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Tag: short sale in tucson

Short Sale Hardship Letter

May 2, 2013

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.

Selling Your Home As-Is

March 25, 2013

Hello and thanks again for coming to TucsonShortSale.com; you hear me talking about short sales all the time, but there are other aspects of real estate that we deal with here. One thing that I would like to talk to you about today is selling your home as-is.

Even if you have equity in the property or own the home outright, but simply don’t want to do any repairs to the home, one of the things I’ve become incredibly skilled at, thanks to doing numerous short sale and REO transactions, is selling your home as-is. Whatever the case may be for you not wanting to do repairs on your home and instead just sell it and move on, I can help you with that. I can help you come up with a value based on if you were to complete the repairs as well as a value if you were to sell it as-is. I have a tremendous amount of experience in doing this because of the large number of short sale transactions that I’ve completed where the homes were sold as-is. I just wanted to put this out there and let everyone know that I can help you with this as well.

Please fill out the short sale request form on my website or just pick up the phone and give me a call. You can also feel free to try out my short sale decision calculator to help you determine if you have any equity in your home, what your estimated property value is or if you’re underwater how much time and money it will take until your home is an asset again. Thanks again for joining me at TucsonShortSale.com; I look forward to hearing from you and helping you with your short sale or real estate transaction.

Are there Any Important Steps I Need to Know to Complete a Successful Short Sale?

November 27, 2012

Hello there, I’m Shawn Polston with Keller Williams Realty and one of Tucson’s leading short sale teams. One of the things that I wanted to go over today is just a general overview of the short sale process. The way the short sale process begins can differ based on your situation. Sometimes the bank reaches out to you by giving you a call or sending a letter recommending a short sale as the right thing for you to do.

A short sale is when someone owes more on their house than it’s worth and they need to sell the property. It could be a job loss, divorce, death in the family, or job relocation. It’s good to communicate with your bank, but one of the first things you are going to want to do first is find a competent real estate agent to help you with that transaction. There always seems to be issues or hurdles that arise in the short sale process so it’s best to find someone who knows how to navigate that maze.

The next step after identifying that agent is to set up an appointment and meet with the agent. They should be able to tell you if you should also meet with a CPA for other financial advice. The next step in the process is to get your financial package together. There are certain documents a lender is going to want to see when you are doing a short sale. It is typically two months bank statements, two years tax returns, a month of paystubs for all borrowers, any letters proving unemployment or a letter about any government benefits received. They will also want a form with income vs. expenses and a hardship letter explaining what is going on in your situation.

Once you get the paperwork complete it’s a good idea to put the house on the market. The sooner you have an offer, the better the situation is. Depending on the bank, it can take anywhere from a month to three months to process that information. It varies by lender and loan type. After the processing time, the bank comes back and gives the approval letter. It is important to look over the approval letter to make sure the numbers match and they agree to the same amount the buyer’s offer. It’s good to get the title company involved at this point to check all the numbers. Then you will want to look at what the approval letter says about the debt. The lender is either waiving the right to pursue a deficiency balance. If it doesn’t say that, your agent should go back to the lender and ask them to waive the deficiency.

Again, I’m Shawn Polston with Keller Williams Realty, one of Tucson’s leading short sale teams and I’m here to help answer any questions you have about the short sale process. Please contact me today. Thanks and have a great day.

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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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