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        <title>Real Estate Blog</title>
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        <description>Providing in-depth real estate information you may not know.</description>
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            <guid>http://www.hrrealestateconnection.com/blog/the-short-sale-unmasked1.html</guid>
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            <author> ( )</author>
            <title>The Short Sale - Unmasked</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
More often then not, people make uneducated or (better described) misguided decisions. When was the last time you heard a friend, coworker, or ramdom person who has no formal education or training in&nbsp;a specific field tell you (or someone you know) how to do something? When I hear someone trying to give real estate advice because they have bought or sold a few homes makes me physcally ill. 

This all stems from a recent encounter&nbsp;I had with an individual in Virginia Beach, VA (let's call him Indy) who lost their home through foreclosure. It saddens me to hear when someone loses their home, because often times it is brought on by a &quot;hardship&quot;. This individual was told by his &quot;buddy&quot; (let's call him&nbsp;Bud for short)&nbsp;that if he were to stop paying his mortgage; the bank through a federally backed program called&nbsp;HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program),&nbsp;&nbsp;would automatically drop his payment in half within a couple of months. WRONG! Bud failed to mention that with this program, you have to be approved and it is an extremely lengthly process that 88% of the time&nbsp;fails to create any relief for the consumer. Needless to say the bank kept calling, Indy kept ignoring the calls, the bank would send letters (none of which offered a payment reduction), and eventually Indy lost his house. 

This story leads me to the ever so popular, yet not quite mastered SHORT SALE!

First let me explain what a short sale is: a short sale is a sale of real estate in which the sale proceeds fall short of the balance owed on the property's loan.

As the housing market, economic market, and job market continue to change and evolve, more and more people are finding themselves unable to afford their mortgage payment. If you truely are finding yourself in a financial hardship -&nbsp;that can be proven, you may be able to be approved for a short sale.&nbsp;Below you will find a general idea as&nbsp;to the process of a short sale.

1. You have to&nbsp;be in default or default is&nbsp;foreseeable. This can be from job loss, job transfer, loss of hours, injury, death, addition to the family, &nbsp;overwhelming debt, etc. 

3. Research and find an agent that is well versed in short sales.&nbsp;

3. The bank will not even consider a Short Sale until you have an offer to purchase. Most of the time, they will provide a short sale package prior to a contract, but all this is a very lengthy list of items your bank wants to see in orderd to prove you need a short sale. 

4. Once you have received an offer &amp;&nbsp;put together all items in the package, your agent will send multiple copies of this package through multiple different avenues (regular mail, certified mail, fax, &amp; possibly email). This will ensure your package is received. I have seen multiple times a package &quot;not received&quot; by a bank when the borrower and agent thought is was received weeks ago. 

5. Once the&nbsp;bank confirms they have received the&nbsp;package, they will assign a negotiator (this may take weeks). This negotiator&nbsp;will be reponsible for approving or denying the short sale.&nbsp;&nbsp;

6. Now the next step is the most difficult.... WAIT!

7. Thoughout the process, your agent will need to be extremely presistent, but not annoying about staying in contact with the negotiator. Normal rule of thumb is contact at least once a week and respond to requests from the negotiator ASAP! 

I have seen this process take as few as 4 weeks to as long as 9 months. The best advice I can give is to get all of your ppw together up front (your proof). Then be ready to submit as soon as you receive an offer. 

If you are located in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, or Suffolk and would like to discuss the short sale provess further, please call us at 757-410-8500 ext. 108.
 ]]> </description>
            <pubDate>Tue, 25 May 2010 17:02:36 -0400</pubDate>
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