Sacramento Short Sale Myth: I Have To Go Thru The Loan Mod Process Before I Can Short Sell!

Sacramento CA – The Stop Foreclosure Institute recently received a question from Tonia about short sales. Apparently Tonia has been mislead by her lender.

Here is Tonia's question about short sales. "I've been trying to sell my house for over a year now and have since remarried and moved into my husband's house.

I told the realtor I am willing to do a short sale so she called my mortgagor (short sale dept) and they said to just send in the bid. Well, they received a bid but will not accept it.

They said it is because I haven't gone through the loan modification process that FHA loans have to go through first before a short sale can be done. I don't want to modify my loan. I want to be dismissed from it.

I'm current on my payments because the same guy told me that I could be current and still do a short sale which it isn't sounding like now. Any advise would be great.

My house payment is due next week and if it is going to take me not making payments to get this short sale through I won't make them. Tonia."

Here was our response to Tonia. It sounds like you are being mislead. FHA issues guidelines to lender's that handle their loans. Their guidelines say nothing about a loan modification having to be done first.

You can look up the guidelines for FHA Short Sales. Just google: "Mortgagee Letter 2008-43. I have read thru this countless times and didn't remember a requirement for a loan modification first.

I do remember getting into this same argument with a short sale negotiator we were previously working with. They said we had to go thru the loan mod process before they could process the short sale.

We told them we had read thru the entire letter and knew it didn't have that requirement. They backed off and processed the short sale. You just have to be firm.

And if they aren't following FHA's rules, then call up FHA and let them know. FHA may fine them for breaking the rules.

Thanks for reading this,

Neil Morrison.

Neil is a Real Estate Agent at Meridian Capital. Sacramento Short Sales Realtor:

Phone: (916) 991-3741.


Neil Morrison specializes in loan modification assistance and short sales in Sacramento California. Sacramento Loan Modification Help, Sacramento Short Sales. Sacramento Short Sale Realtor Sacramento CA Short Sales. Sacramento Realtor.