I just hosted Lee Honish, former VP of IndyMac Bank HELOC division, last week in Scottsdale, AZ for the second time in a couple of months. There were about 60 agents in attendance, a great turn out. Lee is the founder of Ceritifed Default Advocate Training and is tirelessly traveling back and forth accross the country training Agents on being an advocate to homeowners.

His message is simple, be an advocate to your homeowner and represent the homeowner with the highest fiduciary possible. Guide the homeowner out of their distressed property as painless as possible and take the burden from their shoulders. Most homeowners have been through the wringer with their lenders and have gotten nowhere. Homeowners deserve to have an advocate on their side when it comes to selling their home and dealing with the lender or lenders in many cases.

There are two prinicpals to the transaction, the seller and the buyer, period. I cannot tell you how many real estate agents still believe the lender is a prinicipal to the transaction. CDAT for short trains real estate agents who are the principals to the transaction is, how to navigate the banks short sale process, what to do if the lender doesn't cooperate, and how to successfully close a short sale each and every time. There are certain escalation steps that must be followed to escalate the file properly. There is such a thing as over escalating or escalation to the wrong person or department.

Homeowners deserve to have knowledgable and experienced real estate agents negotiating the short sale on their behalf with the banks. Every homeowner deserves to be saved from a foreclosure, there is no excuse for even 1 property to go to foreclosure when there is absoluty no need for it to. These homes can be short sold and should be. 

I am going into my 5th year this year of doing short sales and I have not lost one property to  foreclosure. I do keep a small case load to make sure each of my sellers get my full attention; therefore, I keep the number of personal files that I take on to under 40 each year.

As the Designated Broker for HomeLife Genesis, I and my agents are committed to saving Homeowners from foreclosure. We are all experienced and all have cerifications to help homeowners from the myriad of misinformation out there. I am very grateful to Lee and his committment to sharing with real estate agents the Certified Default Advocate Training Designation and the education he provides on short sales is invaluable.