First, the disclaimer:
This information is not to be considered legal or tax advice. For tax or legal advice please contact licensed professionals. All information given here should be discussed with your legal and tax professional before deciding to do a Short Sale yourself.

What is a Short Sale?

If more is owed on a home than what it would sell for if you put it on the market today, then the home is said to be upside down or… Short. This means; if the home was sold it would not sell high enough to pay off the existing mortgages along with all the related fees associated with selling a house like title, escrow, real estate fees, termite work, etc.

When a home is short to close escrow the owner has four options:

1. Don’t sell the house (in this scenario the owner would keep living there and just continue paying the mortgage).
2. The owner could write a check to cover the difference…or shortage.
3. The owner could et the home go into foreclosure
4. The owner could do a Short Sale

If a home owner needs to sell the house but can’t afford to pay the difference and wants to avoid Foreclosure, then the only real option is a Short Sale.

The benefits of a Short Sale

Benefit #1 When you Short Sale a home there is Zero Cost. Unlike a traditional real estate sale the Short Sale usually costs the home owner nothing. The real estate sales commissions, Title Fees, Escrow, Termite and other costs of sale are usually ALL paid…by the bank.

Benefit #2 A Short Sale gives a home owner the ability to negotiate their exit strategy from the home. This is critical because in a Foreclosure a home seller will always get the worst deal from the bank and the highest chance that the negative impacts of the Foreclosure could follow you and affect you for a very long time.  In all of our negotiations with the banks for our Short Sale clients we are negotiating not only to get the banks to approve the Short Sale, but to relieve the home owner of all future liability or consequences for the loans. When we are done with a Short Sale we want our clients to be able to walk away and never have to worry about this home or the loans again. 

There are basically two kinds of loans…Recourse and Non Recourse. This is more of a legal question so be sure to ask an attorney which kind you have but typically a recourse loan is one that is not the original loan that a property was purchased with. A recourse loan is typically a refinanced loan or an Equity Line that has been used. A recourse loan is one that a home seller could be responsible for later if the bank does not sign off that the loan has been “Paid Settled In Full”. This (or something similar) is the magic statement that can…usually… keep the banks from later coming after a home seller for the difference of what the house sells for and what is owed. This is our number one goal in our Short Sale negotiations with the bank.  Check with your attorney for more information about whether you have a recourse loan or not and what the legal ramifications are. Our attorneys tell us that most investment properties (those that are not a personal residence) are typically considered recourse loans.

On the other hand, if you own a home and have the original loan that you purchased the property with… typically this is considered a non-recourse loan. Check with your attorney to be sure but usually, if there is a difference between what is owed and what the house sells for, the bank will not be able to come after a home seller for the deficient amount.

Benefit #3 of a Short Sale. The Short Sale allows a home owner to get out from under a high balance loan.  If a home owner owes $800,000 on a home that is only worth $450,000 then a Short Sale could remove that debt allowing them to get a fresh start.

Benefit  # 4 A Short Sale may allow a home owner to stay in their house without making payments for an extended period of time.  Short Sale negotiations can take a few weeks or a few months. We are not a liberty to ever recommend that a home owner stop making payments and they may not have to for the bank to approve a Short Sale but in general most of our Short Sale clients have already stopped making their house payments and for them the Short Sale is an opportunity to catch up on payments or relieve some of the financial pressure that they have been under.

Benefit # 5 A Short Sale may be less damaging on a credit report than a Foreclosure.

A Short Sale is not good on a credit report, that’s for sure and most people will end up with late payments on their mortgage, these are also negative marks on a credit report but there is a lot of talk that Short Sales may not be as bad as a Foreclosure on a credit report. We do refer our clients to a company that specializes in getting Short Sales to show up as unreported on a credit report so they will not affect your credit report. The company has about a 75% success rate and they charge about $1000 to take care of a Short Sale. We will be happy to refer them to anyone who needs it.

Benefit # 6. A Short Sale allows a home owner to avoid Foreclosure. The Foreclosure is not a pleasant thing to go through for anyone and should almost always be the last resort. The Short Sale gives a home owner some control of the process and the ability to work with the bank instead of against it. A Short Sale is almost always a better option than Foreclosure.

Commonly Asked Questions:

What are the taxable consequences of a Short Sale?

