How Much of a Loss Will The Bank Accept in a Short Sale?

How much of a loss will the lender accept in a short sale? I am asked this from time to time by consumers and agents alike. We always disclose when a property is being sold subject to lender approval, and I understand the rationale for asking about the numbers, especially with the high dollar value of New York area properties, but the question is actually a non sequitur. Here’s why:

Which home has a better chance of having the short sale being approved:

• A $600,000 home with a $650,000 mortgage
• A $600,000 home with a $850,000 mortgage

Many people assume that the house with the $50,000 shortfall is the one that will be easier to have the short sale approved. That assumption is incorrect. The fact of the matter is that the amount that the lender loses in a short sale is immaterial to the approval. Once hardship is established, short sale approval is based on the banks’s valuation of the home, chiefly through an appraisal or Broker Price Opinion (BPO). The lender could be losing $25,000 or $250,000- it doesn’t matter. It all hinges on that appraisal or BPO.

Why? Because you can’t expect to get more than the market will bring. And if the lender has to seize the home, they will do a BPO on the home and price it accordingly with no regard for the loan amount they foreclosed on. The lender is simply trying to minimize their loss. For that reason, the buyer’s terms are less important in many cases. A regular seller might give a significant premium to a cash buyer for example. A lender in a short sale probably won’t give that term much deference at all.

Therefore, the big question in a short sale is not how much the bank is losing or what they are owed, but if the offer on the table reflects comparable sales activity. That is the great yardstick by which approvals are measured.

 

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Buying a Short Sale: Market Value, Not a Steal

As short sales have become more common and are even showing up in new markets in Westchester, I find myself educating my colleagues on what can and cannot be done in order to have a successful closing. Lately, we’ve received offers that are unrealistically low; essentially, what the buyers do not understand is that the lender is going to evaluate their offer based on comparable market activity, not their speculative attempts to get a bargain. 

I don’t blame buyers for wanting to get a good deal. I want the same thing for my own buyers- who doesn’t? But the lender in a short sale is not nearby, so they hire a professional to determine the value. Typically an appraisal or a broker price opinion are done and sent to the bank. If the BPO or appraisal match or are close to the offer, and approval is likely. If the offer is considerably lower than the bank findings, the lender will ask for more money. 

This is where agents need to educate the buying public. It is irresponsible to tie a house under contract for  an unrealistic low amount.  No seller can risk several months waiting for the bank to issue an inevitable denial when the home could have been active on the market and attracted a better offer. “Short sale” is not code for a steal. Buyers should ask their agent for comparable activity and formulate their offer based on realistic events. 

The market in Westchester County is relatively strong compared to much of the rest of the USA. Local activity is relevant to the short sale approval, not the considerably more depressed values in other areas of the nation. Buyers should base their offers on comparable sales (which we have in abundance in New York) and not speculation. I would encourage any buyer to read my prior post on short sales and what you need to know before buying one. 

Previous articles on Short Sales from my Active Rain Blog.

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Will I Have to Pay Taxes After a Short Sale?

The concern of some homeowners looking to do a short sale that a 1099 issued from the bank will expose them to a new problem, namely a huge income tax bill on the forgiven debt, is understandable. With home values in Westchester in 2010 at a median of $630,000, a six figure 1099 is entirely possible. In the past, a bank could issue a 1099 for forgiven debt, rendering it akin to income for tax purposes.

However, even if the bank does issue a 1099, the likelihood that you’ll have a tax problem is virtually nonexistant for owner occupants thanks to a law passed in 2007, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. From the IRS website:

The Act applies only to forgiven or cancelled debt used to buy, build or substantially improve your principal residence, or to refinance debt incurred for those purposes. In addition, the debt must be secured by the home. This is known as qualified principal residence indebtedness.

Most definitions of “principle residence” mean that you have resided there for at least 2 of the prior 5 years. That means that if you move out due to a job transfer or or other reason, you are not out of luck. Obviously, as a licensed real estate broker I do not give tax advice. You have to consult a tax professional like a CPA. However, make sure you discuss this law when you speak. It runs through 2012, and may well be extended.

