With the increase in foreclosures lately you may have heard the term “short sale” and wondered what it was. A short sale is when the lender will accept less than the full amount due on a mortgage when a property is sold. Usually, the lender will accept the short sale to avoid the time and [...]

In December, 2007,  President Bush signed a new law giving tax breaks to homeowners who have mortgage debt forgiven called the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007.  Now, a taxpayer does not have to pay federal income tax on debt forgiven for a loan secured by a qualified principal residence.  This new tax break [...]

Wow, what a few months makes.  I am now having almost a 90% success rate with getting our short sales approved.  Banks like Chase, Countrywide, HSBC and WAMU have done an incredible job streamlining their short sale negotiation processes.  I guess they had to do something with the increase in volume.  Certain banks can still [...]

Short Sale Fact Sheet
Information Provided by the California Association of Realtors (CAR)
Introduction
Increasingly, lenders are making loans in amounts that become too difficult for borrowers to repay.  Some of these borrowers may not be able to fulfill their mortgage obligations.  When a borrower is no longer in a position to make the mortgage payments, is facing [...]

I spoke with the LA Times staff reported Diane Wedner recently about the tax consequences of a short sale. Check out the full story here: click here for the full story.

Seller may face tax and credit troubles in a short sale
An owner can sell a house for less than its value and the lender can [...]

Diane Wender, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, interviewed me a few weeks ago for a story she was putting together for the Real Estate Section of the Los Angeles Times. She used a lot of the information I provide and did an excellent job explaining the short sale process and some of pitfalls of doing [...]

I just closed a short sale at Tacoma Avenue last month. This is a beautiful property and the buyer is lucky to get. This two story home was sweeping views of the valley was just built in 2006. Everything was brand new. My client, Brian, purchased the property in 2006 for $850,000 with 100% financing. [...]

One of the most frustrating thing for a family or individual looking to move into their next home is having to wait months for the bank to make a decision on whether or not they are going to accept their short sale. This can be a torturous process for a family, especially if they are [...]

From my experience doing short sales in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, the following list are the ten most common deal killers for doing a short sale (in no particular order):

The seller lies about their assets and the bank finds out.
The seller disappears or becomes non-responsive toward the end of the short sale process. On [...]