(part 3) For the other category of short sale real estate investing, where you are negotiating directly with the lender, there is also a secret key. I call it “relentlessness” and it’s what separates the pretenders from the successful short sale real estate investors. It’s the ability to dig until you find the right person at the lender to speak with, and then tenaciously negotiating until the lender either accepts your offer or tells you to pound salt.

Let me walk you through an example of short sale real estate investing. We’ll start with the same scenario from above. Mr. Seller’s lender Big Bank has a foreclosure department, often known as the REO (Real Estate Owned) Department, so you start by phoning there. After several attempts, you finally get through to Mr. Admin, who informs you that, sorry, no, Big Bank doesn’t accept short sale offers from investors. Oh, well, you think, so much for your first short sale real estate investing effort.