The Short Modification negotiation process can be a lengthy one. It may take several weeks or sometimes several months to get an approval. Many Lenders have several layers of bureaucracy, insurers, and investors that we will have to maneuver through in order to get a Short Sale approved. So it is important to be patient during this long process. 

BUT MY HOUSE IS GOING TO FORECLOSURE, WILL I HAVE ENOUGH TIME?

Maybe, maybe not. Just starting a ShortSale will not automatically stop a foreclosure. However, many times we can convince a Lender to stop the foreclosure to let us attempt to negotiate the Short Sale. So, while there are no guarantees, it does not hurt to try. 

CAN I STAY IN THE HOUSE? The key word in “Short Sale” is sale. The purpose of a Short Sale is to get the property sold. So you will be moving. This is not a program that can stop a foreclosure and allow you to keep the house indefinitely. It will be easier to sell the house if it is vacant, so you should make plans to move as soon as possible. 

HOW DO I KNOW THIS WILL WORK? You don’t. We cannot, have not, and will not make any promises to you that this will work. Once you missed a payment, the Lender is in charge and can proceed to foreclosure if they want to. But we know they do not want to and we are very good at presenting alternatives to the Lender that they often want to accept rather than foreclose. We are very good at what we do, but NO PROMISES are being made as to whether or not the Lender will accept a Short Sale – they may or may not. 

WILL I GET ANY MONEY FROM THE SALE? NO. A universal requirement of Lenders in granting a Short Sale is that the borrower will not get any proceeds from the sale of the property. The Lender is going to take a loss on your loan – they are not going let you get any money.

 WHAT HAPPENS IF THIS DOESN’T WORK? Your house will likely go to foreclosure. A Short Sale is something we try after you have exhausted your other options. 

WHAT IS A “RELEASE”: A Lender may offer to “release” its security interest against the property in exchange for less than the total amount of the note. A release will allow the property to be sold without paying off the obligations of the note. However, the note is not satisfied. Advantages: This successful Short Sale will allow the property to be sold and thus avoid a foreclosure.

WHAT IS A “SATISFACTION”: A Lender may agree to accept less than it is owed as complete and

total satisfaction of the note and release its lien against the property. Advantages: Your note and obligation to the Lender are satisfied for less than you owe. When the property is sold, the debt is paid off completely. Disadvantages: You may have some tax consequences that you should discuss with your tax advisor due to the fact that the Lender is making money you owe disappear. Sometimes our negotiations are successful in obtaining a satisfaction. Sometimes all we can get is a release. 

WILL THERE BE TAX CONSEQUENCES? If we are successful in obtaining a full satisfaction, then there will be tax consequences just like winning the lottery, getting a raise, or finding a bag full of money. Essentially a satisfaction of a debt is like finding a bag full of money and you should consult with your tax advisor as to whether or not a successful Short Sale will result in taxes owed. However, we know of very few people who do not want to win the lottery because there may be tax consequences. 

HOW CAN I HELP? The Lender will require a review of a financial package that usually includes: two months’ bank statements, two months’ pay stubs, two years’ IRS tax returns and other information. The leading cause of delay and even denial of our offer to the Lender is caused by the Seller failing to deliver these items in a timely manner. To help us succeed, please find as much of this information as you can right now and complete the attached “Financial Worksheet” – this will help us work faster and increase our success.

More information Here:

How to Stop Foreclosure with Short Sale or a Loan Modification 

Are you wondering how to stop foreclosure with a short sale, or Loan mod? If so, chances are that you are one of the victims of the recent real estate boom and bust and may be in the unenviable position of living in a home you can no longer afford. As interest rates rise and properties devalue, your mortgage payment can skyrocket. The best option is to sell the house for full value and walk away thanking your lucky stars. 
If you aren’t quite as lucky, there are still options that can help you avoid foreclosure. One of which is
the short sale. A short sale simply means that the bank agrees to let you sell the house for less than what remains on the bank note. And though th
is doesn’t mean you won’t be responsible for the
balance, it causes less damage to your credit rating and your life. But before you jump in, it is important to find a company that has high ethical standards and qualified employees.  

Unfortunately, there are some companies who take advantage of someone who is in need of help.  If you are upside down in your mortgage and are considering a short sale, do a bit of research before settling on a representative.  This will save you from the potential of making a difficult situation disastrous.
” says a representa
tive from JILL  BERNI; is  a short sale specialist company that helps stop foreclosure in Sacramentpo, Placer, and El Dorado Counties of California. To help you identify the qualifications of your seller, we have compiled a Top 5 Short Sale Questions list.
Anyone who can’t answer these questions in a satisfactory manner is not someone who deserves your
trust.  START HERE:   1.
 
