Las Vegas Short Sales

If your property is worth less than what you owe on the home loan, a short sale may be your best alternative to foreclosure.

A short sale is a real estate transaction where a homeowner is facing a hardship and gets permission from a bank to sell their property for less than they owe on the mortgage.

While it is generally beneficial for a bank to grant an approval on a short sale in order to avoid an expensive and time consuming foreclosure, the seller generally must prove a hardship.

Possible Hardships Include:

  • Divorce
  • Medical Emergency
  • Unemployment or Reduced Income
  • Job Transfer
  • Bankruptcy
  • Death

As you can imagine, the process of getting a hardship package accepted, avoiding deficiency judgements, finding a qualified buyer and satisfying the bank’s pre-closing conditions….. requires specialized skills and highly organized systems.

With over 75 successful Las Vegas Short Sale closings within the past three years alone, Shelter Realty has the experience, bank connections and negotiation savvy necessary to help Southern Nevada Sellers.

What is a Short Sale?

A short sale is a negotiated settlement in which a short pay occurs, and a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed to payoff a home loan as an alternative to foreclosure. The lender often agrees to a short sale because they know if they take the property back through foreclosure they will often incur an even greater loss.

Shelter Realty has experience convincing lenders it makes financial sense to take less than what is owed now, rather than taking the property back through foreclosure and trying to sell it at a later date. Keep in mind, not all lenders will accept short sales or discounted payoffs, especially if it would make more financial sense for the lender to foreclose.

In some cases, a second or even a third mortgage may exist on the property. When this occurs, the process becomes much more complex. We will need to negotiate between the existing lenders as to the actual payoff amount they are willing to accept in relation to the other lenders.

Why Choose A Short Sale Vs. Foreclosure?

If you are unable to pay your mortgage payment, and a loan modification is not the long-term answer for your scenario, it is significantly beneficial to attempt a short sale before you simply walk away and give your home back to the bank in a foreclosure.

A foreclosure is considered by banks an abandonment of a debt, and may be held against you by future creditors and employers for several years.

In addition to the negative credit score implications, there is a possibility that your previous lenders will file a deficiency judgement and basically sue you for their losses during the foreclosure process. Bankruptcy is generally your only protection if it gets to that point.

However, in many instances a short sale can be negotiated where the debt is settled at the time of sale, releasing the borrower from any possible future liens or repercussions.