 

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Recent Media Appearances

I have been prominent in two separate stories in the media this past week regarding default properties and their effect on the market and the borrower. This past Sunday I was in the New York Times, and on Tuesday I was in a nice piece on AOL Daily Finance.

The Times piece centered on strategic defaults, where borrowers who could otherwise afford a mortgage stop paying on purpose. Many people who do this do so for cash flow reasons; if you paid $350,000 for a house in the peak and the same house is for sale at foreclosure down the street for $180,000, some people just buy the cheaper one and let the old house go, cutting their payment. However, the credit consequences can be dire. The debate on the ethics of the practice is heated.

The AOL Daily Finance article is part of a series on how the housing crisis has affected different places. Mount Vernon, a city in Southern Westchester County which has been rife with short sales and foreclosures, was discussed in the article. Values are down in the neighborhood I am quoted on about 50%. What is not mentioned is that many of the foreclosures were actually renovated by the prior owner before they ran into financial problems, which punctuates the crisis, for me, in a very sad way. You hate to witness broken dreams.

Which is why we work so hard on getting our short sales closed and done for our clients. Preventing foreclosures is what we are all about.

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Peekskill Short Sale: Lessons to Learn

We recently closed on the short sale in Peekskill, NY and it was rather unique. For one, the seller, a licensed professional, had to come up with some money at the closing due to being lighter in the hardship department. We warned the client of this possibility, but the way the bank went about it is indicative of why we have the problems we have in this economy. In addition to that, the buyer almost couldn’t close because of a discrepancy on the taxes.

The seller had relocated out of state and was renting the home. He moved to an area of the country with a lower salary scale, and was now teaching in his field rather than in practice. He therefore could not write a check for 6 figures to make the lender whole. There was some acrimony with the lender as to the value of the home; as  is often the case, the lender broker price opinion was done by an out of area licensee with no clue on the local market, and their “value” came in at a  price point where we once were, and could not get anyone to even come look. Bad BPOs are a problem that could easily be solved by using local brokers and appraisers. Why lenders do not grasp this is beyond me.

Meanwhile, the buyer’s purchase appraisal came in too low! Their bank was reticent to loan that much on the home, and there was another problem with a re assessment raising our published tax figure. Evidently, both my and the buyer agent’s verification of taxes came prior to the bill going up. Their appraiser caught the discrepancy. This temporarily put the kabosh on the buyer’s mortgage.

As with many short sales, it was our job to go to the mat with the lender to get the deal done, which we did. The seller had to write a small percentage of the shortfall at closing to avoid any long term deficiency, which he had and did.

Lessons learned:

• Re-verify taxes when homes are listed on or near reassessment dates.
• For the banks: stop using out of market brokers for price opinions. The same goes for out of market appraisers.

I give credit to our proactive seller for helping himself and remaining in strong communication. I am more leery than ever as to the wisdom of those people at the lenders, whose myopia about local knowledge for BPOs contributes to muddying up the short sale process and causing more stress and angst. I am sure this is part of the issue with recent moratoriums on foreclosures– the banks are getting unforgivably sloppy.

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Ossining Short Sale: Undramatic

As short sales become more prevalent in Westchester County, the anxiety around their newness tends to fade. With familiarity comes some confidence. We just closed on one such sale. The sellers were being transferred out of state after buying the house in 2006, right after the peak. They bought with a smaller downpayment, so when the market crashed they joined millions of other Americans (and thousands of fellow Westchester County homeowners) in being under water.

Being upside down is not necessarily a problem unless you have to sell. Well, when you get transferred, you typically have to sell. In going over our options, it was clear that they could not rent the home out and remain in the black, and there was no savings. Their housing expense in their new home would not enable them to carry two homes, so the house in Ossining couldn’t be kept. A short sale would be their best option. Wisely, they consulted with their attorney as part of the decision.

