I meet a lot of people who don't believe they qualify for a short sale. When submitting a short sale offer, the lender will require a hardship letter. This is where you tell the lender why you are requesting a short sale. Some of the hardships that my clients have successfully used are:
Unemployment, decrease in income, relocation, divorce, medical issues, caring for a relative, unsafe neighborhood or poor schools to raise children, house is too small - family has grown, excessive debt, cannot afford to repair house, bad tenants, etc.
My belief is the worst thing your lender can say is no, so you might as well try. I have successfully negotiated short sales where the seller can make their payments or sellers have liquid assets, but for one reason or another just do not want to keep their home. The main thing to keep in mind is that this is a business decision for your lender. So as a seller you just need to convince them that it is in their best interest to approve your short sale. In some cases the lender will approve a short sale, but demand that you bring some money to closing or sign a note agreeing to pay back a portion of the loss (usually 5-25k). In fact we just received an approval on for short sale where the seller is bring ing $3000 to closing and agreeing to sign an interest free note for $5500 with payments of $100/month. Sellers were happy with this since the house is selling for 50% of what they owe. The bottom line is you don't know what your lender will do until you ask.
Comments(0)