Ok, I Get It…A Short Sale May Be My Best Option…Tell Me More… A short sale is when a lender accepts a discount on a mortgage to avoid a possible foreclosure auction or bankruptcy. For example: A homeowner, who is facing foreclosure, has an existing first mortgage of $500,000. The market value of the home is $350,000. Long story short, the lender accepts the offer for $350,000 and the home is sold. That’s a short sale. Why are lenders so eager to take such a huge discount? Banks do not like bad loans. If they see an opportunity where they can sell the property without the huge loss of a foreclosure, they will do it. Some lenders report that if the home goes into foreclosure by the time the home actually closes with the new buyer, the lender will be lucky to net 50% of the original loan balance. Bottom line from the lenders perspective? They are in the business of lending money, not owning homes. If they can accept a short sale offer and rid themselves of the bad loan AND net more, vs the home going into foreclosure, they will do it every time. It’s simply smart business. Time is not on your side when you are considering a short sale. You must act quickly and work only with a real estate expert who has successfully completed and graduated from advanced real estate education programs like Harris Real Estate University. Mortgage foreclosure simply means the deed can only be foreclosed through court action. Mortgage foreclosure is usually referred to as a judicial foreclosure. A mortgage is a security document that allows the borrower to keep title of the property while using the property as security or collateral for a loan. The lender then places a lien on the property in the event the owner does not pay the agreed payment. When the borrower pays off the loan, the lender gives the borrower a satisfaction of mortgage that removes the lien from the property. About half the states in the U.S. use mortgage foreclosure as the means of satisfying the loan balance. As with most mortgage foreclosure lawsuits, it starts with a summons and a complaint is issued to the borrower and any other parties with inferior rights in the property. Usually the lender’s attorney is the one who issues the notice. The complaint is usually filed in the court where the trial is to be held. Here’s the interesting part. Once the borrower has been notified, he or she has 20 days to respond back to the court challenging them on the mortgage foreclosure lawsuit. Once this occurs, the court now has 40 days to respond back to the borrower. Keep in mind that each correspondence must be legit and deal with some specific part of the complaint. This process may go back and forth as long as the borrower finds something erroneous with the complaint. This slows a mortgage foreclosure greatly because it must go through the court system. It may go as long as a year if needs be or even longer. This is how many homeowners stay in their homes for months often years after they have stopped making their house payments. Christine R. Willard, Realtor, Broker, GRI, CRS, RECS, e-Pro, LMC, PME Greater Triad Homes 1-800-234-367 extension 3816 OR want to know more? |