Why You Need to Start Your Short Sale NOW

Michael Borger

12 years ago

Why NOW is the Time to MOVE on Your Short Sale

Is the mortgage on your Hawaii property upside down or “underwater”? If you owe more than your property is worth and you can’t keep up with the payments, a short sale may be your best way out. If you haven’t qualified for a loan modification and can’t reinstate the loan (make up the back payments or arrears), you don’t have many options if you want to avoid a foreclosure following you around for the foreseeable future.

Let’s look at the benefits of a short sale before going into why NOW is the time to get started:

Move on from a mortgage that’s too much for your budget
Avoid a nasty foreclosure
The length of a short sale gives you time to get your affairs in order and plan your relocation
The banks pay your realtor fees!
Move on with life
**Take advantage of time-sensitive benefits only available for a short while**

It’s the last one that’s of most concern. If you’re thinking of a short sale, then you need to understand some KEY BENEFITS that, while available now, may not be available for much longer:

The government is willing to pay you RELOCATION ASSISTANCE in qualifying cases — from a few thousand dollars all the way to $30,000! Now not every short sale will qualify, but it shows that the banks are trying to help homeowners do what they can not to get foreclosed upon. In some instances, you need to have your short sale initiated by the end of 2012, so time’s a wasting!
The 2007 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act and Debt Cancellation allows homeowners doing a short sale on their primary residence to basically write off the taxes! You see, when a lender waives a deficiency judgment, that debt forgiveness is still considered income — which means it can be taxed. However, this 2007 act lets you write off those taxes! Read more HERE and check with your CPA (which I am not) for exact details.

Time’s running out…

But here’s the kicker — this act is only in effect through 2012 which means your short sale must be completed by then. And since short sales can take 4 to 6 months or even longer to complete, you really need to START NOW if you want to be sure of avoiding those taxes! If you wait until the fall, the likelihood of getting your short sale wrapped up by the end of the year drops considerably. By the way, this holds true if your property is here in Hawaii or is elsewhere on the mainland. I know some of my colleagues who invest in other markets from coast to coast are working with people in the same environment.

I hope you see the need to stop putting off your short sale. It’s time to take action! These assistance programs won’t be around forever, so if a short sale is the right answer for your over-leveraged mortgage, then you really need to CONTACT ME right away. Short sales require a different level of expertise than a traditional home sale. Luckily for you, we have it. My team is already knee-deep in some other short sales right here on Oahu and we’d be proud to help you through yours.