means values are going to go down, which means folks are going to owe more than what their property is worth. Again, negotiating short sales is going to be critical to your success in the foreclosure business. If we’re not in a bubble, that’s fine too.

We already [backed out] the numbers; still negotiating short sales is going to be critical to your real estate business because people are borrowing up to, and sometimes above 100% of the value of their property. Whatever way you slice it, as far as having a skill, negotiating short sales is probably, in my opinion, one of the most lucrative skills that someone can have as a real estate investor.”

I hope the above information gives you some insight into the world of real estate investing and short sales. Graham has worked very hard at becoming an expert on this topic and is a resource you should inevitably add to your business. If you would like to hear more information similar to this exert and many other interviews please visit my site at and sign up to receive all of my interviews at absolutely no cost. Also, if you would like to learn more about Graham “Mr. Banker” Treakle you can follow this link to his website.