Selling a short sale is like building a solid rebuttal in a debate.  We need to have solid facts and evidence to back it up.We use this strategy when listing Short Sale properties.  Unlike traditional resale properties where we price a hair under market value to generate interest and sell faster than the competition, we routinely price a short sale just over market (a hair) so that we can show systematic price reductions (every 2 weeks), to build  a pricing case for the bank to show that we did actively market the property.

During the short sale process, the bank will hire an agent or appraiser to come by the property and conduct what is called a BPO or Broker Price Opinion, the BPO is a report the bank uses to justify a sales price when faced with an offer, it is a counter measure to give the bank their own third party validation of a particular price.On occasion, the BPO is wrong and does not line up with our offer price.  We use our comparable sales and our price history to rebut the pricing opinions of the bank to come to an agreement on price and, in most cases move the short sale forward.

Had we started at the offer price, and received a full price offer, we would not have been able to combat a higher BPO as we have no proof as to whether a buyer would have paid more or not.Strategy is important in Short Sales, your strategy should be to chose the right team!