What's it like to sell your home as a Short Sale?

What's it like to sell your home as a Short Sale?

Have you been thinking about selling your home as a Short Sale? Do you want to know what's it like to get to your end goal of Short Sale Approval and closing on your Short Sale?

As a South Florida Short Sale Specialist who has been representing distressed Sellers for many years now, each Short Sale Closing will likely be bittersweet as I just closed on another South Florida Short Sale. Most homeowners do not want to sell their home as a Short Sale and it likely took them quite some time before they came to the conclusion to short sell their home. It's never easy to leave your home when it wasn't in the plans yet finally getting all of the financial stress behind you can be a breath of fresh air for the Short Sale Seller.

My most recent closing really wasn't a whole lot different then the many prior Short Sale closings I've fought hard for as my Sellers languished along.

This Short Sale took 5 months to complete because we had 2 Buyers. The 1st Buyer changed their mind early on when they simply decided they didn't like the house so it wasn't due to the usual Buyer cancellation of having to wait months on end.  A new Buyer came along quickly grabbing up the home they dreamed to be just right for them and their time frame took 3 months.

The typical delays were present here in that nobody at the Seller's Lender seemed to process anything with any sense of urgency; kinda like they'll get to it when they feel like...the lack of pride in completing one's job (a whole other subject matter for a blog post) I had to constantly be on top of the Seller's Lender when they took forever to reply, when what they said would happen did not happen and when they always said there was just one more task they had to complete.  Okay, I've been doing this long enough to know the stories and delays but I keep on keeping on and will always fight for my customer to get that Short Sale approval for them.

So in the end, "What's it like to sell your home as a Short Sale?" The best outcome is always as this one:

• Seller receiving CASH at the closing
• Seller being relieved of the deficiency balance; that dollar amount left over on your mortgage after the short sale
• Seller will not have to pay tax on the deficiency balance as this primary residence status Seller is protected under the Mortgage Debt Cancellation Act of 2007, which by the way is set to expire Jan 2013
• Seller's loan being reported to the credit agencies as being paid in full for less than the full balance"
• Relief as you now have this monster off your back and you no longer have to worry about it.