After listing the house they made one price adjustment, an offer came in, we went to contract, submitted everything to the lender, and it was accepted. No problems with the appraisal on either side, no issues with the new buyer, the buyer agent did her job, and we closed. The only drama was how a boat left in the driveway would be dispensed with. The seller’s relatives removed it.

It was that simple.

It took a little over 4 months for the short sale to be approved. I have to give credit to my clients for doing everything they needed to do, and to the buyers for having their act together when the approval came through. There was no drama and no suffering because everyone did their job and kept focus.

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What Qualifies as Hardship in a Short Sale?

What qualifies as hardship in a short sale? I get this question fairly often, and it should be addressed. First, I’ll tell you what does not qualify as hardship, and that is simply being underwater. If you owe more than you are worth, being upside down alone is not adequate hardship to get a short sale approved. That is only half the equation. There has to be a financial hardship.

In every case of hardship I have ever seen, a loss of income has been involved. It could be unemployment, divorce, being laid off, the failure of a business, or any of a hundred other things, but a loss or decrease of income is absolutely hardship. When your expenses remain the same and your income goes down or disappears, you have a case for hardship. You could be a ditch digger paying a $500 per month mortgage or a brain surgeon paying $10,000 per month. If you lose income, hardship is not hard to prove. In rare cases, income has remained the same but the payment has adjusted up, but the mathematical outcome, namely a deficit, is the same.

That is as basic a yardstick as I can find. I’d be surprised to find a more common or less complicated theme.

Loss of income is almost always a case for hardship.

Originally posted at Westchester Real Estate Blog

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Dealing with Second Mortgages in a Short Sale

New HAFA rules are forcing home sellers to negotiate directly with subordinate liens, or, in common terms, second mortgages, on their own, according to Bankrate.com. The way the rules are written, there is a financial incentive for the 2nd mortgage  to settle and release the lien, but the onus of getting assurances that the bank will settle rests on the borrower, which seems incongruous with the intent of the law. If the law is that the bank gets $3,000 from the government to settle, then it is the government who should be getting written assurances that they will indeed settle, not the borrower. The article points out that distressed sellers are already bleaguered and beaten up and in no condition to play hardball with another bank.

I agree. Distressed home sellers ought not do this on their own. They need an advocate, and a 3rd party with experience is very likely going to get a better result than a beaten up home owner. This is what we do, but rather than make this post a commercial I’ll also add that here in New York, the attorney should be on the front lines dealing with the 2nd mortgage as well as the first. The attorneys that we have on our team are excellent; the sellers can rest assured that the arrangements they help negotiate are the very best that can be agreed to. They also read the “fine print” with a fine tooth comb. The devil is in the details in these things, especially in New York.

All short sale agreements from lenders should be in writing, and all short sale agreements from lender should specify that they will not go after the borrower for the difference after closing. Anyone can get a short sale with no assurances of financial security after the closing. It takes a professional to ensure that the seller’s obligations in a short sale end at closing with no residual debt. That is our job, and that is how we do our short sales.

Doing a short sale on your own invites peril. We have done dozens, and that puts you in good hands compared to the guy in the mirror.

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The Wall Street Journal Agrees with Me on Short Sales

Amy Hoak’s timely article on HAFA and short sales in yesterday’s Journal concludes with timely advice that I wrote myself the very same day. The article focuses on the many pitfalls of short sales, as well as the new HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) regulations which are set to go into effect on April 5, 2010.

Here is what I wrote yesterday:

Yet people still do not ask their prospective agents how many short sales they have closed. You simply cannot be a specialist with no experience; I’m sorry. I don’t care if you have a PhD or a photo shaking the Pope’s hand. What they taught you in class simply isn’t all it takes to handle the loss mitigation department of a lender. Sellers need to understand that if they hire an inexperienced agent to do their short sale, they do so at their own peril. I’d never want a surgeon cutting their teeth on my gall bladder, a lawyer apprenticing at the expense of my freedom, or an agent getting their feet wet at the expense of my finances.

Simply ask : “How many short sales have you successfully closed?” prior to listing your home. That will guide you far better than a patch on their arm.

