Short Sale if Current on Mortgage?

Can I short sell my home if I’m current on my mortgage?

I get this question multiple times a day and it’s a good one. However, the answer has changed over and over again.

The answer used to be “No, you cannot do a short sale unless you are behind at least one payment”.

Then, for quite a while the answer was “Yes, you definitely do a short sale if you are current.”

Presently, the answer is “Maybe.”

I have clients who are current on their mortgage payments who have short sale approvals. So that’s good news. But I also have clients where the bank(s) have dragged the process on for 8 months or more and wouldn’t you know it, but those clients were current on all their payments. And still, no approvals yet…

Although you’ll never hear it from a lender directly, why would they approve a deal where you keep paying them their money each month? They might, depending on the hardship, the figures, the number of grains of sand on all the earth’s beaches, who knows??!!! But they certainly seem to be taking their time on approvals where mortgage payments are current.

When a bank is receiving 2000+ short seal deals a day I wouldn’t be surprised if late mortgages, homes close to foreclosure, or those properties with excellent qualifying hardships get pushed to the top of the pile. There’s only so much time in a day and so many files to work on — even when we work on several files with a lender it seems that those that are late get approved faster than those that are current; even if we started them at the exact same time!!

These are just current stats and I’m sure subject to change in the coming weeks but that’s how it stands as of today!

Related posts:

1. Getting short sales approved when you are current on your mortgage
2. US Bank short sale approvals
3. A look into the Arizona Short Sale process.
4. Short Sale Approvals – No time off for holiday..
5. US Bank Going Out of Business?