The Short Sales in Branford Connecticut and New Haven County is a series of articles for buyers and sellers to gain a better understanding of what a short sale is and how to move forward with closing on a short sale. In order to be thoroughly familiar where we are in the series, please read Part 1 and Part 2.

Short Sales In Branford Connecticut and New Haven County - An Alternative to Foreclosure - Part 1

Short Sales in Branford Connecticut and New Haven County - Do You Qualify? - Part 2

You now know what a short sale is and you have passed the qualifying test outlined in the previous posts. Now here is what you need to do to put your short sale package together for your lender and your agent.

Your short sale package should be put together prior to listing your property with your agent. This will help your agent to process the short sale quickly and efficiently. This is an important step in the process because as soon as an offer is made on your property your short sale package must go along with that offer.

Don’t wait until you have an offer before you collect all the documents you need in your short sale package and risk losing a possible buyer by delaying the process.There is no getting around this process so take the time to prepare in advance.

Your first step in putting your short sale package together is to call your lender to tell them you are putting your house up for sale and to confirm who the lender is. Make sure the note holder or servicer is in fact the lender you are calling. Don’t just take a chance by sending out your short sale package to your lender and then discover that the note was sold to another lender. Save yourself some valuable time by confirming your lender. 

The second step requires that you write an authorization letter for your agent giving him/her permission to speak on your behalf to discuss with you lender the status of your loan, details and short sale offers. In addition this letter must include your name, property address and loan number along with your agent’s name and company. The letter must be dated since many lenders limit the time in which the authorization letter is valid and once that time has expired you will be required to write another authorization letter.

Listed below are the documents that may be required to present a complete financial package to your lender. It is better to be prepared with all of the documentation and send more than what is required than to submit and incomplete short sale package. Your agent will also be checking the package to make sure all the documents are in order. With the amount of files lenders receive they may not even look at incomplete packages.

Your authorization letter as defined above.

A handwritten hardship letter describing your hardship. This letter must be as persuasive as possible as it can make or break the sale and should explain all thecompelling reasons why it is necessary to sell your property as a short sale.

A completed and signed personal financial statement that your Realtor® has received from the lender. It is not uncommon for each lender to provide their own financial statement. It is not a difficult form to fill out and usually includes tow columns; an asset column to write in all of your income and a debt column for all of your expenses.

Tax returns for the previous two years for all the signers on the mortgage.

Employment pay stubs for the past twoh months for all the signers on the mortgage.

A signed copy of your listing agreement with your Realtor®; this will be provided by your agent.

After you put all of these documents together give them to your Realtor® who will then work on your short sale package to make all the necessary notations. Every document must have your loan number written on it.

Once you get an offer on your property you and your agent will prepare the rest of the package and that includes:

A fully executed purchase and sale agreement and all supporting documentation.

Written proof of the buyer's pre-approval to purchase the property or evidence of cash available (a current bank statement).

An estimated HUD-1 settlement statement certified by an escrow office listing all the fees as completely and accurately as possible. The lender will reference this closing statement in their approval of the expenses prior to accepting the buyer’s offer.

Along with your short sales package your agent should put together a sales package. This will include your current market value paperwork with supporting sales data showing the offer is reasonable.

Your agent can support this documentation with a short narrative about the market and market trends taking place in the immediate area and include materials such as newspaper articles and recent economic data. Documentation is better than conversation, This is one example where you can take all the bad news and work it in your favor.

The next article of our Short Sales in Branford Connecticut and New Haven County Series will discuss what happens after the offer and short sales package is sent to the lender. If you are considering buying a short sale property knowing what takes place after the lender receives
your offer will be beneficial to you.

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to be or to provide legal advice. We recommend that you speak to your attorney and your tax accountant regarding specifics and to find out if this is the best option for you in your situation.

The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Branford Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Branford Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Branford Homes Blog does not express the views of RE/MAX Alliance, or those of the broker.


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Contact Donna Bigda, ABR, SRES, e-PRO, Realtor®, RE/MAX Alliance Licensed Realtor® in the State of Connecticut at 203-488-1641, ext. 214 to list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Branford, Guilford, Madison, East Haven, New Haven and the rest of shoreline area in New Haven County Connecticut.

There are great buys in today's market and now is a great time to buy while interest rates are still low. For more information on Branford CT Real Estate and Homes For Sale contact Donna or call me directly at 203-488-1641, ext. 214. Beat other buyers to the home of your dreams. Sign up with no obligation at my Shoreline Home Finder Site.

Copyright © 2008 by Donna Bigda, All Rights Reserved ...*Short Sales in Branford Connecticut and New Haven County – What You Need To Know – Part 3*