Short Sale Resources for Homeowners

A short sale may still affect your credit rating
A short sale may still affect your credit rating, but if you could come out of it with the debt cleared (or ‘forgiven’), you could have a fresh start. If your lender ‘forgives’ you then a 1099 must be issued so that the amount of the excused debt is documented for you, the seller, to declare to the IRS at tax time.

When mortgage rates increase in the same time frame that housing values decrease and world food and gas prices increase, it makes it impossible to live on the originally planned budget. If the only answer is to sell your home, you should be aware that a short sale is different to selling your home under normal conditions.

Usually, the lender may not even know that your home is on the market until your lawyer pays off the mortgage. However, with a short sale, the lender must be in on it from the beginning. There is also more paperwork for you to take care of with a short sale.

For instance, you must give permission, in writing, for the lender/bank to communicate with your real estate agent. An even more complex task is to document all the reasons why you cannot pay the amount that you owe. This is called ‘proving hardship’ and attached to your letter of explanation will be bank statements, credit card bills, W-2s and any other proofs of inability to pay.

This hardship statement does not absolve a home owner from responsibility for the debt owing - but it may. The attorney or title company that will be handling the paperwork for you can make the approach to your lender for ‘forgiveness’. Lenders do not wish to accumulate a mass of homes; they are in the money business. If the short sale route is accepted by your lender, it will save him time and money over the other alternative he has: a foreclosure on the loan.