When can I buy my Short Sale Home Back ?

  A listing presentation to a short sale seller is often a very emotional experience. The logic of the market price and the black and white numbers that stare back at the seller from the pages of the market analysis...meet with tears when the reality of knowing that the always imagined "happily ever after" is not to be...not with this house that was home to a family...a part of the memories of some childhoods, the setting of many family gatherings, the hopes of welcoming another generation to the dinner table, to backyard cookouts...will not be in this house. It is not "just another piece of real estate....it is a part of the fabric that has been woven into the memories of family members forever.The challenges seem overwhelming and unfair that they come all at the same time. Adding the stress of having a home on the market....in the forever home that was to have welcomed other generations, family memories, the unfairness of it all gives way to tears...lips bitten, and the will to go on prevails. Life has to go on with less money...no job perhaps...the divorcing spouse...a start as a single parent.
  We often hear...that "a friend told them...they read on the internet....a neighbor said..." often it is wishful thinking and not reality. The reasoning in an emotional state sounds logical...now the house without that second mortgage...is listed at a price that sounds affordable. NOW...for a fleeting moment, that sounds like a solution....the seller buying the house back at the short sale price. 
    As part of the short sale process...the part that the neighbor didn't know...the internet may not have explained and the seller doesn't want to hear....is the Arms Length Affidavit. Words may vary slightly from one lender to another....at the end of the transaction what it means is that the seller cannot buy the property. The bank will not forgive the deficiency to have the seller reclaim the property again as their home.
   Reality is that the next life chapter will be in another location....one rented for a while....credit rebuilt and a new opportunity to build a brighter future is on the horizon. We leave the presentation, with hugs that often feel as though we are the only thing that the seller has left to hold on to...we know that there are better tomorrows....and we are so glad that we can play a small role in making that a new reality for any homeowner experiencing a hardship and having to find the courage to begin a new life.