Prevent Mortgage (and Short Sale) Heartbreak!

I’m not only a businessman but a family man as well. It just tears me up to see families lose their homes due to layoffs, a bad economy, and, frankly, loose lending guidelines that allowed home owners to get in over their heads in terms of mortgage payments.

I have one couple that lost their home to foreclosure…is headed toward possible bankruptcy…and possibly divorce as well. I absolutely hate to see that – and want to prevent it.

I want to arm you with some knowledge on the causes of the mortgage market mess and how to deal with the current situation, so I have two links to great articles, and here they are:

“How Did We Get Into this Mess” 

Now, let’s go to the other side of the coin - short sales. If you’re not familiar with the concept, a “short sale” occurs when the debt on a home is greater than the amount for which the property can be sold.

Here’s a basic example:
Assume a homeowner has an unpaid loan balance of $250,000, but the property will sell for only $225,000. The lender agrees to sell the house for the $225,000 amount, which, of course, leaves it “short” of the full amount. Thus, the name “short sale!”

Naturally, as a buyer, you’d probably like to pick up one of these bargains.Well, due to the “Great Recession,” there are many short sale homes on the market today. But the bad news is - there are far too many of them!

Realtors and loan officers are swamped. And that’s led to a problem – there’s a huge backlog of these homes, and realtors and loan providers can’t get to them quickly.

Case in point: one of my clients has been waiting for six months on a short sale property and still hasn’t heard a word!I called up one lender to find out what was going on, and he said, “Bill, I’ve got boxes of applications for short sale homes going out the door of my office! We can’t keep up!”

Despite this, I still call loan officers four or five times a week – and sometimes don’t even get an answer because they’re as busy as can be!

So, my advice is this: if you’re seeking a bargain in the short sale market, give yourself a ton of time and have a lot of patience! Realtors, lenders – they’re all nice folks and want to work with you but they’re in a “catch up” situation and are doing the best they can.

Okay, here’s what I want you to do if you feel you might find yourself in a situation where your home could end up in a short sale situation or if you’re a buyer looking to find a short sale bargain – call me at 402-680-2500 or go to bill.black@cbshome.com so I can help you out with common sense advice.

You definitely want to head off the prospect of foreclosure and damage to your family’s well-being!

If you are in need of financial counseling log onto....  www.daveramsey.com