Typically, homeowners that are no longer able to continue paying their mortgage are going through some kind of hardship such as job loss, decrease in pay or hours, health issues, divorce, death, mortgage payment adjustment, and even incarceration. Oftentimes, however, there are reasons that people must sell their homes when there is no hardship. These include job transfer, military deployment, etc. And, in most cases, for all of the reasons mentioned above lenders have been very accommodating to those who want to sell.
However, now more than ever we get contacted by sellers that want to Short Sale their house but they don’t fall into either category mentioned above. They can afford to keep making their payments but they hate the idea of paying on a mortgage with a principal balance that is a lot more than their property is worth. These sellers just want to get out of a bad investment and get on with their lives.
The truth is that it’s hard to say whether the lender will approve a short sale for a homeowner that has no hardship. Some lenders are more flexible in that respect than others.
It’s important to be aware that many short-sale lenders are controlled by the guidelines of the investors that own your loan. So, while a loan may be serviced by Wells Fargo, the loan is actually owned by another entity. It is that other entity that decides on accepting or declining your short sale. Most investors do require that the sellers have missed mortgage payments, and others do not.
Unfortunately, you just don’t know how things will play out until you start the short sale process with the lender. Only after you get the ball rolling with the short sale will you know what the lender will require from you.
If you’re current on your mortgage but would like to short sale your Orlando property because it owes more money than it’s worth, come in and see us. One of our Orlando short sale experts will give you a free “seller’s situation analysis” so that you can find out what your options are and move forward with the knowledge that you need to make the right decision.
