Short Sell Your Mentone CA House and Avoid Foreclosure
Mentone, California Short Sale REALTORs
Are you experiencing financial difficulties and/or are you upside-down with your Mentone CA home? Maybe you have an adjustable rate mortgage, also known as an ARM loan that has reset or will reset to a rate you can’t afford. Maybe you’ve experienced major financial turmoil like losing your job, medical bills or divorce. Or maybe you need to sell to relocate or because your Mentone California house is worth less than you owe. Foreclosure can be devastating financially; it can also cause issues with some types of employers like government or other financial or security sensitive organizations. Foreclosure does not need to be your only option. Consider a Mentone CA short sale.
What is a Mentone Short Sale?
In real estate, a Mentone short sale occurs when a homeowner in financial distress sells his or her property for less than the amount due on the mortgage. The Mentone CA property is marketed to buyers the same as a standard home sale or foreclosure sale, but all proceeds from the sale go to the lender. The lender either forgives the difference or gets a deficiency judgment against the borrower requiring him or her to pay the lender all or part of the difference between the sale price and the original value of the mortgage. In some states, this difference must legally be forgiven in a short sale.
Mentone Short Sales and other Alternatives
Before deciding on a Mentone CA short sale, talk to your lender/mortgage servicer about the possibility of an altered payment plan or loan modification. These options may allow you to catch up with the mortgage and payments and allow you to stay in your Mentone home, if you so desire. Also, many homeowners who purchased homes with less than 20% down were required to purchase private mortgage insurance (PMI) with their homes. If you have private mortgage insurance and the PMI company thinks you have a chance at recovering from your current financial situation, it may advance funds to your lender to bring your payments up to date. Eventually, you'll have to repay the advance.
If neither of these options are a possibility, be prepared to do a lot of work to complete a Mentone short sale. While a foreclosure essentially lets you walk away from your Mentone home (albeit with grave consequences for your financial future, such as having to declare bankruptcy and destroying your credit), completing a short sale is labor-intensive. However, the payoff for the extra work involved in a short sale may be worth it.
Before beginning the process, consider the likelihood that your lender will want to work with you on a short sale by understanding its perspective. The lender is not required to do a short sale; it will be allowed at the lender's discretion. It helps if the source of your financial trouble is new, such as a health problem, the loss of a job or a divorce or worse. But having financial difficulties is not necessarily a prerequisite for Mentone California short sale any more. And, if you feel you were a victim of predatory lending practices, you may be able to talk the lender into a short sale even if you have not had any major financial catastrophes since purchasing the home. And some Mentone short sale lenders will allow a short sale without any financial difficulty at all.
Unfortunately, many believe you must actually be in default on your mortgage payments, and if you are not the lender won't be willing to work with you. Please understand that every lender is different, but we have conducted many short sales where the homeowner did not miss a single payment and they were still able to short sale. But there can be other short sale obstacles. If the lender thinks it can get more money from foreclosing on your Mentone CA home rather than from allowing a short sale, the lender may not allow you to exercise this option. Also, if anyone has co-signed on your mortgage, the lender may want to hold that person responsible for payments rather than doing a short sale, and at the very least that person will be a part of the short sale process.
Proceed with Caution
If you think you are ready for a Mentone short sale, talk to a well-versed and experienced Mentone REALTOR about the possibility of engaging in this type of transaction. Don't just talk to one Mentone short sale agent though. Interview at least three and ask as many questions as you can. Determine for yourself who has the greatest knowledge and experience to make your Mentone short sale successful.
As Mentone Short Sale agents we will market your Mentone property to buyers, obtain offers, negotiate with your lender(s) and execute the sale of the Mentone home. If the sale is unsuccessful we do not collect a commission. Not a single dime. In fact, our commission is paid through the proceeds of the sale, not out of your pocket. But short sale negotiating companies and attorneys will many times charge you large upfront fees to short sell your Mentone real estate.
Also, many Mentone CA REALTORs do not understand the short sale process. Even if they’ve been in the business for many years, if they don’t have the skill-sets required to conduct and negotiate a short sale, your Mentone short sale may fail no matter how hard you try. It is imperative that you chose the right agent.
Please call us and interview us: (888) 9-List-It, or (888) 954-7848
This is a market activity report of closed house sales and active home listings in the city of Mentone California, for December 2011.
