“I want to stay in my house as long as I can…before it is foreclosed.”

Everyone seems to want to take advantage of a “free rent.” That’s actually what happens when you decide you will stop paying your mortgage (for hardship or other reasons), and will wait for the bank to foreclose your home. Realistically, it could take a good six months or more before a foreclosure is completed.

And still you want to find ways to prolong your stay. Somebody tells you a short sale will delay a trustee sale, and so you contract a real estate agent to list your home, and you advise your agent about your “hidden agenda.”

As an agent, I can tell you that when you ask me to list your property, I will do so with the purpose of finding a buyer. When we do find a buyer for the property’s fair market price (or somewhere there), I will work to get the offer submitted, together with the rest of the short sale package. If this is not how you wish to proceed, I need to know now, as I cannot allow myself to be used as a delaying tactic.

You want to take advantage of the cash for keys program on foreclosed properties. Is that really motivation enough to go through a foreclosure, instead of a short sale? I still want to be able to convince you that short sale is your best option for now.

Oh, and your friend told you that another course of action is to file for bankruptcy, get your assets frozen, and put a hold on a trustee sale. Ay, what’s the point! If you can’t afford to pay mortgage, and you can’t qualify for a loan modification, the only way is out.

Prolonging your stay in your home, prolonging the foreclosure process – it is merely prolonging the pain. The sooner you accept that you need to let go and move on, the better for you and your family. And it’s much easier and faster to start over, without having to stress about what tactic to do next to stay another month or so.