We are not CPA’s so you should talk to your CPA for accurate and up-to-date information about the possible taxable consequences of a Short Sale or Foreclosure. Generally what we have found with our other clients is that the deficient amount could be taxable at the Capital Gains rate which is 24% of the deficient amount. 15% for Federal and 9% for State. This means if you sell a house for $500,000 but owe $600,000 then there could be a tax bill of $24,000 or 24% of the $100,000 deficiency. There are methods that our clients have used successfully to avoid the taxable consequence of the Short Sale or Foreclosure and we always give that information to our clients for review with their CPAs to find out if they will work for them as well.

Can a home seller get money out of the house if they do a Short Sale?

By its very definition a Short Sale is “Short” to close. This means that there is no money left over after the house is sold and the bank will be taking a Short Payoff on what is owed to them. In fact, in a Short Sale banks will have a home seller sign a paper affirming that they will receive no money from the transaction. In most Short Sales the home owners live in the home for several months without making their payments and it’s possible that the banks feel this is compensation enough.

However, if a home fits a very specific set of criteria there is a possibility that a home could be turned from a short sale to an equity sale and it may be possible to get paid from the transaction. To qualify for this program a home must typically be very delinquent, there must be two or more loans on the property, and some other criteria must be met. If your home fits this criteria let us know and we can refer you to someone who specializes in this type of transaction.

Does a home owner have to go through the normal process of selling of the house?

A Short Sale is a normal sale except that we will need to negotiate with the bank to accept a lower payoff than what is currently owed on the house. Typically you will need to go through the normal marketing process to sell the house. However, our company, The Real Estate Xperts have developed a unique home selling method called the One Day Home Selling System that will sell the house in only One Day and still get Top Dollar. This allows you to sell the house at current market value but only have the home open for One Day. This is a great way to sell any house because your life is only interrupted for prospective home buyers on One Day.

It may still take several months for us to negotiate an acceptance from the bank but your home will only need to be open to home buyers for One Day. See our One Day Home Selling System for more information.

How long can a home owner stay in the house?

A Short Sale can take weeks to get approved or months and months and months. It really all depends on your bank(s) and how backed up they are.

Who pays for the costs of selling the house?

We negotiate with the bank to pay all the costs of selling the house. Regardless of what they pay us, we will never ask you to pay a dime to sell your house. The bank will normally pay for the real estate fees, termite work, title, escrow and all other costs associated with selling the house.

Who does the negotiating?

You can negotiate your own short sale with your banks if you like. However, because there is no cost to do a Short Sale and usually no financial benefit to negotiate it yourself it is normally best to hire a group of professionals who is familiar with the bank negotiation process. You can hire our company or another highly skilled group to negotiate your Short Sale for you.

Who pays for the negotiator?

The bank will ultimately pay all the fees. If they do not pay, or if you decide not to sell, there will never be a cost to you for our time and efforts.

Does the bank have to accept a Short Sale?

No. that is what the negotiation process is for. A Short Sale, in most cases, is a better deal for the bank than letting the house go to Foreclosure. The value of a home will be about the same whether the house goes to Foreclosure or is sold as a Short Sale. The banks know that it will sell for the same price or lower at Foreclosure so it is almost always better for the bank to accept the Short Sale than to take it to Foreclosure.

Are we working for the bank?

No. We work for seller, the buyer and their real estate agent to get the Short Sale approved by the bank. We definitely do not work for the bank. In fact we are more of a filter between the seller and the bank, showing and telling the bank only what they need to see. If a home seller says one wrong thing or submits one wrong piece of information to the bank it can destroy the Short Sale and throw a house back into the Foreclosure process.

What will a home seller need to do or gather to do a Short Sale?

Normally a home seller will need to gather tax returns for two years, W2s or profit and loss statements if they own a business, bank statements and also write a letter explaining what the hardship is and why a Short Sale is needed. We will help you put together all of these.

What happens after the Short Sale?

After the house is sold a home seller should count on renting for a few years. Fortunately rents have dropped and there are more vacancies so owners and managers are much more flexible these days than they were in the past.

If you have stopped making the house payments it would be a good idea to put away as much as you can for an additional security deposit if required because of a Short Sale or missed house payments on your credit report.

One piece of good news is that if the market continues to slide, by the time you are ready to purchase another home you may be able to buy a home like yours for half the price that it will sell for now and allow you to begin building equity immediately instead of waiting for the market to turn around. The last time there was a market crash in 1992 it took almost ten years for the housing market to rebound. The Short Sale may actually put you ahead of the curve. 

How do you get more information?

Click Request More Information or call our office if you have more questions or would like to talk to us directly about the possibility of Short Selling a house

Thank you for reading, we hope this information was helpful.

If you would like more information about doing a Short Sale you can click the link below or call our office direct 714-451-6752.

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