Short Sales For America negotiates with the lender without charging any fees from buyers and sellers or charging any real estate agent a percentage of their commission. We get paid directly from the lender, nothing more and nothing less. No one owes us a fee EVER! Even if we successfully negotiate a contract and it doesn’t close. Our service is 100% FREE from beginning to end.

A short sale occurs when a mortgage lender or lenders agree to accept less than the total amount of money owed on a piece of property in order to facilitate the sale of the property. This is done because the property owners have fallen behind on mortgage payments, and foreclosure on the property is imminent.

The owners of the property must be able to show they are in a negative cash flow situation, are at least 30 days behind on their mortgage payments and are facing a potential foreclosure action. They must show a financial inability to bring their account current and to make future payments. Proof of a recent financial hardship is helpful in making this determination.The property must currently be valued on the open market for less than what the owners owe their mortgage lenders. This valuation is done by a licensed appraiser hired by the lender who is familiar with the particular market the property resides in and is commonly called a BPO (Brokers Price Opinion).

Foreclosures are a very expensive and time-consuming legal action for mortgage lenders. Once the legal part of the foreclosure process is complete and the lender has title to the property, the lender then must sell the property in order to recoup its investment. This involves assuming additional costs for repairs, marketing, real estate sales commissions, appraiser fees, legal fees, title fees and so forth–the same costs that the former owner would have had to pay in order to sell the property.In today’s sluggish real estate market, the lenders stand a good chance of having to sell the property for less money than they were owed. Add to that the costs of the foreclosure, the selling costs and also the carrying costs on vacant property, such as property taxes, insurance and utilities, with no income to offset them, and it is easy to see why a properly prepared and well documented short sale offer can be very attractive to a lender.

The answer to this question rests with the lenders and how motivated they are to make a deal. The length of time needed to make an informed decision varies not only from lender to lender but from loss mitigation agent to loss mitigation agent within each lender. In general, however, you can expect an approval on a short sale contract submitted to a lender within 30 to 45 days from the date they receive the offer.

Normally they will. If the lender feels the offer is genuine, it will grant a 30-day extension if a foreclosure sale is imminent. Current pending legislation in Congress will require lenders to grant 90-day extensions on foreclosure actions to give homeowners a chance to work out a solution and avoid foreclosure.

Lenders do not normally refuse outright to accept a short sale. However, they may propose a counter offer to the one which was submitted, requiring either a higher selling price or a reduction of certain expenses incurred at closing. This is when the negotiation process goes into high gear, as all parties involved must agree to some compromise or face foreclosure. About the only time a lender will fully reject a short sale offer is if the offer is less than the payout from the lender’s insurance policy on the loan.

Our company is made up of real estate attorneys, mortgage brokers, title agents and licensed Realtors® with dozens of years of experience in negotiating short sale contracts as well as distressed property buyouts of all types. We have developed personal relationships with many of the loss mitigation agents working for the lenders. They know us, and they know any short sale offer from us is going to be accurate, complete and genuine, making it very easy and time-efficient to process on their end. As a result, our offers receive prompt attention.We have found that our policy of not collecting our fee up front is reassuring to everyone involved in the process that we are not going to take the money and delay processing of the file. We have negotiated short sale offers for some of the largest real estate developers in the country and on properties valued at over $9 million. Experience makes the difference between a successful short sale negotiation and a long, drawn-out process that makes everyone suffer. This is the reason why our company should be the one you want working on your short sale negotiations.

If you have ANY other questions about short sales, short sale investing, foreclosures or any aspect of real estate, please feel free to call us at 888-SHORT-50. Consultations, like our negotiation service, are always free; and one of our attorneys or negotiators will be happy to help you with any problems, questions or investment situations you may have.