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Category: Tucson Short Sale Help

Should I Pay My HOA Fees If I’m Facing Foreclosure or Short Selling?

December 23, 2011

Hi, Shawn Polston with Tucson Short Sales; we are your leading short sale team in the Tucson area. I wanted to talk to you today about homeowner’s associations and what happens with them in the event of a short sale or a foreclosure.

As a member of an HOA, you are obligated to pay the dues. If you do not pay the dues, the HOA has two options to pursue these unpaid dues. The first of these options is that they can formalize the lien against your property and attempt to foreclose it. The problem with this option is that there’s usually a mortgage on the property, and if they put a lien on it, they actually have to pay off the mortgage before they can foreclose on the property. Simply put, if the house is worth less than what the mortgage is, the HOA is not going to do that.

The other option that the HOA has is to pursue you personally. They can do this even after a foreclosure. A few of my clients have come to me a few weeks before their foreclosure date, they haven’t paid their HOA dues for the past few years and now there’s an enormous HOA lien on their home. The lenders in short sales, generally speaking, are receptive to paying that lien. But, sometimes, they aren’t because the lenders know that if they foreclose on the property, the HOA loan gets wiped away from the property and the HOA’s only recourse is to come after you personally.

Typically I recommend my clients that no matter what happens with the property, they need to keep paying their HOA dues because it could come back to haunt you. If you keep your dues current, it’s going to help you in getting a short sale done. I’d love to talk to you more about this subject, or anything related to short sales or foreclosures, so please give me a call today.

What You Need to Know About the 2012 Short Sale Tax Changes and the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act

December 20, 2011

Hi, this is Shawn Polston with 520shortsale.com where we are Tucson’s leading short sale team. I wanted to talk to you about something that I’ve been getting a lot of questions about lately. That is an eminent change to the tax code in the way forgiveness of debt is going to be handled with both short sales and foreclosures. After you complete a short sale, the lender is required by the IRS to issue a 1099 for the amount of debt forgiven. One common misconception is letting a house go to foreclosure changes that. It actually doesn’t. Instead it increases the amount of the 1099 typically. Typically the lenders have more costs associated foreclosures they also sell the properties for less than what we sell them for in the short sale. Back in 2007 President Bush put into place the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness act which covers you in certain situations. This can cover people from any tax liability on that 1099. In 2010 it was renewed by President Obama and it’s scheduled to go away at the end of 2012. The reason this is important is my typical short sale process takes from 3 to 6 months to complete. Sometimes it takes more or less time.

If you’re in a situation where you’re trying to decide if you should walk away from that house or you do a short sale, it’s taking the average lender 12 to 15 months to foreclose. One of the reasons I’m bringing this up is that by just simply walking away from the house you could miss out on the enormous tax savings that you’d have and get a 1099 for the foreclosure that you’re going to have significant tax implications on. I can’t tell you for sure if you would have tax implications, because a CPA has to look at your situation. The mortgage debt forgiveness act is pretty straight forward and you can read about it at IRS.gov. I’ll put a link to it on my website as well.

I’m sure you have other questions so don’t hesitate to call me or fill out the short sale request form. I really look forward to speaking with you and helping you out. Again, this is Shawn Polston with 520shortsale.com where we are Tucson’s leading short sale team.

We Have Years Of Success Working With Wells Fargo On Short Sales

November 22, 2011

Hello again everyone my name is Shawn Polston with Tucson Short Sales and 502 Short Sales thank you for checking out my blog today. My team and I specialize in short sales within the Tucson area and I blog every week to provide valuable information to underwater property owners on their options for avoiding foreclosure. If my blog is helpful today please take a minute to browse my website for even more information or contact me directly to set up a free consultation.

For our blog topic today I wanted to discuss working on a short sale with Wells Fargo and some of the experiences I have had. Lately I have been hearing a lot of different agents complaining about working with Wells Fargo on a short sale file. My team and I have a lot of short sale success with Wells Fargo and that is because we understand how they do business. Wells Fargo is incredibly detailed when it comes to reviewing your short sale file and we make sure that every file submitted is accurate and detailed. If you have been hearing anything negative about the Wells Fargo short sale department lately it is probably because of the agent and not the bank. If you have any questions about your Wells Fargo mortgage, or any other lender, please visit my website or contact me today to discuss your options. My team and I have years of experience working with Wells Fargo and we can help answer any questions that you may have. Thank you for your time today and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

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About Shawn Polston

Shawn has been a Realtor since 2006. Prior to becoming an agent Shawn and his wife were active real estate investors. Shawn takes his education seriously; he’s taken over 200 hours of continuing education classes, to keep up-to-date on current laws and trends. Shawn is a member of the Arizona Association of Realtors Master of Real Estate Society and a Graduate of the Realtor Institute. He is also a HAFA certified Short Sales and Foreclosure Specialist in addition to being a National Association of Realtors Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource.

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