Tips for a Successful Short Sale

If you owe more on your house than it’s worth and it’s time for you to sell, getting your mortgage lender to agree to a short sale might be the perfect solution for you.

The short sale process is basically selling a house for less than the remaining mortgage balance. The potential benefits of a short sale are not just for the seller, lender, or buyer. All three may benefit from this sort of arrangement.

What can you do to make sure that your short sale is smooth sailing? Read on for tips for a successful short sale.

Learn About Short Sale Laws

Get a feel for the potential legal ramifications of the short sale process before you decide to pursue one.

It’s important to understand what the laws surrounding short sales mean for you. In some instances, people who have gotten lenders to agree to short sales are hit later with a deficiency judgment demanding they pay the difference in the price paid for the home and the loan balance.

The good news is that in California, residential dwellings that are four or fewer units (which includes single-family homes) are exempt from a deficiency judgment. That means lenders can’t go after you for the mortgage balance after a short sale in San Diego.

Be sure to ask your short-sale real estate agent or the company handling the sale of your home if you have any questions about this.

Know That the First Answer Isn’t Always Final

While the thought of negotiating with a company to which you owe a lot of money can be scary, know that the first answer that your mortgage lender gives you isn’t necessarily the only answer they’ve got. You might be able to work with them on a settlement that works better for everyone involved.

It’s important to remember that though you may not feel like you have a lot of leverage when pursuing a short sale, mortgage companies have a lot of incentive to work with you. Foreclosure costs companies big bucks, with one report stating that the average foreclosure costs the company more than $77K.

Keep Up with Costs Related to Owning Home

It’s important that, even though you’re selling the home, you keep up with any taxes or homeowner’s association dues that you owe in order to keep from holding up the sale. When you don’t pay those costs on time, the fees compound and can become unreasonable very quickly. Either you or the buyer will have to get them up to date before the sale can go through under most circumstances, and those costs can kill a short sale deal if they’re too expensive.

Use an Experienced Short Sale Realtor or Company

One of the best ways to find out if the person or company handling the sale of your home is actually good with short sales and not just advertising that they are is to look at testimonials from their past short sale clients.

Short sales can be labor-intensive and time-consuming for the professional who is handling them. You want to ensure that the broker knows what they’re getting into. Otherwise, they may find themselves in over their head and unable to put the necessary work into the sale of your home.

An experienced short sale agent or home buyer will make sure that you know all the information above and they’ll do what they can to make sure everything is in order to get the deal closed.

Sell Your House Direct Handles Short Sales

Here at Sell Your House Direct, we’ve closed countless short sale deals and made the sale of our client’s homes, and their lives in general, less stressful. We know what it takes to get the deal closed. If you’re considering a short sale, contact us to see what we can do for you!