Serving: Broward, Palm Beach & Port Lucie Counties in Florida

Short Sale Army

If you are upside down and can't make your mortgage payment you may be considering, as many folks are nowadays, walking away from the home. Sounds so easy, doesn't it? Just give the house back to the bank and get on with your life.

Unfortunately, the ramifications of a decision to foreclose on your home can be chilling. Before taking such a drastic step ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. When I get back on my feet financially, will I want to purchase another home?
2. Will I need a loan for anything else that may come up?
3. Have I done everything I can to protect myself, my family, my assets and my credit in this situation?

If you decide that you do want to buy another home, or any big ticket item in the near future, you need to realize that a foreclosure will stay on your credit record for up to 10 years. Imagine, every time you fill out a loan application or any other form that asks for a credit history, you will have to list this foreclosure. For ten years. And that's just one of the ramifications of a foreclosure.

Should you decide to buy another home in the next couple of years, you can count out a Fannie Mae-backed loan. A foreclosure on your record disqualifies you for Fannie Mae loans for 5 years. If you close a short sale, on the other hand, Fannie Mae loans are available to you after only 2 years.

Consider your employment situation as well. Hopefully you won't find yourself in the job market for the next 10 years. If you do, the foreclosure on your record could be a real challenge to obtaining a good position. If you are in law enforcement or some other type of intelligence-handling career, you can pretty much forget about getting a job with a foreclosure on your record. And, if you currently hold a security clearance, a foreclosure will most likely be grounds to revoke it and terminate your position.

So, walking away from the house, just giving it back to the bank, isn't quite as simple as it sounds, is it? It is a life-altering proposition you are considering and it needs to be treated with all the care and consideration it deserves.

To avoid the massive ramifications of a foreclosure, your best option is a short sale of the home. If you're not familiar with this concept, you're not alone. Although it's a process that Realtors have been involved in for a very long time, it's only just recently been the focus of a lot of media attention. And, why the attention? Because short sales help homeowners. That's the plain and simple of it.

Of course there is more to a short sale that you need to know about if you are considering one.

1. You will need a short sale expert, a short-sale-savvy real estate agent, to help you navigate the process and make the pitch to your lender.
2. The U.S. Treasury is set to come out with some new rules for short sales that may change the way they are done and may offer better incentives to homeowners who chose this route in lieu of foreclosure. It's our job to keep abreast of these changes so that we can better assist you with the sale of your home.

Buying a home is the biggest investment you will most likely make in your lifetime. I imagine you spent a lot of time getting to know the buying process and getting advice from professionals. Divesting yourself of this investment deserves just as much research, just as much concern and presents just as much of a need for solid, professional advice.

Advice is free. It will cost you nothing to meet with our team and go over your options, most specifically the short sale of your home.