There are many ways to get short sales in your Michigan City. But before you do all that... let every single person you know in Michigan that if they know anybody who is having problem keeping up with their home (or investment property) mortgage to the point that they are thinking about walking away even with the damage that a fully executed default judgment will cause to their credit.....they are invited to point their friends, family members, co-workers or even Facebook friends toward you.
There are thousands of homeowners in trouble right now in Michigan. Every single city has foreclosures. It does not matter where you live: Ypsilanti or Macomb Township, Lansing or Farmington, Grand Rapids or Marquette - somebody in your town, probably in the sub-division across from where you live could use your special sets of skills to save them from getting an ugly, five to seven years long, judgment of default from appearing on their credit.
Only if they knew that you could negotiate a short sale and buy their home.
And I am not talking about the Oakland or Macomb County Legal News foreclosure list coming out every Friday either. I am talking about people who are barely making the payment and seriously considering going into default but not in foreclosure yet.
Look at the Up North lakefront condo disaster. For three decades, owning a lake front condo Up North was part of the Michigan Dream. Thousands of hourly and salary workers in the auto industry bought them and easily made the mortgage payments month after month. The overtime or yearly bonuses covered the payments, insurance and taxes.
When the auto industry started shrinking and took the overtime and yearly bonuses with it, it became increasing difficult for folks living in Southfield to be able to afford the condo up in Traverse City. Given the choice to stay current on their home mortgage or make payments on their property taxes on a condo they mostly visit in summer... but you already know how that will go. They have been mustering up payments here and there but as other things come up, they have no option but to let these condos go.
If I wanted to go and get 20 short sale leads for condos Up North, I don't need to run ads in an Up North newspaper. I would drive to Dearborn and tell 1-2 of my friends who work in Ford or GM to put the word out between their friends and before the week is over; I would have 20 files on my desk.
Add job losses, divorces, ARM mortgages adjusting, big balances on credit cards that overnight become impossible to manage because the interest rates went up and you cannot transfer the balance and you have the person sitting next to you in the cubicle in your office who is not telling anybody but believe me, he is in trouble and does not where to go and find help.
The thing is that going in foreclosure is possibly one of the most embarrassing things that could happen to somebody. It is not a pleasant topic to talk about. Just like bankruptcy. So nobody is going to go around telling everybody that they are in trouble and they need help.
You have to take the initiative and put the word out everywhere you can - your email, your Facebook, your friends, your family - very nicely and very politely that if anybody knows anybody who is falling behind and stressed out... let them know that you might be able to help them.
No sales skills required. Just some strategic whispers. Do that for 2 weeks and you will shock at the number of people who are going to call you looking for help.
