Lenders

Discover Why Short Sales Are Becoming Popular Choice To Stop Foreclosure

Homeowners who are facing foreclosure will use the short sale method to stop it from occurring and ruining their credit entirely. This especially true of homeowners where interest rates on their loans skyrocket, either doubling and/or tripling their house payment with them unable to afford the home any longer. Real estate investors also like short sales because of the deep discounts they receive from them.

Sellers will negotiate a short sale with their lender, who may require the seller to explain why they are unable to make the normal monthly payments. Not too long ago, home foreclosures rose because the 2004-2005 adjustable rate mortgages that were written were resetting. The problem with short sales is that they are complicated and are likely to stay complicated with lenders having to deal with them. Those homeowners who used the equity in their home while the real estate prices were inflated are now feeling the pain.

How Lenders Work In Short Sales

Lenders understand that home repossession is costly; after all, they have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to deal with the home including the maintenance, refurbishing, marketing and selling the home. The only issue is that there are no guarantees that they’ll be able to recoup their losses, not like they can from a short sale.

Lenders want physical proof that the homeowner is unable to pay their monthly bills and actually needs relief from the home payment. Homeowners and lenders see short sales as the last resort before the foreclosure or bankruptcy processes.

While lenders don’t want to hold onto problem properties, they certainly don’t want to lose the home for very low prices.

How Sellers See Short Sales

What seller wouldn’t want to get the most out of their house? They certainly don’t desire to sell their home for a lot less than the home’s market value or less than what they initially purchased it for. This situation could turn dire if an unforeseen event takes place that generates a financial hardship for the homeowner. For instance, they lost a job, are diagnosed with long-term illness or have a sudden rise in living expenses. These are just three of the reasons that homeowners see themselves in a cash-strapped situation.

Some sellers are lucky enough to convince the lender to do a short sale as the best way to handle the problem but there is a downside they must understand. That is… some lenders may claim the forgiven debt as a loss on the company’s taxes and give the seller a 1099 form for that amount.

A Look At Foreclosures

Remember that in 2004-2005, there were millions of loans written for adjustable rate mortgages, many of them resetting in 2007,2008 & 2009. As a direct result, short sales also rose. Lenders have differing views on how to handle foreclosures and short sales workouts.

More and more short sales are taking place and anybody who has completed short sales understands, it’s rough ride for the sellers who are already feeling topsy turvy. However, if you understand what short sales are all about, you can opt to go this route to avoid foreclosure.

About The Author:

EJ Harris is one Managing Partners at Community HomeSolver, which is a home buying company for “Sell House”.  Harris has many interesting articles written on this very topic. People expect to find all kinds of interesting data when they are trying to find out how to sell their home or sell their house. Yet, it’s not always what they are searching for even when they type in “How To Sell Your Home”, “Privately Sell Your Home” or “Sell Homes Online”.  You may not get everything you want from this article but you’ll be surprised by what you do learn about “Sell House”, “Sale Home” even if you made a mistake in spelling while searching for a particular topic such as “hpw to sale your hom fast” or “seling yur home quicly”.

Community HomeSolvers buy homes and houses in and around areas of Williamsburg, VA. We Buy Houses in Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Chesapeake! We are also now seeking homes in and around Richmond, Henrico, Chester, Chesterfield,  Highland Springs, Colonial Heights

Lenders

Act Now To Stop Foreclosure And Save Your Home

The biggest mistake you can commit when you fall behind on your mortgage payments is to wait too long to tell your lender what is going on. It’s never too late to do anything but to prevent foreclosure, it is better to be proactive than reactive.

Acting fast is very important. It is extremely important to contact your lender as early as possible, after you find yourself unable to make your loan payments. Most of the major lenders have programs for mortgage modification, forbearance, or other remedies that can help you prevent foreclosure. More than half the people who go into foreclosure never respond to letters from the lenders, nor contact the lenders. Your options become limited as time passes by. Contact your lender immediately and tell the lender about your situation. Once you contact your lender, they can allow payment delays, mortgage modification, and come up with new repayment plans, or they may negotiate a lump-sum payment.

When it comes to preventing foreclosure, every minute counts. Early contact – within the first 15 days of missing a payment – is critical in saving homeowners from the devastation of foreclosure. More than half of those in foreclosure did not call for help when they fell behind in their mortgage payments. Do not hesitate to contact you lender. There is nothing to fear about or be embarrassed.

You can get emotional or fear contacting the lender when you face foreclosure. But you must contact the lender. You are not alone. There is nothing to be embarrassed about missing a mortgage payment.

Remember your loan servicer – who you get your monthly statements from may be different from the one who actually owns your loan. If you are not sure whom to contact, call the number on the statement and they will advise you.

Explain your situation to the lender. Once the lender appreciates the situation, he may come up with a workable suggestion. Remember, all this time his aim would be the same as yours – you are able to pay and the house remains in your hands. This can be done by increasing the number of installments which you were required to pay. This will ease the situation for your and lender’s money also remains the same. In fact, as a simple calculation may tell, the lender gains financially. Depending on your situation and the status of your mortgage, there may be different options available to you including

• restructuring

• refinancing

• selling your home

• deed in lieu of foreclosure

Be honest about your situation, so they can help you find the right solution. Lenders usually offer a variety of solutions for people who have fallen behind on their mortgages including temporarily reducing or waiving payments, setting up short-term repayment plans to help you make up the deficit, adding the unpaid balance to the principal of your loan and increasing your payments slightly to cover the extra amount, refinancing the debt, arranging a repayment plan or modifying the loan by adjusting the interest rate or extending the terms to make it more affordable. These options are discussed in detail in the following chapters.

However, if your situation is really bad, the lender may even agree to make other concessions. For example, the lender may be willing take less money in settlement of your dues. Once the lender realizes that the situation of the borrower has become very unviable, it is time for the lender to retrieve whatever possible from a potentially bad situation.

If the lender feels that the only way of saving the situation is to reduce the financial burden on the homeowner, the lender may also agree to reduce the interest.

The lenders have even been known to reduce the principal. It all depends on what sort situation the borrower finds himself in. It goes without saying that the lender will not be happy to do this, but then again, he has to reassess the circumstances and then decide.

 If you cannot keep your home, your lender can work with you to avoid foreclosure and reduce the negative effect on your credit reputation. For example, the lender can permit a qualified buyer to take over your mortgage debt and pay the mortgage payments, even if the mortgage is non-assumable. As a result, you may be able to sell your property and avoid foreclosure.

Don’t just sign your home away and walk out. Negotiate. Whatever be your situation, never ever enter into any deal without consulting an attorney. Never make an impulse decision. Your instincts will drive you to make quick decisions in order to resolve defaults as soon as possible. Before taking any decision, weigh the pros and cons.