Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

If you know anyone who’s struggling to make their mortgage payments, they’re surely pondering the options for selling their home. If they don’t have the money to pay the real estate commission or are upside down even more than that amount on their home, then this often leaves homeowners in a paralyzed state. What a LOT of homeowners don’t realize is that they can try selling their home in a Short Sale and the seller would NOT be responsible for paying the resulting real estate commissions.

If you’re unfamiliar with the process, a Short Sale means a seller sells their home to a buyer at an amount that nets “short” of how much is needed to pay of the outstanding mortgage balance(s). While selling in a Short Sale will likely put a hit on the seller’s credit, it’s nothing like the hit a foreclosure will do. In fact, many people who sell their homes in a short sale are able to regroup their finances and purchase another home within a couple of years. That’s not going to happen for someone who loses their home in foreclosure.

You may be wondering how a seller gets out of paying the real estate commissions… It’s because the seller’s lender pays it. Why and how? Any lender who will consider a Short Sale understands the seller doesn’t have the ability to pay it themselves (remember, the seller can’t even afford to continue making their mortgage payments). Once a buyer makes an offer and the seller accepts (with the understanding the deal won’t happen if the seller’s lender doesn’t accept a short sale), then the offer is submitted to the seller’s lender… and the lender will factor the real estate commissions into the equation for whether they’ll accept the Short Sale offer.

As far as the process, it’s complicated for real estate agents, no doubt about it. It can easily take 10 times the work – and sometimes triple or longer the time – to get a Short Sale completed. Sometimes a lender will doom the process… they’re often disorganized, sometimes difficult and occasionally non-responsive. But this is what we agree to take on when we take a Short Sale listing. I don’t think 90% of agents understand what they’re getting into when they list a Short Sale. We do… And it’s certainly a process that requires organization and persistence.

Our Short Sale listings get the same attention to detail and care that all our listings get. So if you know someone who… owns a home that’s lost value… doesn’t have the money to pay a real estate commission… has lost their job… can’t afford their home due to a divorce… Or something similar, then there’s a good chance we can help them. Have them email me and we’re happy to go over their situation in detail to see how we can help.

Posted by Jason Brown