Cape Coral short sales are still abundant in and around Cape Coral, Florida. Our broker, Susan Milner has been personally handling short sales in SW Florida since the end of 2006. Anyone in our area who claims to have been handling them prior to that time frame is full of it. Why? Well because in the early 2000s everything was appreciating at such a fast rate that no one needed a short sale. We did however experience a similar bust in both the early 80s and early 90s ~ see a pattern?
So back to the point of this article. We receive at least one call or email a day from someone who is considering selling their house ‘short’. Most have already being doing quite a bit of research on the subject. Whether they have just been reading various articles online or if they’ve checked with friends or maybe even spoke with a professional like their accountant and attorney they’ve done something. But we all too often find them with misinformation. That is very unfortunate. Some common misconceptions we often hear are 1) The bank won’t approve a short sale because I am not behind on my mortgage 2) The bank won’t do a short sale because the loss is too great (ex. I owe $800,000 and the house is only worth $400,000) 3) The bank won’t do a short sale because this was/is now an investment property 4) The bank won’t do a short sale because…..fill in the blanks to 5) It is better to do a deed in lieu or just let it foreclose, etc.
While everyone’s specific situation IS different and unique to THEM, in *most* cases it makes more sense for someone to do a short sale vs a deed in lieu or foreclosing. Florida is a recourse state. This means that a lender can, and most likely will, come after the borrower for the difference. If you just bury your head in the sand while your house goes into foreclosure you will have to worry about that judgment sneaking up on you. According to attorneys we’ve communicated with, these banks have up to 5 years to decide to file against you. From there they can keep renewing the judgement for up to 20 years! AH! Do you really want to worry about that for the next 20 years of your life?
When we negotiate a short sale we always attempt to get a FULL Release and FULL Satisfaction of mortgage which means the bank is waiving their right to seek a deficiency judgment against the borrower/seller. Most of the time we are able to get this but sometimes we are not. At some times the banks will agree to a short sale but are unwilling to provide a satisfaction of mortgage. This means that they still have the right to come after the seller/borrower for the difference. In these cases we make sure the sellers/borrower gets in touch with an attorney and discusses this with them. Usually they go ahead with it at least knowing now what the property is selling for and selling it sooner than later (it can take much more time for a foreclosure to go through and the bank will tack on many more expenses too) to avoid owing even more to their lender later. Sometimes these individuals have other liabilities too (like credit cards, other loans, etc) and are planning a bankruptcy in the future. Their attorney may be able to add that pending judgment into the bankruptcy for them. Again, everyone’s situation is unique and there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution.
If you qualify for a HAFA Short Sale you will not be held responsible for the forgiven amount. Many lenders are now on board with HAFA’s program but there are certain criteria that you must meet to qualify.
We’ve completed MANY short sales in the past few years. Some the sellers have not been late on their mortgage, many of the sellers have owed 2-3 times the value of the property, most have received full release and satisfactions at closing and a few have had to sign promissory notes and/or contribute some cash at closing (typically only requested of someone who actually has assets of some sort).
While we cannot know what your lender will say (every file is different – even with the same seller and same lender on different properties we’ve gotten different responses) but we can give you a great shot at a positive outcome.
Being organized and having experience with major lenders like Bank of America (Countrywide), Chase Home Mortgage (JP Morgan), Fifth Third Bank, GMAC, CitiMortgage, National City, SunTrust Bank, Wells Fargo (Wachovia), EMC Mortgage, Flagstar, Green Tree Servicing, LLC, SLS (Specialized Loan Servicing), HomeEq Servicing, Saxon Mortgage Services, RoundPoint Mortgage Service Corp, and several smaller banks as well such as BB & T, Riverside (TIB Bank), Suncoast Federal Credit Union just to name a few.
If you’ve consulted with your attorney and tax accountant and have decided to sell your property as a short sale we’d love to go over the process with you. I’ve written many articles going over the process of the short sale, documents required, outcomes possible and so much more to assist sellers in this trying time.
You can check out these articles about Cape Coral short sales on our website: www.The-Extreme-Team.com or you can call us anytime to discuss your personal situation.
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Call us anytime at (239) 542-8521
