The Secret Short Sales Letter

The best time to choose a short sale is when you owe more on your home than it is worth. Let’s say that your home is worth 450,000 and you owe 470,000 then a short sale would be the way to go. Obviously, if you do not have to sell your home, you could wait out the market and hope for a turnaround in real estate values.

If you cannot wait out the market, then you have three options available to you. The first one involves bringing cash to the table. In the example above you would sell your home for $250,000 and pay another $10,000 to the lender out of your pocket to pay off the loan on your property. Your second option is to foreclose on you home. Your bank will foreclose on your home and evict you from the premises. They will sell your home to highest bidder at a foreclosure or Trustee’s auction. Your third choice is to pursue a short sale. A short sale involves contacting a specialist who will negotiate with the lender on your behalf. The specialist will explain your situation and ask the bank to take less than the value of your home for payment.

In a case where you have a buyer for 240,000 and your loan is for 250,000, you would then explain to the bank that there aren’t any buyers willing to pay a higher price. You can continue with a short sale when the lender agrees to the lower amount. In some instances banks will accept a short sale even before someone has made an offer on your house. You can then advertise your property at the lesser amount to make it easier to find a buyer.

One of the great things about a short sale is that they are not complicated, but there is some effort involved on behalf of you and your short sales specialist.

You have to find out what your home is worth. Your short sales specialist will do market analysis which will help you to determine what your home will sell for. You can also use the Internet to help you in this process, there are many real estate sites that you can compare listings to help you determine the value of your home. If the market is moving down keep in mind that your homes value may be moving down as well and estimated valuations may be valid for only a short time.

Figuring out the closing costs is also important. Items such as a title report, escrow, appraisal, attorney fees, agent commissions, unpaid property taxes etc. may add up to a substantial amount of money.

You have to find out the exact amount of money you owe on your home, include all loans you may have taken out on the property.

Calculate your equity. In a regular case your closing costs and loan should be less than the total value your property is worth. When the opposite is true you can then pursue a short sale.

Your short sales specialist will be talking to someone in authority at your bank who is required to make these decisions. The loss mitigation department is usually who you will go through. Lenders do not have to accept your short sale, but most of the time they do because it is in their best interest. Some banks will not take a short sale unless you are behind on your monthly installments. You’ll need to know where your lender stands with regard to short sales so contact them as soon as possible.

Calculate your taxes. Don’t low ball this figure. There are sometimes a high amount of taxes involved in a short sale. Talk to a professional about how much tax you will owe the I.R.S. before proceeding with a short sale.