For years, volume REO agents held the keys to most volume brokerages and teams. But now that banks are becoming increasingly cooperative working with short sales, it has created opportunities for brokerage models and volume agents to focus on short sales as a primary business. Some short sale brokers are now closing 50-plus units a month, but this is such a new niche many agents in the industry don’t know how or who to contact for help in building their business.

Logan Waller, CDPE [Certified Distressed Property Expert], president of the Waller Group and a broker-agent with RE/MAX About Dallas, closed 740 transactions in 2008. “I’m bombarded with daily e-mails from self proclaimed short sale experts but there’s very few in the business who are actually closing short sales with volume,” Waller said. “This is a business that can be profitable with proper lead generation methods, scaled through technology and systems.” In response to this need, the Short Sale Brokers Association has been launched by a group of short sale brokers. The goal of this group is to develop a nationwide network of preferred short sale specialists to manage short sale listing leads from loan modification companies and servicers. Association applicants must qualify for membership. They must be able to demonstrate their success in closing multiple short sale transactions. Only two association members per market area are accepted. Pam Marion, whose real estate team closed over 600 transactions in Oklahoma during 2008, commented, “I’m excited to see some of the tools that have made us successful as volume agents in the past utilized to streamline systems to increase our profitability in this sector.”