How to Do a Mortgage Short Sale

A short sale allows you to arrange with the mortgage company to sell your home for less than the amount of your mortgage. This step by step guide will walk you through the process of a short sale on your home.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Contact a Realtor to get a review of the market for similar homes in your area.

2. Contact your present mortgage company and request short sale paperwork. You will need to find out at this time if they accept short sales.

3. List your home with a Realtor. If you already have an interested buyer you can bypass this step in the process.

4. Wait until you have received at least one offer on the home before moving on to the next step.

5. Complete short sale paperwork and return it to the mortgage company for review. Short sale paperwork generally requires information regarding how much interested buyers would pay and information about the home listing with the Realtor, such as MLS number.

6. Wait for the mortgage company to review and approve the submitted paperwork.

7. If short sale paperwork is approved by the mortgage company, contact the Realtor the home is listed with and have them process the sale of the home.

Tips & Warnings

• Initially request a “Short Sale without Recourse.” This allows you to pay off less than the amount owed without the mortgage company suing you for the difference in price. If you do not get a “Short Sale without Recourse” you will still owe your mortgage company the difference between the sale price and your payoff amount.
• Not all mortgage companies will accept short sales or short sales without recourse.

[waytoshortsale]

on 3/25/2009 check out www.WayToShortSale.com. They've written a great guide to the short sale process, written for the average homeowner (not in jargon for real estate pros and industry insiders). It's got lots of practical tips that go beyond what your realtor will tell you.