MN short sales

There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding how short sales work and the seller’s role in the process. I would like to clear up some of these misconceptions.

When you sell a property, you are in control of the process. The property will be listed for sale and marketed like any other property. You will reap the benefits of working with one of the top 10 REMAX teams in the entire nation. Your property is marketed on the MLS and on our highly ranked websites. Your property is not marketed or treated any differently in terms of marketing.

In order to qualify for a short sale, you need to have experienced a hardship that has or will result in falling behind on mortgage payments. You do not necessarily need to be behind on your payments. Depending on the lender, you may be able to get short sale approval without missing a payment. Other lenders will require you to be thirty days behind on payments. Do not wait too long though! After six months of missed payments, most lenders will sell your property via a sheriff’s sale or foreclosure sale (the terms are interchangeable). After the foreclosure sale has occurred, many lenders will refuse to negotiate a short sale.

I price our listings to generate offers in the first 30 days on the market. As the seller, you will review all offers. I will review the offer terms with you and suggest accepting, countering or rejecting the purchase agreement in order to make sure that the terms are in your best interests.

Because we strive to receive an offer in the first thirty days, my office does require that you have all of the documentation together that the lender will require in order to approve your short sale application before we market the property. Prior to submitting the application, we will review it with you and double check for any errors.

Once the offer and short sale application are submitted, my office works with your lender to negotiate the best short sale terms possible. We strive to eliminate the need for you to bring cash to closing or sign promissory notes. The lender will then send a short sale approval letter that we will review with you. If the terms are acceptable, we will move forward with closing the property.

As the seller, you will need to sign the legal documents necessary to transfer ownership of the property. Our title company will make arrangements for a closing agent to meet with at your convenience to pre-sign all of your documents if you do not wish to attend closing. We can also make arrangements for you to close on the property if you do not live in the area.

Generally, your closing costs and our commissions are paid out of the sale proceeds with lender approval. The goal is for you to be able to sell the property, settle the debt, and not bring any money to closing.

This article was written by Mary Alice Short, short sale and REO expert, and member of the Minnesota Real Estate Team.