I suspect that 2010 is going to be a big year for short sales.
One common question that I have gotten lately is:
Can I just do a short refinance? Meaning, rather than short sell my house to someone else, can I just do a short refinance?
And the answer is: maybe.
But before you pick up the phone and call me, you need to do something first — call your current lender and ask them if they will accept a short payoff.
Under some circumstances, they will accept a short payoff (the situations are far to numerous to go into detail here) so if you are interested in doing a short refinance, the first step is to get on the phone with your current lender and negotiate a short payoff.
Now, as you can imagine, it is not going to be easy, but did you really expect it to be? Do you think your lender is going to be happy about accepting a short payoff just because?
There are various strategies that you can use to get your lender to accept a short payoff – but it is really in essence going to come down to two things:
- Your ability to negotiate
- A healthy dose of luck
Although it isn’t easy — if you do manage to get a short payoff from your existing lender, you may be eligible to do a short refinance and fix your “negative equity” problem.
A short refinance isn’t for everyone… but it is possible.
Oh, and don’t call me until you have a short payoff agreement from your lender!