Able to leap tall buildings in a single (OK, maybe two) bounds, the professionals at RealEstate$uperMarkets.com are quite knowledgeable about many aspects of real estate, including short sales.

Picture this. A homeowner is experiencing a hardship that prevents them from making payments on time or at all AND are upside down on their home, meaning they owe more than the property’s worth. Though there are other, perhaps less painful alternatives in the short run, like not answering their phones and using lender notices as kindling, they strive for grace and would rather not face the sheriff at their door at some point in the future. In comes the (drum roll, please!) Short Sale.

Usually coordinated by a licensed real estate broker/agent, the short sale is a lengthy process that is everything but short and which starts with a detailed analysis of the homeowner’s finances – income, debt, assets and other key data are mercilessly scrutinized by the lender’s loss mitigation department, whose mission is singular – protect the lender’s assets. Armed with detailed knowledge of your hardship (and an authorization letter signed by you), your chosen real estate professional will then engage the lender on a professional level, providing comparables, repair estimates, and other relevant facts to help the lender understand your position, and theirs.

Another key factor is the home’s value, which is usually determined by at least one Broker’s Price Opinion, many times two. Yes, it’s those creepy people in dark sunglasses and field hats taking pictures of the home when no one’s supposed to be home then stealing off with their digital cameras into the sunset to crunch numbers provided to the lender. Trust us, we know.

In the meantime, your real estate professional will put your home on the market, hoping to attract a ready, willing and able buyer who will submit as low ball an offer as they can, maybe because they watch too many late-night TV commercials, but could also be that market conditions have affected your home’s value…yes, that much.

In a happy ending (three to six months later?), the lender will offer an acceptable price they’ll settle for and the seller accepts a prospective buyer’s offer that meets that criteria. Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets for the seller, who has to walk away from the property with nothing, as it is usually (always) not in the lender’s interest, no pun intended.

But all is not lost. The seller maintains their dignity (and the mean, evil sheriff at bay), avoided a foreclosure on their record which is a SIGNIFICANT blow to their already hemorrhaging  credit score, AND they get to start over (sooner) when the dust clears. But wait, there’s more! Yet, with Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 expiring in 2013,  that homeowner may have to add insult to injury by owing taxes on the difference between what the lender settled for and what is actually owed on the property.

Are you a homeowner in distress? Do you know of one? Download or tell them about our Short Sale Package in Short Sale Package – MS Word © or  Short Sale Package – PDF format and get on the road to recovery today!

Thanks for reading.