There are several “moving parts” to a short sale. But no matter how difficult or easy a short sale is these 3 are always a requirement.
- Hardship – to successfully execute a short sale the seller must have a hardship. Hardships can very in severity, death, job loss, cut in pay divorce and so on. A hardship is something that has caused the inability to keep your mortgage paid. Sometimes when a short sale starts the hardship has not happened yet. Let’s say that a couple has been transferred to another state for employment, and they have been using the savings to pay the mortgage but the savings will only last so long. That hardship is a foreseeable hardship and if presented correctly the lender can and often does approve a short sale.
- Inability to Pay – obviously with the hardship we just talked about there is an inability to pay the mortgage. This goes beyond that thought, the inability to sell the home for what is owed is another form of inability to pay. If we could sell your home for what was owed you would be paying it off.
- The Home Must Be Listed With a Real Estate Professional – banks do not know real estate. The bank depends on the real estate professional to give them a fair and honest opinion of the market value of the home. They depend us the agent to negotiate the very best deal.
Listing your home as a short sale is a very easy task, but when you do make sure your agent knows how to negotiate a short sale. As a CDPE (Certified Distressed Property Expert) I have had additional training in dealing with Short Sales, helping direct you the home owner to loan modification programs, deed in lieu of foreclosure and many options you may not be aware of.