Your home has been on the market for sale as a Short Sale for a while now. In the last chapter we discussed Selling your Home as a Short Sale. You've had some steady showings and are anxiously awaiting for an offer as you continue to miss your mortgage payments. Another busy day has passed you're sitting at the kithen table and your phone rings; it's your Realtor...she informs that an offer has come in on your home. Finally! WOO HOO!... now what?

1.  Remember all the documentation that your Realtor asked you to gather: hardship letter, paystubs, bank statements, tax returns, income & expense statement, etc ? These will be used to support other documentation put together by your Realtor to have the facts to present to your Lender to approve the sales offer. 

2.  Along with your financial documents, your Realtor, knowledgeable and effective in the Short Sale process, will put together a analysis of your home and its market area that will support the offer price. This analysis could include; other recent homes sold within your area and the prices paid by Buyers, the current inventory of homes for sale, the length of time your your home has been on the market, how long have homes been on the market in your area, the rate in which homes are in foreclosure in your area, the location & condition of your home, etc.

3.  Included with the sales offer will be the oh so essential and accurate Preliminary HUD. Why would a Lender want to see this, you might ask? The Preliminary HUD or settlement statement can make the difference in whether or not the sales offer is approved. Do you have any unpaid property taxes, unpaid homeowner association fees, IRS liens, judgments? If so, these must be known prior to submitting the sales offer to your Lender. This will let your Lender know how much they are going to net from the sale; how much money they will be receiving. If these costs are not included on the Preliminary HUD and you get an approval from your Lender based on this Preliminary HUD only to find out that some past due fee was missed and not included, you might as well forget about trying to get that item paid out of the sale proceeds. But who will pay for it? It will be either you or the Buyer if the sale is to close.

4. Now at this point the success of the closing will weigh heavily on your Realtor as going forward she or he will be doing all of the negotiations with the Lenders's Loss Mitigation department. Their knowledge of short sales, negotiation skills and persistence will affect the outcome:

• Why knowledge of Short Sales? They must know what is required by the Lender. It is vastly different from a tradtional Real Estate transaction.
• Why negotiation skills? Because you Lender will be haggling for every penny and will need reasons supported by documentation and analysis of the market. The Lender is looking out for the Lender and you need someone who is looking out for you.
• Why persistence? Because the Lender is probably dealing with 100's of cases similar to yours and if you don't have someone who is genuinely interested in your well being to avoid foreclosure than your file will remain at the bottom of the pile, getting closer and closer to foreclosure.

Coming soon we'll talk about the intricate details of Loss Mitigation negotiations.

The more you know, the better prepared, the better the outcome.  Stay tuned for the next Chapter addressing Short Sales. Come back soon to see the next released Chapter. 

Got something that you'd like addressed, let me know.

I serve Coral Springs and the surrounding cities such as Coconut Creek, Parkland and Sunrise in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach County of South Florida as your dedicated Realtor ready to work for you. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Call me at 954-464-1100 or email me at: lynnp@ImagineYourHouse.com