How to manage a Houston TX realtor who can get my short sale approved?

 
Hiring a Houston TX realtor to negotiate your short sale is one of the most important hiring decisions you will ever make.  This is because a bad hire can potentially cause severe long term damage to your financial future should your house end up in a foreclosure situation.
 
Once you hire a Houston TX realtor to handle your short sale, you are only at the beginning of one of the most important business partnerships you can have with a real estate professional.  As you are testing the initial performance of your Houston TX realtor, you should treat the relationship not too differently from hiring and managing an employee at work.
 
First of all, know your outcome and communicate this clearly to the Houston TX realtor you hired.  If your bank offered a specific monetary incentive, tell the realtor that their job is to help you get the monetary compensation the bank offered you by agreeing to a short sale the property.
 
Second, tell your Houston TX realtor that you would like to have weekly updates regarding the progress of the short sale negotiation.  If the realtor fails to provide these weekly reports, they may not be following up with the bank.  You risk the buyer walking and having to restart the marketing process again, thereby delaying you getting a good result. 
 
There is nothing more important to you than your house and your financial future.  To a realtor, your house represents another commission to them.  If other higher paying deals take priority over your house, they may not be the right fit to help you.  But you won’t know this until its too late.  So gauge your Houston TX realtor’s commitment to these weekly updates as the key as to whether you will continue with them or fire them.
 
Did your Houston, TX realtor bring you a solid short sale buyer contract within 30 to 60 days of signing the listing agreement?  If your agent hasn’t produced a buyer, then your property is not priced to sell.  Remember, you cannot submit your short package for the bank to review until it is complete.  A purchase contract is frequently one of the last documents you need as to complete the package. 
 
It may not be the agent’s fault regarding the price, but it is imperative to track the showings, traffic, and buyer feedback to “test” the price.  For every 10 showings, you should get a contract.  If no buyers are writing contracts on the home, the price could be off or the house is not being marketed properly.  Some agents omit photos or put bad photos in the multiple listing service.  There can be a lot of reasons why a house might not sell.  But if something doesn’t seem right, you will know quickly based on showing requests or lack thereof.
 
Look for substantive progress on your short sale negotiation.  If your Houston TX realtor is giving you the same report in your weekly updates, especially if you are four months into the short sale process, you should start to get concerned.  Maybe your agent didn’t verify the bank got the short sale package in the first place.  If the bank doesn’t get a complete short sale package, you are no better off than the day you signed the listing agreement. At this point, you risk losing the buyer, which means you must start the process over again.  If you’re at this point, consider replacing the realtor while you’re at it.
 
It is your job to grill your Houston TX realtor with questions about the short sale negotiation.  This will show the agent how important it is for you to get a good result for your short sale as quickly as possible.  If you feel that your agent is coming up short, don’t hesitate to replace him and go with the runner up on your list of potential Houston TX realtor hires.