Kirk's Blog

As a short sale listing agent in Greenville, SC I see and hear all types of scenarios, circumstances, excuses and even "strategies" with respect to how people think about and handle short sales.

My best advice is to not waste any time and don't overthink the process. Also, don't leverage a short sale innappropriately, as a way to play games with the mortgage lender and "buy more time" to stay in the house.

Here's why:

If you qualify for and you've chosen to pursue a short sale, it's safe to assume you're doing it because you care about your financial health, your credit score, your overall indebtedness and basically, you'd like to get on with your life and put this situation behind you, with the best possible outcome for you and your family....right?

Assuming I'm not crazy, and your motives and intentions are in-line with the statement above, then why would you want to trash your credit score with missed and/or late payments? Why would you want to increase the size of any potential deficiency judgment against in you in the future? That's exactly the fire you're playing with if you prolong the short sale process, or delay getting started with the process. Why? The answer is simple, because there is a huge amount of short sale and foreclosure inventory that has yet to hit the market and when it does, we will experience increased downward pressure on home values. With this increase in distressed property inventory and an oversupply of homes for sale and an undersupply of qualified buyers, the distressed properties will inevitably sell for less and less as the market absorbs the inventory.

Simply put, the longer the delay in executing a successful short sale, the lower the fair market value and eventual sale price will be, thus increasing the delta between what is owed on the mortgage and what the final NET amount to the lender actually is, thus increasing any potential deficiency judgment amount in the future. Therefore, any unnecessary delays today could result in more pain later!