If you owe more on your house than it's currently worth, a short sale will enable you to sell your property at today's market value and at no cost to you. In most cases you can walk away without owing your lender a dime. Short sales are very complex transactions that take an average of 3-6 months to complete, and are worth the time and effort if you can complete one successfully. Successfully completing a short sale with a good result for the seller/borrower, as well as navigating all of the legal and tax ramifications requires having a team of expert real estate agents and attorneys at your side.
There are many variables that have a direct impact on your ability to successfully negotiate a short sale with your lender. Is your mortgage an original purchase money loan? Is your mortgage a rate-and-term refinance or cash-out? Are you current with your mortgage payments or are you delinquent? Do you have a second lien mortgage? If so, is it with the same servicer as the first lien mortgage or with another servicer? The answers to these questions will determine not only how your short sale is handled, but how your lender responds as well.
Depending on your specific situation, your lender may either accept, decline, or further negotiate your short sale transaction. When your short sale is ultimately approved, you will receive a letter from your lender stating the terms under which they approve the sale. READ THIS LETTER CAREFULLY and have an attorney review, if needed. Each loan servicer (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, etc.) has their own version of this approval letter. Some letters may specifically state that you are released from your loan obligation, others may not say anything specific regarding release. Once you receive a short sale approval letter, you should have it reviewed by our partner attorneys to ensure you have full legal protection from being sued. As real estate agents we cannot provide a legal interpretation of these letters.
If you are considering short selling your property, ensure that the real estate office you select to handle your short sale is fully staffed to handle short sales in-house. The last thing you want is a real estate agent who will take your listing and hand off the details to a third party short sale negotiating company. Short sale negotiating companies are notorious for delaying the process further, miscommunicating facts, slow turnaround times, and sometimes sheer incompetence that results in your house going to foreclosure. DON'T GIVE UP CONTROL OF YOUR TRANSACTION!
We can assist you in determining if you are a good candidate for a short sale, and can set your expectations up front for what is likely to happen based on your specific situation and the loan servicers involved. If needed, we can involve our partner attorneys in difficult negotiations to get our clients what they want. This comes at very low cost to our clients compared to what other attorneys or legal firms are charging for similar services.
