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Banks grant short sales for two reasons: the seller has a hardship, and the seller owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth.

The seller will need to prepare a financial package for submission to the short sale bank. Each bank has its own guidelines, but the basic procedure is similar from bank to bank.

A few examples of a hardship are:
Unemployment / reduced income
Divorce
Medical emergency
Job transfer out of town
Bankruptcy
Death

The seller’s short sale package will most likely consist of:
Letter of authorization, which lets your agent speak to the bank.
HUD-1 or preliminary net sheet
Completed financial statement
Seller’s hardship letter
2 years of tax returns
2 years of W-2s
Recent payroll stubs
Last 2 months of bank statements
Comparative market analysis or list of recent comparable sales

Writing the Short Sale Offer and Submitting to the Bank

Before a buyer writes a short sale offer, a buyer should ask his or her agent for a list of comparable sales.

Banks are not in the business of giving away a home at rock-bottom pricing. The bank will want to receive somewhat close to market value.

The short sale price may have little bearing on market value and may, in fact, be priced below the comparable sales to encourage multiple offers.

After the seller accepts the offer, the listing agent will send the following items to the bank:
Listing agreement
Executed purchase offer
Buyer’s pre-approval or proof of funds letter and copy of earnest money check
Seller’s short sale package.

The Short Sale Process at the Bank

Buyers may wait a very long time to get a response from the bank. It is imperative for the listing agent to regularly call the bank and keep careful notes of the short sale process.

Buyers may get so tired of waiting for short sale approval that they may feel the need to threaten to cancel if they don’t get an answer within a specified time period.

That type of attitude is self-defeating and will not speed up the short sale process. If buyers are the type with little patience, perhaps a short sale is not for them.

Following is a typical short sale process at the bank:
Bank acknowledges receipt of the file.
A negotiator is assigned.
The bank orders a valuation of the property.
The file is sent for review or to the investor.
The bank may then request that all parties sign an Arms-Length Affidavit.
The bank issues a short sale approval letter.

Some short sales get approval in 3 weeks. Others can take as long as 12 months. A typical Short Sale transaction takes 4-6 months to complete.

Because I am very active in Short Sales in the Portland, OR metro area, I get all kinds of questions by email and phone.

As much as possible, I try to keep the questions and answer in email form.  One of the most common questions I get is:

"should I short sale or not".  My answer is almost always "it depends".  Basically, whether a short sale is a good strategy to unload a property, or not, depends on the specific situation.  The email sequence below is a good example of this.

Email Sequence:

Customer questions are in navy.  My replies are in blue.

Hi -

I have an initial question on my possible options. I got divorced 2 years ago and still jointly own a house with my ex wife, which is under water by aprx $55k, I owe $260k. I am current on my mortgage.

I have a first for $200k and a second for $60k. My problem is I could afford to pay the defect, but don't want to pay her 1/2. Additionally I'd like to not impact my credit or damage my chances of buying a new house in the next few years.

Please could you let me know possible options from your perspective, so I can begin a plan on selling my house.

Thanks.

Ken

Ken,

Thanks for contacting me. 

It seems to me you are not much underwater.  Maybe you need to buy her off the title and keep the house.  The ticket is to do it now rather than when there is equity, because you will get there.  At that point she will want her cut, even if she is not paying now.  Cash plus resentment area bad combo.

Is the property vacant?

Another option is for you to pay the short fall of the sale if you want to sell with no default.   That would be around $80K by the time you add the second mortgage, the unpaid part of the first, the real estate commissions and other things.

Hopefully this helps.  For a short sale you need to default.

Oscar

Thanks for the quick response Oscar. The house is not vacant, I am actually currently residing there.

I assume that default is the worst possible option and would completely ruin my credit (and potentially leave me exposed to lenders wanting to come after debt recovery)?  I have a feeling this would be my ex's preferred option, which I want to steer clear of. Do you know if a default in her name would impact her new husband or just limit their future lending options as her credit will be poor (that could be a good deterrent).

I guess my other option could be to buy her out, then potentially look at renting it, although my mortgage is currently at 6.5% :(

Thanks again.

Ken

Ken,

It seems you are better off buying her out.  You will have to pay for rent or mortgage anyway.  Offer her $2K for getting out of the title.  Do it at a title company.  I can connect you.

Don't take this as legal or tax advice.  Just a pointer.

Let me know if you need anything else. 

