I recently worked with a great guy. Good job. Nice person. Soft-spoken. Nice house. But something came up, he couldn't afford to continue the payments or the upkeep of his home, and the value of his home was less than he owed on it. That spells short sale.
We got an offer quickly - for a good price. Willing buyer. Willing seller. And seller's lender said no - seller isn't behind on payments and without loan deficiency, it doesn't look like there is a hardship.
Lenders don't look favorably at "strategic short sales" - and while this wasn't one, we couldn't convince them of that. This was a seller who made his house payments but at the expense of paying his taxes. So who would you rather have mad at you - your lender or the federal government?
Seller continued to struggle to get bills paid - fell behind on house payments. Got an offer from another buyer - still a good price, but $15,000 less than first offer. We submit paperwork all over again, and seller's lender again says no - not a hardship. Was the hardship letter not clear? Would a foreclosure be better for anyone than approving a short sale?
Many phone calls and emails later - many, many - we got the seller's lender to take another look at the situation. This time, in addition to the hardship letter, we provided copies of demand letters from the IRS (which we should have provided earlier) - and eventually got short sale approval.
Seller is now out from under that obligation. Buyer has the house he wanted. And eventually the government will get theirs - I'm sure.
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