This short sale is contingent upon lender/investor approval
How do I start a Short Sale? Contact your servicer. That’s the company that you pay your mortgage to. Be forewarned. The lenders NEVER want you to do a short sale. The first thing they will try to get you to do is a loan modification. This usually entails them either reducing your monthly payments, or forgiving your delinquent payments by adding them onto the life of the loan. Most of my Short Sale clients that agree to a loan mod, usually end up proceeding with the short sale. If you are looking to buy or sell in the Coachella Valley or have specific questions regarding a potential short sale, give Kim Kelly a call at 760-285-3578.
Your First Steps:
- Contact your servicer: This is the company you send your mortgage payment to.
- Loan Modification or no: They will all try to get you to do a loan mod instead of a short sale. Remember it is their job to collect as much money towards your note as possible.
- Prepare a hardship letter/affidavit and Financial Hardship pkg. Your servicer will send you the forms, or tell you what info they need, and it’s alot of financial. Month to month and yearly payments you make to run your household, savings, college costs if any, car, donations..kind of like the IRS!
- Contact an experienced Short Sale agent: Don’t just get your friend or even a past realtor to try to do your short sale. Use an experienced agent. Our last run of short sales was 208-2011. It is much more organized now as far as the lenders and servicers go, but get an agent that has done short sales!
- List your property and be patient: Remember that you must continue to pay your HOA if there is any, and you must maintain the property. That means utilities, pool and landscape maintenance must be kept up during the short sale process.
The short sale process from initiation to completion can take months. It goes fastest if you, the owner, contact your servicer ahead of listing your property. Submit to them all your financials and hardship letter. Normally once it’s listed, it depends on the servicer how long it must be on the MLS (normally about 15 days) before an offer can be submitted. At that point, a negotiator is assigned and it is entirely your Listing agent who will be communicating with them, so get an experienced agent that follows up!
