One of the biggest challenges in completing a short sale is making sure the lender knows what they are up against in a local market. The decision to make a substantial "write-down" by a lender isn't a small item to consider. Imagine yourself as the person in charge of disposition of assets for a major lender and then doing so without sufficient documentation. If you make a few wrong decisions because you went with your gut feeling, or the gut feeling of a local real estate agent (trying to close a deal), you will soon be out of a job. So, put yourself in the shoes of a lender and think about the documentation and the data they need to make an informed decision.

First of all, the decision maker is probably a long way away from the property and has no idea about the local market conditions. You can help, and you must. MLS data is good in terms of what has closed, what has expired, what is on the market, how many months/years of inventory are available given the current absorption rates and so on. An added dimension can be provided by letting them know about the flipping rate in the area, foreclosure activity, median price trend, cost per square foot trend and other data that will allow them to size up the market.

Even so, you should size up the market for them. Draw some key conclusions as to why they should sell it now for the price your client has offered. Base your conclusions in sound facts so that if they have to defend their actions to their bosses in accepting your offer, they will have a substantial amount of information upon which they based their decision. Make it happen, don't wait for a lender to try to figure it out on their own. They have mountains of files and they are going to give yours one good look and make a determination.

To recap:
1) Create a concise one-page summary overview of the market.
2) Support it with facts from the MLS (on market, expired listings, closed sales)
3) Support it with facts about foreclosure and flipping conditions (www.homesmartreports.com) can help.
4) Inventory backlog summary - how many months/years of inventory are there on the market based on current absorption rates?
5) Let them know your buyer has stretched to make this deal and that they are qualified to close.
Don't leave these things to chance. The more effort you put in on building your case with documentation, the better your chance of closing a transaction. Keep it short and concise and make a compelling closing argument for the lender accepting your offer.