Hi everybody, I’m Shawn Polston with Keller Williams Southern Arizona and TucsonShortSaleNegotiator.com. I wanted to talk to you about one of the most common questions I get and that is from homeowners wondering how to write the hardship letter. One of the things the lender asks for is whether it’s a short sale, a loan modification or a deed in lieu. Whatever assistance you are going to them for and one of the things they always ask for is a hardship letter. One of the things that I always like to stress is to keep the hardship letter as direct and to the point as possible. If your situation is that you lost your job, just talk about that. Let them know that you have just lost your job and you are unable to make payments and tell them you appreciate their help with a short sale or whatever assistance you are seeking from them. It could be that you have to relocate for an employment opportunity out of state. Just keep it that simple that that is what your hardship is. There is a common myth out there that these hardship letters need to be these long, drawn out explanations of things but what we have actually found is that when the hardship letters get to be two and three pages long, it actually seems to slow things down. I think what happens is that the people that have to read that hardship letter are really just looking for what is causing the hardship. When they have to read through two or three pages to find out it’s a job transfer it seems that they put the files with the really long hardship files to the side until they have time to read them. We always tell people to make it as brief and to the point as possible. If you need any help with this and you are considering doing a short sale but need help writing your hardship letter, give us a call. We would love to help you out.