Sellers at the conclusion of the Journal article are advised much the same thing: to ask their prospective agent how many short sales they have successfully completed, and how many were lost to foreclosure.

Obviously, the word is getting out. Experience trumps marketing when your financial life is at stake.

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What Makes a Short Sale Specialist?

When I closed my first short sale in 1998 I had no idea that 10 years later I’d be doing them with any regularity. At that time, short sales were uncommon; they remained uncommon through 2006. Even in 2007, other agents needed to be educated about what a short sale was, how long it took to close, and what process the negotiation would entail.

Having closed dozens of short sales in the period since 2007 in Westchester and the surrounding counties, I now see a larger number of agents who are familiar with short sales. I also see a higher number of agents who bills themselves as “short sale specialists.” In some cases, they have earned a designation. I applaud any agent who furthers their knowledge. However, designations can be misleading and may not help the client.

There is only one problem with an agent who calls them self a specialist these days, and that is this: they may not really be specialists. Designations mean nothing if you cannot successfully negotiate and close a workout. In Westchester, there are enormous numbers involved, and if a home seller cannot close on their short sale because their agent, well, stunk, they could be stuck with a lingering debt, or, worse, a deficiency judgment for tens of thousands of dollars. What’s worse, if these sellers really knew how many short sales their “specialist” agent actually closed (often, between zero and one) they would be mortified.

The code of ethics strictly prohibits misleading clients as to the agent’s scope of expertise. A special designation might circumvent an outright violation. But it doesn’t protect a Westchester homeowner from huge problems if their agent can’t get the job done. In many cases, the homeowner never asked the agent how many short sales they have actually closed. This is madness. I would never have eye surgery with a rookie doctor. Our obstetricians had decades of experience. The same goes for the guy that installed our pool table, water heater, and appliances. The reasons are obvious.

Yet people still do not ask their prospective agents how many short sales they have closed. You simply cannot be a specialist with no experience; I’m sorry. I don’t care if you have a PhD or a photo shaking the Pope’s hand. What they taught you in class simply isn’t all it takes to handle the loss mitigation department of a lender. Sellers need to understand that if they hire an inexperienced agent to do their short sale, they do so at their own peril. I’d never want a surgeon cutting their teeth on my gall bladder, a lawyer apprenticing at the expense of my freedom, or an agent getting their feet wet at the expense of my finances.

Simply ask : “How many short sales have you successfully closed?” prior to listing your home. That will guide you far better than a patch on their arm. And if you are an agent who wants to get into short sales, work for someone who does them with regularity. I have often said that any agent can make money in short sales. However, 99% of them should be via a referral to a true specialist.

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New Federal Short Sale Program Starts April 5

The NY Times is reporting on a new Obama initiative to create a financial incentive for banks and home sellers alike to do short sales. A few highlights from the article:

Program starts April 5, 2010

Lenders will be “compelled” to accept short sales. We’ll see about that.

The administration wants to streamline the process. We’ll see about that too.

Financial incentives are $1,500 to the home seller, $1,000 to the lender, and $1,000 to a subordinate lender.

Agents will be used to valuate the properties, but lenders will not be forced to accept offers beneath the agent valuation.

Continued at Westchester Real Estate Blog.

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Short Sale Fraud: By Banks!

CNBC is reporting that some banks are being accused of, of all things, bank fraud in short sales. Those of us who sell short sales know that the hardest cases are often the ones with subordinate financing, or in layman’s terms, a second mortgage. If you owe $500,000 on a house with a $425,000 1st loan and a $75,000 second mortgage, then a short sale for $400,000 cleans the 2nd loan out completely. If they are lucky, they will get $3000 from the first lender. They have little choice- if the house goes to foreclosure, they get nothing.

ON some files, the 2nd mortgage will try and negotiate an unsecured amount to be paid back by the borrower after the closing in exchange for release of the lien. That is their prerogative. It is, after all, money they are owed.

