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Are you feeling overwhelmed in your home and mortgage? You are not alone. Many are feeling the same problem and it is growing in numbers.

Both the Military and Fannie Mae have set up web pages to help you through the maze and give you the options that may be available to you to either save your home or complete a short sale.

The short sale does allow you to sell your home for less than what you owe so that the home is not foreclosed. While this is a good option for many, it does have it drawbacks and you need to understand what it entails. Therefore you need to discuss this with an attorney, a CPA, and most important of all a SHORT SALE Specialist such as the SHORT SALE SUPERSTARS.

We have even managed to help our clients save their homes, avoid foreclosure and sale with a small amount of cash out of pocket avoiding a short sale and another actually walk away with cash on a sale that the bank wanted as a short sale.

Please get advice from a TRAINED SHORT SALE SPECIALIST in your area. If you decide to complete a SHORT SALE, your success is determined by how well the listing agent can present to the bank. The banks are overwhelmed and need to have a good trained expert present the packet.

GET HELP NOW.

For many distressed home sellers, the term "BPO' is totally greek. Sadly enough, it doesn't ring a bell with many Realtors either. What's more disturbing is that very few Realtors consider the significance or the power of someone else (who's probably traveled for more than 30 miles away) taking a look at your property and giving their opinion of what it would sell for in today's market....sounds simple, right??? It's much more complicated than that.

The reality is that the fate of your client's property (and financial future) may rest upon this single, solitary number...because when that figure lands in the hands of your negotiator on a short sale, it's considered GOLDEN....regardless of whether or not the BPO agent searched all MLS databases for your area for comps or not, or whether they even slowed their car down long enough to actually take a photo or not....it's your negotiator's only link between your offer and the perceived value of your listing. So, what do you do?? I'm so glad that you asked....

1) Remove all access portals to your property - Make it imperative that the person completing the BPO go through you for access and DISCUSS, DISCUSS, DISCUSS the property with the agent. Provide them with a copy of your very own BPO so that they can compare. Many times, if a lender has a pre-existing BPO for a property and a second BPO comes in with a value that's significantly different, a third BPO will be ordered.

2) Submit YOUR very own BPO to the lender along with your highest and best offer. Make sure that your comps are as close to your property in size, condition, age, location, and lot size as humanly possible.

3) ASK, ASK, ASK the BPO agent about their value opinion. To be totally honest, most BPO providers don't even read the fine print where it states that their not supposed to discuss value with anyone other than the requestor. TRY IT ANYWAY!!!

4) DON'T STEER....DISCUSS!!! Don't try to overwhelm or impress the other agent with your vast knowledge of market activity. Humble yourself and actually have a conversation with the other person. It's true, you'll actually catch more bees with honey.

I can't stress enough the importance of completing a BPO on your listing. Use it as as leverage in negotiating with the buyer's agent. Use it in discussing your opinion of value to the loss negotiator. Use it to line the bird cage....just USE IT!!!

This is my first BofA SS to negotiate...... Its has all gone fairly smooth considering its an FHA deal so we have not had to deal with Equator...THANK GOD!

We received our HUD 90045 today stating net price $220k which is 88% of appraised value of $250k. Listed property 4/24/10 (over 60 days on market and this is our only offer). Purcahse Offer $200k. Per HUD guidelines: Properties listed over 60 days should reflect 84% of appraised value....which still is not where we need to be. Should I dispute the appraisal and if so, whats the best strategy?

Also, we are a 3rd party negotiator and need our fee to be on the HUD...where or how should we list this?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!!!!

I am in my 4th year of doing pretty much nothing but short sales and I have never run into a bank that is so unreasonable as US Bank.We have an original purchase money first wuth Chase and a refi 2nd with US Bank of $46K. The cash from the refi paid for the kitchen remodel that was done. Seller got married and then husband was relocated to another state for work. Both are short selling in CA.

I thought this would be pretty easy with the first being original purchase funds in CA and the second being such a small amount. However, US Bank is refusing to even consider doing a non-deficient short sale and states that we need a HUD with a minimum of $5K to them and the seller agreeing to pay the entire deficiency amount before they will even look at the short sale package we submitted three and a half months ago. Seller is not willing to pay them anything more than we can get them from the net proceeds or contributions of the other parties in the transaction and is now willing to let this go to foreclosure and just let them chase her for the monies if they will not cooperate. I already have Chase and the parties involved prepared to give the second $12K, 25% of balance owed, but we still have the issue with them wanting the seller to agree to pay-off the deficient amount before they will look at it.

Has anyone gotten a non-deficient short sale with US Bank in second position? If so, what is your trick? I tried emailing the CEO, CFO and a few others, but no response. I will try the escalaltion contacts given when I am back in the office tomorrow.

The seller is making less money now that she is in Colorado than she was here and she can no longer afford to make the payments on this property...stopped a couple months ago,so we are not dealing with a seller who can keep paying on his property.

Your help is much appreciated!
-Robin