Just the other day I was told by a new client that he had been told by another agent that he would have to be late with mortgage payments or stop paying altogether for his lender to take his short sale negotiation seriously. Not only was I shocked, I was furious! Thank Goodness he did not take that misinformed advice, and found our team.
Although it sometimes does take negotiators a little longer to negotiate a short sale without the impetus of late payments, no REALTOR should ever give financial advice. It is unethical and outside his/her knowledge of practice. What's more, many homeowners are facing a hardship that will eventually result in late or missed payments. Even if the homeowner is not currently late.
Our experience has been that lenders would much rather either see a short sale with a hardship while the homeowner is current on loan payments than have that homeowner start being late with payments or not paying at all. It is mutually beneficial to the lender as well as the homeowner for the homeowner to keep paying payments, if possible, while short saling a home. Additionally, this will ultimately help the homeowner's credit profile too.
So no, not all short sales have to involve the homeowner not paying his or her payments. If an owner has a hardship, a short sale can be pursued.
For more information about Short Sales or to discuss the Short Sale of your property, you may call me, Todd Hillman, at 602-376-0706.