The fraud part comes when the 2nd lien wants cash paid to them that is not disclosed to the first mortgage holder. In other words, a “side deal” cash payment delivered at closing that is undocumented and not disclosed on the HUD-1 settlement statement.

So instead of Tony Soprano conspiring to defraud the first bank, it is the second bank. Has it happened? I’d say yes. Is it widespread? Hard to tell, probably not, but once is too many times. Does this surprise me? No. These are the institutions that screwed everything up to begin with. Nothing they do surprises me.

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Will Banks Finally Speed Up Short Sales?

There is some debate. I don’t think they will, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that they probably fear that if they make them easier, more people will try for one. Since the other side of the deterrent is foreclosure, and since loan modifications aren’t exactly saving the economy, status quo has at least enabled them to repay their TARP money, so why should they change now?

Bottom line: If you need to do a short sale, you still need an expert with experience, and not some guy who attended a seminar once.

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Obama and Administration Encourage More Short Sales

The government has moved to increase the incentive for lenders to allow short sales on their defaulted loans. I welcome this, although there is nothing specified as to how they’ll hold banks accountable for streamlining the process, which is rife with red tape, bureaucracy and long waits. If they truly want to make short sales happen more frequently to help more distressed homeowners out, they would mandate a maximum of 6 weeks for a short sale approval.

Continued  here.

J. Philip Faranda is Westchester & the Hudson Valleys’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. He has listed and sold successful short sales in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Orange County, as well as the boroughs of New York City. Find out more at www.NYShortSaleTeam.com

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Westchester Short Sales- March Mumbers

Unless otherwise indicated, all data in this post is from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service.

There are 3,454 single family homes actively for sale in Westchester County. Of those, 148 are disclosing either a short sale or foreclosure proceeding in process. This is about 4.3% of the available single family home inventory.

The actual number is probably far higher than that. That is because on many homes the listing agent has not disclosed, either knowingly or unknowingly, that the house is upside down or delinquent. Also, there are hundreds of overpriced listings which would be short sales if the price were lowered to market value. In other words, there are lots of $450,000 homes listed for $550,000 because the mortgage balance is $500,000.  Continue reading here

J. Philip Faranda is Westchester’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Find out more at www.NYShortSaleTeam.com

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Should Sellers Sign a Contract Prior to Short Sale Approval?

A recent posting from an Ohio broker highlights how real estate differs from place to place. In it, she says that she advises her clients to not sign a contract with a buyer if the house is a short sale prior to getting the bank’s approval. While I won’t quarrel with what works for someone else in another market, I disagree.

That may work in Ohio, but it is ill-advised in New York. I do most of my short sales in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Orange and Fairfield (CT) Counties. It is the same in each place- when the buyer makes an offer, it is submitted to the lender with the seller’s hardship package and a contract that is conditioned on the approval of the short sale. The contract is prepared by the seller’s attorney. If the short sale is approved, we have a deal. If it is not approved, my seller is not obligated to sell and incurs no financial obligation to the buyer. Most of the time we continue to negotiate with the lender anyway, but the contract protects both parties.

For the buyer, the contract ensures that they will not lose the house to another buyer after enduring the long process of short sale approval.

For the seller, whom I represent far more often, the contract ensures that the buyer will not simply walk away without penalty or recourse after that same lengthy process. If I list a short sale, my job is to protect my seller. Handshake deals do not protect the seller, only contracts and deposits protect them. This does not “imprison” the buyer. It is virtually the same sort of contingency as their own financing, which is in almost every real estate contract, and no seller objects to such contingencies.

Moreover, the lenders require a valid contract of sale before they approve a short sale. With no contract, the offer is hypothetical. Hypotheticals don’t help my clients whose goal is to avoid foreclosure.

J. Philip Faranda is Westchester’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Find out more at www.NYShortSaleTeam.com

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Negative Equity Graph for NY Area

Zillow has published a graph on how many homeowners have “negative equity,” or owe more than their home’s value. Not all these home owners are in touble; but the numbers are instructive.

