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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What You Should Know About Short Sale

By Don Burnham

When a Trustor can no longer pay a loan in full, what often follows is foreclosure or even bankruptcy. This is a very depressing financial situation, but it can be solved with a little known alternative: the short sale.

Short sale is usually the last step taken by the bank to recover losses from a defaulted mortgagor. When lenders agree to a short sale, it means the lender agrees to accept less than the total amount due. They are willing to forgive a certain amount of debt or deficiency. However, not all lenders will accept a short sale or discounted payoffs, especially if it would make more financial sense to foreclose.

A local real estate attorney should be consulted to determine whether the loan qualifies for a deficiency judgment or claim, as state laws vary. One should also consult an accountant to determine tax ramifications. The IRS may consider debt forgiveness as income. There is no guarantee that the lender will not legally pursuer a borrower for the difference between the amounts owed and the amount paid. This depends on individual state laws.

To pursue a short sale, consult your real estate attorney if your case is eligible -certain state laws only allow specific values for a loan to qualify for a deficiency judgment in a short sale. Also, consult an accountant, the IRS may consider the unpaid debts as income, affecting your tax records. Also, the borrower is not guaranteed that the lender will not pursue them for the remaining debts beyond the debt already forgiven -an especially good reason to consult your attorney.

It's hard to guess how long securing a short sale will take, but it's sure to be long, tedious, and tiring. Lenders usually say about 21 days or so for a case to be completely approved.

Short Sale Strategy Overview

How the Short Sale works:

The process is quite simple to understand, it starts with the contract, then the authorization to release, and lastly the addendum. The warranty deed is also part of this whole process. What are really important to grasp in the process is the first two documents:

Contract: This can look like anything and can span from just a page to an entire mini book -it all depends on what it contains and how it's laid out. Just think of a generic contract, it can be really simple or really sophisticated. The addendum should be referred to, at any time the price is mentioned in the contract.

The basic document that contains nearly all vital info on conducting the transaction is contained in the addendum:

Info on the origin of the contract for short sale

Date

Names of the parties involved

Address

It's better if both the simple address and the legal address are listed to avoid confusion.

Any investor, that is, the lenders, should know that in the foreclosure process, there is the opportunity to acquire bargain property -certainly a valid reason to agree to short sale. - 23221

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