Kannapolis NC Home Owners Facing Foreclosure - Is a Short Sale Right For You?

Do you live in Kannapolis North Carolina or the surrounding area and need to sell your home NOW to avoid foreclosure? But, due to current real estate market conditions you won't be able to sell it for a high enough price to pay off your mortgage(s), the Realtor's listing commission and other seller fees? Well, you aren't alone!

Unfortunately, owners in Kannapolis North Carolina and across the country are finding that their home's current market value is less than they paid for it. Even more tragically, the value of their home is less than the loan payoff. They always heard that home values will go up over time, they thought they were building equity in their home... thus saving for retirement or for a downpayment to move up to a larger home in a few years.

If possible, home owners should stay in their home, keep their mortgage current and ride out the "mortgage crisis". Most specialists are predicting that the real estate market will turn around in time. However, some home owners find them selves in situations that cause them to fall behind in their mortgage payment... they either loose their job, have a serious illness or death in the family, have a divorce, are transferred to another location with their job, or experience some other tragic situation in their life.

Once a home owner falls behind in their mortgage payments, their lender will start to call them... sometimes incessantly. When this happens many homeowners stop communicating with their lender, which is the wrong way to handle this matter and avoid foreclosure. If the home owner wants to stay in their home, they should contact their lender as soon as they know there is a problem (even before they miss a payment if possible). Lenders don't want more foreclosures, they want home owners to stay in their homes and make their mortgage payments. Therefore, they will work with home owners to find a solution that will benefit everyone involved.

Here are a few of the options that may be offered by your lender, to avoid foreclosure:

A revised repayment plan - Forbearance - Loan modification - Short Sale - Short Refinance

In the case of a Short Sale, the lender may allow you to sell your home for less than the outstanding loan amount, take the proceeds and forgive you of any remaining debt.

A short sale occurs when the proceeds of a real estate sale fall short of the balance owed on the property. In a short sale, the bank or mortgage lender agrees to discount a loan balance due to an economic or financial hardship on the part of the mortgagor. This negotiation is all done through communication with a bank's Loss mitigation department. A Realtor can help you through this process and negotiate with the bank on your behalf.

Currently, if you are an owner occupant of a property, the tax code allows you to avoid paying taxes on the shortfall (a 1099 was previously sent in the amount of the shortfall and the owner was responsible for paying income tax on that amount)... this can be a huge savings for owner occupants who decide to sell their home as a short sale.

The short sale option will have much less negative effect on your credit than a foreclosure would, so a short sale may be the best course of action for you if you've fallen behind on your mortgage payments. But don't wait too long, since foreclosure proceedings will begin once you miss 4 regularly scheduled payments.

Home owners in this situation should contact an experieced short sale Realtor to list and market their home, communicate and negotiate with the bank on their behalf, and handle the entire sale and short sale process for them.

I have the knowledge and experience it takes to help you avoid foreclosure and negotiate a short sale with your lender, so contact me anytime if I can help.

I service Kannapolis NC and the surrounding areas including Charlotte, Concord, Harrisburg, Salisbury, China Grove, Landis, Cornelius, Huntersville and Mooresville,