Date: 13 Feb 2010 Comments: 0

There are certain circumstances that dictate short sale eligibility, but there are just as many circumstances that can cause short sales to fail.

For example, there are about (15) components that comprise an effective short sale package. Five of these documents include:

• The seller’s financial information
• The seller’s hardship letter
• The comparative market analysis (CMA) of the home
• The fully executed purchase contract (signed by both the buyer and the seller)
• Written proof of the buyer’s ability to purchase the property

Different lenders will dictate how they want all the information delivered, but just about all of them want a proposal cover letter or a “table of contents” page to facilitate their review of the file. Let’s face it…they can pretty much ask for whatever they want.

But with all the things that can go wrong with a short sale, one of the most common reasons short sales fail is due to an incomplete submittal package. If an incomplete package is delivered to the lender, many of them won’t stop to call and tell you what you need to do to rectify it; they’ll just set it aside. They may eventually get around to contacting you, but they are going to handle the ones that provided a complete short sale package first.

When time is of the essence and there is not a great deal a borrower can control, our advice is to control the things you can. So, follow the instructions of your short sale specialist to the letter, compile all the requested detail, and make sure everything is accurate and valid. It can be done; you just have to do it right.