New Tampa Short Sale Myths

This is a list of the most common misunderstandings I’ve run into with short sales:

1.  Short Sales are difficult and rarely get approved.  This is simply not true.  They are more involved than a regular sale, but they aren’t that difficult, especially for the Seller.  It is the Realtor and Title company that have the additional follow up duties.  The homeowner has to complete an initial package including a hardship letter, tax returns, bank statements, paystubs, and a simple financial worksheet and authorization letter but that’s a small amount of work for getting a huge amount of debt off your plate!

2.  You have to be behind on your payments before your lender will consider a short sale.  When short sales first began to gain momentum, this was true.  However, I work with several lenders who actually encourage short sales and solicit their at risk customers trying to get them to do a short sale even if they aren’t late on payments!  The truth is, most lenders would much rather sell short than foreclose.

3.  Buyers are not interested in short sales.  This may have been the case a couple of years ago, but in my area (New Tampa) it seems like at least half of the properties for sale are short sales.  Homes that aren’t short sales are many times overpriced and can’t compete with the fire-sale prices of short sales.  Homes that have been foreclosed on and are bank-owned often have bidding wars and end up selling for more than they’re listed for.

4.  Listing your home as a short sale is embarrassing.  Are you kidding me?  Every other home for sale is a short sale.  The market dropped and our economy is in terrible shape right now.  There’s nothing embarrassing about working with your lender to sell a home that is worth less than you paid for it.  Now foreclosure on the other hand……there are public notices posted, you are served with court papers by the Sheriff, and eventually you are evicted if you don’t leave first.  THAT might be embarrassing, but a short sale is not.  There’s nothing embarrassing about taking action!

5.  I’ve already been served with a Lis Pendins, it’s too late to do a short sale.  The foreclosure process is anything but quick and most banks will put the foreclosure sale on hold once a complete short sale package is submitted.  A complete package must include a legitimate offer that is backed up by a preapproval letter or proof of the buyers funds.  I’ve been able to stop sales that were only a few days from being sold at the courthouse!  Banks DO NOT want your house back.  They don’t want the holding costs, additional fees and court costs, maintenance fees, etc. 

6.  I can only do a short sale on my main residence, not investment properties.  Investment properties can be sold short just like a primary residence.  The difference is that with a primary residence you will not have to pay taxes on the amount written off and with an investment property you might have to.  This depends on if you are considered “insolvent” or not.  Insolvency is when your total debt is higher than the total amount of your assets.  The IRS website has a worksheet you can fill out to see if you can be considered insolvent.

7.  It’s very difficult to do a short sale if there are 2 mortgages on the property.  It seems like banks have really gotten better with this in the last year or so.  Second mortgage holders usually get between $1-3k and leave it at that.  If the home is foreclosed on they will get NOTHING and sometimes we have to remind them of that during negotiations, but for the most part the lenders I’ve worked with have accepted an amount of $3,000 or less and approved the short sale.  One client I worked with had a second mortgage of $50,000 with Suntrust and the negotiator demanded that they sign a promissory note for $30,000 initially but ended up taking $2,000

8.  Any Realtor can help me with a short sale.  With a short sale it is extremely important to find an experienced Realtor.  More than with any other sale, a Realtor in a short sale can make or break the deal.  The Realtor has to be organized and submit the package to the lender.  He/she has to consistently follow up on the file and make sure nothing is overlooked.  Sometimes the foreclosure department doesn’t communicate with the short sale department at the bank so the Realtor must keep checking the public records to make sure the bank hasn’t accidentally set a sale date while reviewing the short sale package.  The Realtor can also have influence over the BPO (brokers price opinion) which is sort of like a mini-appraisal.  Of course it’s unethical to try to persuade the person doing the BPO to  make the home appraise at a certain price, but there is nothing wrong with letting them know what your offer is for and how you came to that number and show any comps that support it.

 

New Tampa is filled with short sales in Tampa Palms, Hunter’s Green, Arbor Greene, Cory Lake Isles, Heritage Isles, Cross Creek, Live Oak Preserve, Grand Hampton, Northwood, Meadow Pointe, Seven Oaks, the Hammocks, and more.  With lenders including Suntrust, Bank of America, Option One, Wells Fargo, Wachovia, BBT, EMC, and others.  Short sales are here to stay for at least a few more years.  Hopefully they will become shorter and shorter and fewer and further between, but for now they’re part of life.