Short-sale: Don't Get The Short End Of The Stick!

Short sales can be very tricky. In order to benefit from a short sale, you must keep all of your ducks in row, and not focus on the sale but focus on yourself. Of course I’m not suggesting that you don’t focus on the sale-you always want to stay focused on the sale. But what I am also suggesting is that you focus on your actions as well.

Let’s think about things for a minute. If your bank gets a loss on your sale can they do a deficiency judgment? Yes, they can, but you need to remember even though they can do a deficiency judgment, they usually don’t because there aren’t any assets.

In fact, what you should be thinking about is a title company who will do a “simultaneous closing.” If you are not familiar with what a simultaneous closing is, I‘ll take a minute to explain.

Think of a simultaneous closing as this: When the bank agrees to a price, you would bring in your take-out buyer and they are going to get the new loan from their mortgage company. You would use that to fund the short-sale. Make sense?

Now before you think this is all peaches and cream, I need to warn you about a few things. Number one: The bank has to get a HUD. This will show that the offer you gave them was what was closed (you know-the amount the actual property was bought for). And let me tell you something else, you sure don’t want to use a HUD One where a new buyer is “in the mix”. So what does this mean? Essentially, you must have two HUD One’s.

Are you on the right track? Yes, you would have two transactions, but it would be a simultaneous close. In the end some title companies will do it, and some just might not. It might also make more sense to have your attorney take a look at it first-after all-they went to law school-use their expertise!

Remember in the end your attorney is working for you-make him work for you!