Most banks are buried in short sale requests and requests for loan adjustments and they have thousands of houses that they have taken back in foreclosure as of today.

Mortgage lenders to offer short sale information is hard to come by but I will offer some pointers that you may find helpful.

First, recognize a short sale involves selling your house on what is to lender’s otherwise a problem for them.  In other words, they don’t want your house back.  If you sell it yourself, their losses will be far less than if they take your house back in foreclosure.  That is the only reason they will agree to a short sale.  Either way they lose money – if you are in foreclosure and they end up taking your house back, they will be out of pocket more than if you do a short sale.

You have to present the right package of paperwork to whoever your mortgage lender is.  That includes a hardship letter, detailed documentation of your income and your financial status, a broker’s price opinion on the property, and a completed legitimate offer to buy the property.  These are the basics and if you submit an incomplete package or get certain things wrong, you can expect them to put you at the bottom of their pile and you may never have a shot at getting them to approve your short sale.

Lenders do not like you to give away your house, so you have to make sure that your buyer is paying something that is not less than, say, 80% of market value.  Keep it reasonable.

What is market value these days?  You might have an appraisal from last summer or earlier in the year, and it will be worthless today.  Realistically, a house is much harder to sell today especially if a government guaranteed loan is not a possibility.

I will tell you that beyond having your paperwork together you must have determination and patience.  You must be very friendly and make people at your bank or any other lender like you.  They are people too.  They will work with you if you are nice, patient and understanding.  The person you spoke to didn’t get you into this mess and they are doing the best they can.

Understand that you will be put on hold for long periods, be shuttled from one person to another, and have to explain your situation again and again.  Files will get lost, computers will be down and people will tell you that the last person you spoke to was in error.

And through all of it, if you take a reasonable position that your short sale will save the lender money and make the best out of a bad situation, you have a good shot at your bank or lender saying “yes” to your short sale.

The Realtor you choose should be well versed in the practice of short sales and full of patience; if he or she is not hire someone else as it will not get done.  Don’t loose to much sleep if you’re in this situation, there is help and we can guide you through the process.  Give us a call at The Derrick Monroe Group at 612-282-7653.