Behind in your mortgage payments? Help is available (part 2)

If you have followed my previous advice and exhausted all your options with your lender than it may be time to move to step 2.The hardest thing to do is to admit that you have a problem and need help. However, if you can't save your home and the foreclosure is inevitable, you may need to step up and bite the bullet. It may be time to cut your losses and sell the home.

First thing to do is to find a real estate agent that knows how to do a short sale. How do you find one? It's not easy because every agent you meet is a self-proclaimed expert, even if they have never sold a home. Short sales are a little tricky and you don't want an agent training on your home. Interview a few agents, ask for their resume and a list of short sales they have done. Look at other short sale homes that have actually sold (not just for sale) and find out who sold them. Most of all, get an aggressive agent who is persistent and works for you at a lower fee, because banks need constant pushing and they always cut the fees if they can. There are a lot of good short sale agents out there but beware, there are bad ones too.

Here's a few things you can do to help the agent, at the risk that some of my ideas will make agents mad as they will not agree with me.

1. List your home for 5 to 10% below the market to attract interest. Market priced will only have your home sit too long and each month is another payment you owe.
2. Do not disclose to the public that your home is behind in payments or short sale until you are in contract with a buyer. It is no ones business but yours, and these agents who advertise short sales in the mls are doing the seller a disservice. Once people find out you are losing the home, they low ball you like crazy. If you price the home slightly below market you will get more buyers and better offers. Trust me. Remember, the higher offer you can get the easier it is to negotiate with the lender. This short sale won't work if we can't get the lender to play.
3. Finally, clean the damn thing up! Just because you are behind in your payments doesn't mean you have to live like a pig! Do the things it takes to attract a buyer, have some pride in your home and yourself. Clean the carpets, wash the walls, mulch the yard, throw away the junk. You have to make your home nice enough to attract an offer, and a good offer, or the deal will be off.

So then what? Where will you live and where will you go? In part 3 we will discuss what happens after the short sale. Stay tuned.