Oscar

Oscar Morante
Ph:  971-222-3734
Fax: 866-844-7009
PDX Experts Real Estate, LLC
www.PDXExperts.com
534 SW 3rd Avenue
Suite 305
Portland, OR 97204

Real Estate Agent
Realtor

By now, you should have heard that the real estate market is picking back up. Low interest rates and low inventory are spiking the average home price here in Washington State. Homeowners are now deciding on their options of either letting go of their underwater homes via short sale or foreclosure, continuing to live in it, or even rent it out and becoming a landlord. Which option would be best for you?

According to Corelogic, home prices nationwide increased on a year-over-year basis by 8.3 percent in December 2012 compared to December 2011. The spike is largely attributed to investors buying out most of the inventory thus increasing demand. This appreciation rate will most likely be unsustainable but of course, only time can tell. Zillow Home Value Forecasts (ZHVF), expects home values to increase 3.3% (Dec 2012 to Dec 2013).
Ah good news, home prices are rising again! So shouldn’t we keep our home that is underwater until we break even so we can avoid a short sale and a ding on our credit?
Let’s explore this option.

We will use the example of Mr. and Mrs. Smith who are barely making their payments and have a home that is worth $230,000 but owe $300,000 to their lender. The Smith’s think to themselves, if they live in their home in hopes to sell it once they come out from underwater, they don’t have to sell short. Assuming we will get a 5% appreciation rate (being optimistic), it will take them about 4 years just to break even. The Smith’s realize that it isn’t worth throwing away about $57,000 over the years in a home that has negative equity.

So they discuss their option of making their home into a rental property for the next 4 years to avoid the ding on their credit. Most likely, they will have a negative cashflow situation for all four years if you include PITI (principle, interest, tax, insurance) along with maintenance and repairs. Most importantly, the Smith's do not realize how difficult it is to be a landlord. Dealing with tenants (finding and maintaining), lease contracts, property maintenance/repairs, among others difficulties many times suck the life out of landlords. Many homeowners who opted to rent their homes because it was underwater are concluding to short sell years or even months later. Just ask friends or family about their experiences as landlords.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s situation is very typical and if they took the route of holding until breaking even, they will most likely be left with an even bigger headache.

What if Mr. and Mrs. Smith chose to short sell now?

A short sale is when you sell your home for less than what is currently owed on the property. The Smith’s decide to find a short sale expert and talk to their lender to see if they qualify for a short sale. IF they short sell now, they will finish in about 120 days which means if they started now, they will be done and out of their negative equity situation by summer time.

How would the financial rebound look like for the Smith’s? If they were not delinquent on their payments but was able to show inevitable delinquency, the ding on their credit score would be significantly less. If they were delinquent prior to closing the short sale, you will be facing about a 80-160 point ding in your FICO score.

Now how soon will they will be able to rebound on their credit depends on different factors. If the Smith’s end up using Lexington law to expedite rebuilding their credit score, they can easily repurchase another home within 2 years (possibly sooner) using the money that they saved from the mortgage payments that would’ve wound up in their underwater home. Once they are in a home, again, assuming that there is a 5% appreciation rate, they will start BUILDING equity.

So what is the best choice for Mr. and Mrs. Smith?

What do you think?

Peter

In my previous blog post, I estimated that in 2014, home prices were expected to rebound. 2012 however surprised all of us with sharp price increases. What is causing this price increase? A number of factors may play into it but one of the main variables is the lack of supply thus increasing demand and prices. It is a seller's market and will probably remain until the latter half of this year. However, I don't believe this will last.

Based off our research, there is a artificial lack of inventory meaning, home prices may very well halt its increase and decline for some time. Let's explore why short selling now would be in your best interest.

What will the status of the housing market be in the next couple of years? Only time can tell. What we can investigate are the factors that led to the volatile home prices.

We are seeing large hedgefund investors like blackstone and other cash investors, buy out most of the inventory. Concurrently, new legislation as seen in California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington, are slowing down the foreclosure flow in those areas which according to Daren Blomquist, VP of RealtyTrac, will result in a backlash of foreclosure activity at the end of this year and into 2014. RealtyTrac is still expecting to see about 600,000 REO's enter the market in 2013. This indicates a hit on home prices to come.

At the same time, homeowners are vulnerable to a large tax liability at the end of this year. The mortgage forgiveness debt relief act is set to expire Dec. 31, 2013. For more information, please read our previous blog post.

A short sale is when you sell your home for less than what is owed. The remaining balance owed is negotiated so if home prices decrease, the difference between the sale price and the amount owed will only grow meaning you have a higher risk of owing more to your lender after you short sell your home.

Moral of the story, no one can fully time the housing market but the uncertainty should create urgency this 2013 year.

Hope this helps

Peter

 www.seattleshortsaleblog.com