If you purchased your home in the East Bay / Delta area (Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Pittsburg, Discovery Bay) after 2002, chances are you are upside down in your home. Our local real estate market has suffered several years of double digit declines to property values, resulting in a huge depreciation in our homes values. In addition, many of the loans that were made were short term with lower interest rates and now they have reset at higher rates, leaving many homeowners unable to afford their mortgage payments. Unfortunately many homeowners are caught up in this mess, and while they cannot afford their mortgages, are unable to sell because they owe more on their mortgage than what their house is worth. That is where a short sale comes in!

A short sale is a very in depth, sometimes complicated process where the seller / homeowner asks their mortgage lender for permission to sell their house for less than the amount owed and for the lender to consider the debt to be "paid in full". It is important that the seller has an experienced real estate agent who is an expert at navigating the waters of the short sale and who can negotiate with the lender to get the short sale approved.

Here is a short overview of the steps of the short sale process:

• Seller contacts Realtor to list home
• Realtor and homeowner begin to prepare short sale package
• Realtor gives homeowner list of documents to gather for short sale package
• Property is listed for sale and offer is received & accepted by seller
• Realtor packages up offer & short sale package and sends to seller's lender for approval
• Realtor stays in constant contact with lender and moves the file through the lenders short sale dept
• Short sale negotiator is assigned from lender
• Negotiator orders valuation from 3rd party company
• Negotiator responds to short sale offer with approval, denial or counter terms
• Buyer / Seller agree or deny terms of short sale
• Once short sale is APPROVED by seller's lender, then the usual escrow period begins and continues until transaction closes.

The length of time it takes for short sales to be approved from the seller's lender varies. Some lenders, such as Wachovia / World Savings, are extremely quick and will have an answer back to us within a week. Others, such a WaMu /Chase can take as long as 6 - 8 months to get an answer. While a majority of the lenders are somewhere in the middle and take approximately 45-90 days for an approval.

It is imperative to have an EXPERIENCED short sale agent working on your behalf. An experienced agent will be able to negotiate the best terms for the seller. The goal of the short sale is to be able to negotiate the debt as "paid in full" without any deficiency judgments to the seller. This is extremely important! Intero has many experienced short sale specialists that have the experience necessary to be able to negotiate the best terms for you. If you are thinking of selling your home, and are in need of a completing a short sale, please call Intero at 925-516-9090 for a no cost, no obligation consultation.

While a short sale may be a viable option for some sellers, sellers should be aware that there may be some potential negative consequences such as credit impact, delinquency judgments or tax consequences. It is important for sellers to be educated on the potential consequences of a short sale. Contact Intero to discuss your situation, and we can help to answer your questions. We also have a team of professional attorneys and tax professionals that we can refer you to to help answer your questions.