A short sale does not mean that it takes less time to close, it means that the seller does not have enough money to cover the mortgage when the house sells at market price. The market price is based on what other the houses in the neighborhood or similar homes have sold for. It doesn’t matter what the owner paid for it, it doesn’t matter what they have put into it, the market activity around the home at a particular point in time is most important. Remember, it has to appraise for the value or the buyer can’t get a loan.


We had a call today from someone that wants to sell his condo and he knows that it will be a short sale. We expressed our sympathy and tried to get an idea of why he needed to sell his home. He said that it just didn’t make sense anymore to keep it because he and his wife were going their separate ways. We explained that he needed to put together his hardship letter, his bank statements for 6 months, his tax returns for two years, his pay stubs for two months and then we would have to submit a purchase and sale agreement from a buyer and a competitive market analysis for the area justifying the purchase price.


His only question was about the hardship letter. We explained that he needed to justify to the bank why he couldn’t continue to pay the mortgage or why he had to sell at this time. To our surprise, he said that he could continue to pay the mortgage but that didn’t really want to, he just wanted to move on. We explained that he really needed a reason for the bank to have some sympathy for him. Once again we were surprised. He thought that the bank should take what he could sell it for and be happy because their alternative to the sale was foreclosure. He wanted to think about what he might do.


We have helped both buyer and sellers with short sales. Short sales aren’t easy, but in order to have a successful negotiation, you need to have a good reason.