If you are a homeowner who is considering a short sale, we can do more for you than just sell your home. With today`s housing crisis, a good REALTOR® with short sale experience is a key individual in the process of avoiding foreclosure. There are various options out there for avoiding losing your home to foreclosure. Some homeowners will qualify for loan modification. Others may need to go for a short sale of their home in order to avoid the negative stigma of foreclosure that can haunt them for years to come. If your home goes into foreclosure, you may not be able to purchase another home for seven years. If you do a short sale, that time period is cut in half.
How the Short Sale Works
The short sale is only for those homeowners who are facing a hardship. You must also have an upside-down mortgage, which means that you owe more on the home than the home is worth. Examples of hardship include unemployment or severe reduction in income, divorce, bankruptcy, medical emergency, transferring to a job out of down, or death of a co-homeowner.
The short sale involves selling the house at today`s market value while your lender agrees to accept that lower value for the home. Short sale negotiation process with bank is a very complex and time consuming process. A good short-sale REALTOR® can work as a go-between you and the bank to help you successfully negotiate a short sale of your home. The REALTOR® will assist homeowners prepare a short sale package for submission to the short sale bank, which is the original creditor. This short sale package will include items that will allow the bank and the REALTOR® to proceed with the short sale, including a letter of authorization, which allows your REALTOR® to speak with the bank, financial statements, letter of hardship, tax returns, and various other documentation of your financial situation.
Benefits of the Short Sale
When you are at risk of foreclosure, the short sale is a viable option. The benefits of a short sale include:
- Lesser effect on your FICO credit score than with a foreclosure. A foreclosure can drop your credit score by as much as 400 points. Although each lender reports a short sale differently to the credit bureau, the effect on your credit will be that of a mortgage paid in full. Only the late payments prior to the short sale will affect your overall credit score.
- You will have no mortgage payments to make, unless you choose to keep making them.
- You retain dignity in knowing that you sold your home as opposed to losing it to foreclosure; you avoid the stigma of foreclosure.
- Under Fannie Mae Guidelines, you can buy another home in as little as two years. If you have no sixty-day-plus late payments, you may be eligible to buy another home immediately.
Every day that you don`t do anything is another day that you move closer and closer to foreclosure. To find out more about stopping foreclosure and going with a short sale, contact us now!