Do you charge the seller any fees for a short sale? The only answer here is “no”. This question is your first line of defense…anyone who is charging an upfront fee is likely to be unscrupulous.
 2.
 
How are you paid? A logical question if they aren’t charging you a fee. The best answer here is “through a percentage of the sale”. Getting paid via a percentage
 of the sale means that your mortgage broker will work doubly hard to ensure the house sells for the best price. 3.
 
How long have you been working with short sales or foreclosure prevention? If the answer is a short time, this can indicate someone who has recently joined this market in order to make a quick profit. 4.
 
Are you a licensed and bonded mortgage broker? Again, there is only one correct answer here,
“yes”.  In order for you to get the best possible deal, you need to work with someone who has
experience and strong relationships with lenders.  5.
 
Who reviews your contracts? This answer should include the word “lawyers”. They are the only
qualified people to review something as important as a contract. JILL BERNI 916-247-5530   If you are stuck in a house you can’t afford, remember, th
ere are thousands of people just like you.
Don’t let shame or embarrassment keep you from taking steps to prevent foreclosure. Find a solid
company to represent you and move forward.  Short Sale Definition
 So here is your short sale definition - a lender of a property allows the property to be sold for less than the remaining balance on the mortgage loan. It’s as simple as that. But a short sale definition should not stop there. Currently, short sales represent a small segment of mortgage defaults. But that could be changing. Lenders generally don’t view short sales as a good alternative and are clearly not openly advertising that they may consider accepting a short sale. Most lenders focus on loan modifications and work with homeowners in an effort to avoid foreclosure. But in certain struggling markets, the opportunity to complete a short sale is increasing. So how did all this happen? Well there are several issues that contributed to the rise in short sales and hence the expanding short sale definition. After the huge run up in real estate prices that occurred in the recent housing boom, many homeowners were caught off guard when the market slowed. But financial institutions were also caught off guard.

Many lenders issued mortgages with low teaser interest rates to high-risk borrowers without sound underwriting. Many of these borrowers had little or no documentation of their financial capacity to make the mortgage payments and often these loans allowed minimal or no down payment. Accordingly, borrowers had limited equity and few choices when faced with financial hardship or decreasing real estate prices. Years ago subprime borrowers would typically have been denied credit. But the 1980 Depository Institutions Deregulatory and Monetary Control Act eliminated all usury controls on first-lien mortgage rates, permitting lenders to charge higher rates of interest to borrowers who posed elevated credit risk, including those with weaker or less certain credit histories. This change encouraged further development and use of credit scoring and other technologies in the mortgage arena to better gauge risk and enabled lenders to price higher-risk borrowers rather than saying no altogether. Given the greater credit risks, the obvious disadvantages involve elevated rates of foreclosure and of the incidence of households seriously delinquent on their mortgages. The short sale is just a new spin on an old issue – homeowners that are upside down on their mortgages. So how does this impact the real estate market? No one knows for sure, but some estimate that the short sales and foreclosures will do substantial harm to the housing sector, even lead to a recession. Now I imagine that the impact on the real estate market will be far less than that. However, the rise in short sales is still an alarming issue. Remember - when a short sale goes wrong the result is often foreclosure. So maybe the short sale definition needs to be expanded. Any short sale definition should include the fact that foreclosure was avoided. But in the end, this may be of little comfort to the homeowner.

Short Sale Packet Contents

 This document has all the information that we need in order to process your short sale.  Please review and call us if you have any questions.  Fill out the required information, sign where indicated and fax everything to 916-933-4454. 

 Use this as a checklist to make sure everything is included. Items provided by US   

     

Authorization to Release Lending Information – This gives your lender permission to speak to us about your loan.  You need to fill out one for each lender that you have a mortgage with.  Two are provided.  If you have more than two loans, simply print off an additional page and include it with your package.       

Standard Purchase and Sales Agreement – We need to include a Purchase and Sales Agreement to show the lender that we are a serious buyer.  Because we don’t know what price the lender will agree to, we need to leave the purchase price blank.  This will be filled out during negotiations.       

Financial Statement – This shows the lender what you “own” and what you “owe”.  They are interested in seeing your general financial picture in order to approve a Short Sale.  Fill this out to the best of your knowledge, although the numbers don’t have to be exact.       

Short Sale Services Rendered Contract -- You as the home owner will not be charged any fee for our services; rather this comes from the lender and with the lenders approval.       

Seller’s Acknowledgements -- You need to initial all the line items and then a final signature on the bottom of the page.  This document makes very clear our intent to purchase the property, subject to approval of the lender, and that no other agreements have been made between us.  You understand all the terms of our agreement, and are looking forward to our involvement.       

Repairs Needed/Problems with House – List all the negatives about the house to increase our chances of a successful short sale. 

