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Any BTDT advice on Short Sale.

1K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Paxjourney 
#1 ·
Last year my husband took a job that required us to transplant as a family 5 hours away. For our family this move has been AMAZING we've grown, bonded, became a stronger unit. His other job had him traveling a lot and this new job requires little to no travel and everyother friday off. In addition his former job had him working most weekends (60-90 hour weeks were common for our family).

As part of his relocation package they paid for 3mos of rent for "temp" housing. They also covered our moving expenses and have covered other relocation money. Because of the move we put our home of 6 yrs on the market in October 2010. We had a full priced offer in Jan. However their funding fell through in by Feb and by March we were back on the market. We dropped the price when we went back on the market and then again 2 weeks ago. We just want to unload this.

Financially we are renting a 1200sq townhouse. We can pay our rent and mortgage and still make bills but things get a tight feeling and it's getting tighter every month.

We just dropped the house again and we are just at break even. We really couldn't afford it as landlords since we would come out short every month.

As part of DH's relocation for this job they would pay the closing costs if we sell or at this point they can take over paying the INTEREST portion of our Mortgage for a limited period of time. Which would help keep it on the market longer without Short Sale in the hopes that someone buys it.

But mostly the houses being sold in that area are short sales and bank owned. We haven't been late with a payments. We've never missed a payment.
 
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#3 ·
I'd call your bank, a realtor, and possibly an attorney if your realtor doesn't seem to know what they're doing. We did a short sale that closed in February, but there were some circumstances that made it easier for us. One, our final price was 200K less than what we had bought it for, so we were substantially upside down, even after a fair-sized down payment. Two, my dh was laid off and our income was halved, and three, we live in a state where the bubble was really bad.

If you have any cash or savings, they may try to get you to make up the difference. How much more do you think you need to drop it? I don't know if it would make sense to stop making payments, because you're so close and when you do close, you'll just be that much more short. I have heard that the banks are starting to crack down a little harder, and if you still have a good income they will try to get something out of you. If you think that's going to happen, it might be worth it to get a realtor.

Another thing, a large majority of the houses in our area are or bank-owned foreclosures or short-sales, and if you can and will close within 30 days, that could be a selling point you could advertise. It might be worth it to pay a few thousand more for that.
 
#5 ·
We have a realtor who has a lot of experience with short sales. Based on factors It looks like we would qualify. While we do have an income coming in we are now considered upside down on the house.

Just because we aren't upside down by hundreds of thousands of dollars doesn't mean that it is easy for us. We have dropped the house 4 times and our current listing price is as low as we can go and still cover closing. Even at this price we may have to barrow money from a family friend to make up a $3000 difference between closing and what we have in savings for closings.
 
#6 ·
And yes we can pay rent and mortgage but if there is any hick up that month, any like needing a repair on a car or anything out of the norm budget then we have to tap into what we have set aside in savings (what we would use for closing) to stay current.
 
#7 ·
Well we had a verbal offer come thru on Friday. It's 12K less than our asking (price dropped 4 times and we are priced for the area) we declined and countered with a price that was 4k under our asking price. We just don't have the cash reserves at the 12k under for closing, however as part of my husband's relocation package we would get 90% back of what we spend at closing that is above the owed value of the house (they won't pay us for any loss we take on the house). The people declined. They were only funded to the amount they offered at.

Our realtor sent over the info regarding short sale and while we would qualify we just don't want to go that route and take a hit on our credit. We'd like to purchase a place sooner than 3yrs. So we've made the choice to close out a 401k take the hit for the taxes and have a larger cash reserve so we can be in a position to take a lower offer.

We plan to keep the house at the current price for the next few weeks then maybe drop 2k.
 
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