Zillow Negative Equity Graph

As you can see, the downpayment rquirements after 2007 became far more stringent, no doubt due to the sub prime crisis. Negative equity started to rise in 2004 before the market peaked; that really tells us how much the bubble was inflated by bad loans.

Many of these people, should they need to sell, will either have to come up with money to close or face a short sale. This chart is for the New York metro area. If you’d like to see your marketplace, click here.

J. Philip Faranda is Westchester’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Find out more at www.NYShortSaleTeam.com

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What is a BPO?

BPO stands for “broker price opinion.” It is a part of the short sale process that the lender uses to evaluate the merit of a short sale application. Simply put, the lender uses a BPO to ensure that the proposed sales price is aligned with market conditions. Some Westchester County Short sales, for example, are 20% less than the house’s value from 3 or 4 years ago. A home that was purchased in 2005 for $500,000 may only be worth $400,000 currently. Just to be certain, the lender sends out a 3rd party to verify this.

The BPO report looks very similar to an appraisal. There is a description of the subject property, and usually at least 4 recent comparable sales. If the offer on your home is $380,000 and the comparable sales are $410,000, $395,000, 375,000 and $355,000, then the lender will know that the value is legitimate. If all the comparable sales are over $425,000 and there is no compensating factor, such as deferred maintenance or needed repairs, the bank may deny the application. As much as the BPO report resembles an appraisal, it is not an appraisal, which is more expensive and produced by a licensed appraiser.

Often the lender will forego a BPO and do a full-blown appraisal. The theory here is that the appraiser will be more accurate. This is a sound theory, but one pitfall I have personally experienced is that lenders have a bizarre habit of contracting appraisers from a different marketplace who turn in robotic, formulaic reports based solely on price per square foot and not local market conditions. We have had short sales denied because the home has over appraised, causing more work and, in one case, a foreclosure. After it was repossessed, the home ended up selling for $100,000 less than what the lender claimed to be market value. That lender is no longer in business.

As prices continue to shrink, overpriced BPOs and appraisals are becoming less common. The BPO usually comes after the rest of the process is complete, so in those cases a decision from the lender on the short sale ought not be far off. Some lenders do them earlier, but as the marker changes I see that less and less.

J. Philip Faranda is Westchester’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Find out more at www.NYShortSaleTeam.com

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Should You Buy a Short Sale?

Buying any foreclosure is tricky, and a short sale is probably the longest process. Is purchasing a short sale right for you? Perhaps you rent in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam or Dutchess and are considering a short sale purchase in one of those areas. Here are some things you ought to know:

• You can’t be in a hurry. Negotiating a short sale might only take a month but in most cases it can go 90 days or longer. So don’t hire a mover, end your lease or lock your rate until you have confirmation that your offer is approved by the bank. If the seller accepts your offer that isn’t an approved short sale; any offer the seller accepts still requires approval from their lender.
• You are buying the house “as is.” In rare cases, such as in an environmental problem, the lender will pay for repairs but most if the time you are getting the house as is, as found. The seller is in hardship, so they won’t be able to help either. So make sure you do your inspections and know what you are getting into before going forward.
• You can’t “flip” the house. Short sales are very good deals in most cases but not so very low that you’ll be able to turn a short term profit. They usually are retail value, less repairs and maintenance, and perhaps less a bit for speed.
• Status updates take longer. Unlike regular transactions where updates are a phone call away, all parties are forced to wait on the lender, who is not, shall we say, committed to keeping everyone happy. This doesn’t mean that the purchase is lost in the ether; but it does mean that more patience is required than normal.
• If the listing agent is not a short sale specialist, it may turn into a nightmare. You wouldn’t want a podiatrist giving you root canal, nor do you need a rookie cutting his or her teeth on the biggest purchase of your life. Short sales are hard for experienced experts like myself; an agent who is doing their first or 2nd short sale is in for a long ordeal. The best way to handle that transaction is to not enter into it. If the house looks right for you and a short sale is disclosed, ask how many short sales the listing agent has successfully closed. If the agent hasn’t done many, the best thing to do might be to pass the house by. Otherwise, you might be in for 6 months of frustration.
• Subordinate financing takes longer. If the seller has a second mortgage, then two lenders have to render their approval, and coordinating the two complicates matters. Some specialists won’t even list those homes (I do.).  Ask if there is another lender, and even if they are the same institution, it will add a measure of difficulty (the same lender but two different loans means two different divisions or departments). Do a lien search on the home before going forward. If there is a 2nd lien the listing agent hasn’t disclosed you might consider walking- they may not be in command of how to close this workout.
• Ironically, you have to be ready to close rather quickly. This is the “hurry up and wait” irony of the short sale process. The lender will make you wait far longer than a normal purchase for a decision, but when that decision is issued there will typically be a 15 or 30-day deadline to close or the sale approval has to go back to review. By this point you should have done your inspections and other due diligence completed. Once the lender approves the sale it is then time to lock the rate, call the mover and give notice on your apartment.

