I'm a Short Sales Specialist and I've done hundreds of short sales for real estate investors. When I first started doing short sales, I didn't have the luxury of attending a beginner's short sales workshop to help me get up to speed right away on the subject. So, naturally, the next thing I did was head for the Internet to see what I could find on the subject. I came across a lot of stuff. Some of the information was useful and some wasn't so useful.
Most of what I learned about short sales came from on the job experiences. I spent a lot of my time gathering short sale documents from sellers, assembling short sale packages, faxing documents to lenders, refaxing documents, calling and recalling lenders to find out the status of short sale offers, and performing a long list of other duties just to unfortunately hear the words at the end of a phone call, "Your client's offer has been rejected."
As a result of these experiences, I decided to assemble a list of reasons I found to be responsible for getting short sales rejected. At the top of my list is the seller's financials. One of the fastest ways to get your short sale KILLED is by not including the seller's completed financial statement or by not including the seller's financials (e.g. recent W2s, recent tax returns, recent bank statements) in the short sale package.
In case you weren't aware, MOST LENDERS WON'T EVEN LOOK AT A SHORT SALE OFFER WITHOUT THIS INFORMATION!! Also, the lender will normally pull the seller's credit report to verify the information provided on the financial statement is correct. They will then use this information to determine if they can pursue the seller for a deficiency judgment and will subsequently have the seller sign a note, but that's only if it's proven that the seller is able to meet the financial demands laid out in the note or agreement.
So, if a short sale is on your next list of things to do, please make doubly sure you don't forget to include the seller's financials in your short sale package.
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