Luckily, the past two years have given sellers' an upper hand when it comes to making big profits by taking advantage of an increasing home value. This market has allowed most sellers to sell their house for a profit or worst case, break even at the closing table. This was not the case in those glorious and memorable years of the bubble... in which almost all homeowners with a mortgage found that their home value decreased by $50,000 to $100,000 and sometimes more! These times were unfortunate, and out of ten homes I would be making appointments to see, a whopping 8 of them would be Short Sale homes!
Why was this a problem? A typical buyer who takes on a mortgage and purchases a house can estimate to move into their dream home in about 30-60 days from start of the contract to settlement day. In a Short Sale, a buyer may have to wait 3-6 months or more to take possession of their new "crib." Very often, most buyers get tired of waiting for the process to play out and will move on to finding another house, leaving the homeowner searching for a new buyer. If you are currently searching for a home, if you see that it is a Short Sale, now you will know how to plan your timeline accordingly and have that expectation of being the type of buyer who can wait out the long sale process.
As a current homeowner, you may find yourself in a bind at times when you are faced with a family emergency, loss of job, divorce, or other extenuating circumstance. When your mortgage falls behind or you took out that line of credit and now owe more than what your home is worth, then you would sell your house as a Short Sale.
I could probably write about this for hours and I have a lot more information to share with you. Whether you are a buyer or seller, if you have any questions about the Short Sale process, or if you are wondering if this type of process could work in your situation, please reach out by emailing kristinazingler@gmail.com or text me directly 609-350-0096. I am easy to talk to and always happy to help!
Kristina