Items provided by YOU In addition to the attached paperwork, your lender(s) will require some financial documents from you. The documents that they will require are the same ones that you submitted when you applied for your loan.  It is very important that you gather every item.

For anything that you cannot find, please include a brief note explaining why you do not have the item, and sign at the bottom.          

Two most recent pay stubs       

Two most recent bank statements       

Two years most recent tax returns (First two pages of 1040)       

Copies of your most recent mortgage statement(s)        Hardship Letter - The hardship letter explains, in your own words, why you’ve missed your mortgage payments and why you’re unable to make them now.  It’s also a plea to the bank to accept the short sale as this may be your only hope for avoiding a foreclosure.  Please be truthful and understand that a sob story is a GOOD thing, especially if it was circumstances beyond your control, such as injury, illness, job loss etc. Be sure to sign the letter at the bottom. 

Unless other arrangements are made, please fax your documents to 916-933-4454. or

Call our 24Hr Short Sale hotline 24/7 for a detailed message:1  866 866 6662 x5555

 SHORT SALE PACKAGE CHECKLIST

Sales Contract or Deed: An interest in the property is needed. A Sales Contract executed by the “Buyer”, the

Seller, and the Realtor, if any, with terms as we may require is preferable as we will not have to lay out any funds

while we are working on the short sale. A deed may be needed if we are in competition with another Investor or

circumstances dictate taking possession of the property immediately.

Short Sale Offer Letter or Proposal Letter: This is the introductory letter that you send along with your package

outlining the deal and proposed transaction to the lender. Each lender would receive their own proposal. The

proposal should encompass all of the reasons why the bank should entertain and subsequently accept your short

sale proposal.

Coordinate and Influence the BPO: In our business we have learned how critical it is that we "influence" the BPO.

The lender will hire an appraiser or unfortunately sometimes a realtor to go to the house and determine the value of

that property. Make sure you are the contact person who meets them at the house and lets them in. Moreimportantly, make sure you have with you some low comparables ("comps"). It's your job to influence the

lender's value towards the lowest comparables possible.

HUD Statement Draft: The HUD-1 Net Sheet shows how the money is to be dispersed at closing. The lender looks

for immediately recognizable and usually unacceptable red flags, such as: excessive commissions in this

transaction, any cash going to seller...etc. Make sure you understand how the HUD is supposed to be prepared.

The Financial Statement (of the borrower/seller): Most lenders have their own paperwork If so, get this from the

lender. They may insist on having it sent to the borrower directly. If the Borrower / Homeowner have left town and no

financial statement is forthcoming, then make sure it is stated in the package and can be verified.

Hardship Letter: My favorite part of the proposal...the Hardship Letter should explain how the seller got into

financial trouble and must convey the basic message that the seller can't make payments AND does not foresee any

way in the foreseeable future that they will ever again be able to make any payments. In this step of the short sale

process, the "worse" the situation seems for the seller, the "better" it tends to work for us!

Paycheck Stubs: This is often required. Hopefully the Seller is unemployed or indisposed or some other calamity

and then we can tell the Lender that they do not have any paystubs!

Bank Statements: See above...this is also not often required. Many times if these are hard to get, I'll would tell the

Lender that the Borrower was bouncing checks and stuff and the bank closed the account and their credit is so poor

no other bank wouldn't open an account for them.

Broker Listing Agreement:This is being required more and more. If it is not listed it must be listed as the bank

wants to know there has at minimum been an offer to sell this.

Credit Report: We do not need to but I would like it...if the credit report shows that the Seller is not paying anybody

and is a candidate for bankruptcy, this could make the bank move faster as well.

Authorization to Release: The initial document we need. If we do not get this signed we can not speak to the bank

at all.

Photos & Repair Estimate: If the property is in need of repairs this will also influence the bank as well. In supplying

the repair estimate we will support the estimate with pictures and we need to use general contractor estimates &

repair prices that the normal homeowner would pay for these items...not necessarily our costs.

Executed and filled in Bill of Sale (if necessary): If we are going to give the Seller any cash...we have to use thisform. A Seller CAN NOT RECEIVE any of the proceeds resulting from a short sale. And the HUD has to reflect this.

So that means we buy some books from him or better yet hire the Seller as a consultant on the property or buy

something like a piece of art from him..whatever it is it can not be tied to the disbursement at the closing.

Copies of any other Liens on the Property (IRS / City / State): if we find any violations or liens or anything it really

helps us beat up on the bank. The bank does not want to take back properties...especially those with problems with

liens and violations.

Buyer's Approval from lender/proof of funds if cash deal:

sometimes the bank wants to know the Buyer has thefunds to close. Makes their acceptance process move much quicker. Since usually all short sale deals are CASH..nofinancing...they want to know that the Buyer can close and has a track record...both of which we want our buyer to have. a Plan !