This is a broad overview, but it boils down to knowing when to hold and when to fold.  No two short sale transactions are the same, even with the same lender. If you are in a state where attorneys are used it helps to have an attorney represent you in the purchase with short sale experience, but at the very least make sure they are experienced at real estate.

The long process aside, buying a short sale does put you ahead of the market, as the prices are more aligned with where the market is heading. This is significant, because the places where the bulk of my short sales are done (Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties), prices are so high that even a 5% reduction can mean tens of thousands of dollars to you.

J. Philip Faranda is Westchester’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Find out more at www.NYShortSaleTeam.com

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Westchester Short Sales by the Numbers

The question that pops up for people who can no longer pay their mortgage is how much money they’ll have to come up with in order to get out from under their mortgage through a short sale. It is like the old catch-22 I’ve often heard where the client tells me that they want to seek bankruptcy protection but they don’t have the money to pay the attorney (of course, the answer to that is that the good attorneys I know will not charge for a preliminary consultation).  It is an understandable conundrum, and I’ll do some math illustrations here.

First, in a typical sale, the seller has numerous expenses, but the big one are the real estate commission, New York State transfer tax ($4 per thousand), Attorney fee, and the big one-the mortgage payoff (typically the biggest check drawn at closings).

On a $500,000 house with a $400,000 mortgage balance, assuming a 6% commission (all commissions are negotiable of course) and a $1500 attorney fee, the seller is liable for the following:

• Commission: $30,000
• NYS Transfer tax: $2000
• Mortgage payoff: $400,000
• Attorney: $1500
• Total: $433,500

If you have the equity, all expenses come from the proceeds and you don’t give it another thought. Let’s look at a short sale scenario where the balance and market value are both $450,000:

• Commission: $27,000
• NYS Transfer tax: $1800
• Mortgage payoff: $450,000
• Attorney: $1500
• Total: $480,300 shortage of $30,300

In a short sale, the bank absorbs the loss and discharges (settles/forgives) the loan debt, with no post-closing obligation, even if there are back  taxes and back payments. The reason is hardship. Lenders recognize that sellers do not have magic wands to wave and make the market values any higher, and that in selling the house the debtor is making a good faith effort to pay their debt. If you have hardship (which is typically why the house needs to be sold to start with), you should have a successful short sale. If you have  $100,000 in the bank, you don’t qualify for a short sale. I should also add that my clients do typically pay a small attorney fee to defray the attorney expense for the workout, but in short sale situations where the lender refuses and returns mortgage payments, it becomes a relatively negligible matter.

This is the same structure in my short sales in Rockland County, the Bronx, Putnam, and Dutchess.  Some municipalities such as Yonkers have a higher transfer tax. Of course, the broker or agent you choose matters as much as the surgeon you choose for an operation. You need a specialist or the results could be fatal. The lesson here is that homeowners experiencing hardship ought not put off acting because they don’t have money. You really don’t need any to get informed, get started, and get your life moving again. And the best part is that once the short sale is completed, the slate is clean. That day is the first day of the rest of your life.

J. Philip Faranda is Westchester’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Find out more at www.NYShortSaleTeam.com

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