selling house real estate Help & Advice ~ Sell Your Home Quickly!

Facing Foreclosure? Sell Your Home Fast for CashIf you're facing foreclosure on your home, there are several different options you can explore. This article will help walk you through three of them: the short sale, walking away and the option to sell your home for cash.Short Sale. A short sale is when you sell your home for less than what you owe on your mortgage. You need authorization from your lender to do this and, while it can seem like a great idea, short sales can often take many months to process. From applying with your lender for short sale approval, to placing the house on the market, to finding a buyer who can meet the lender's terms (in today's tight mortgage market, this can be challenging. You also need to sell the house in a time frame specified by the short sale agreement with your lender. If you don't sell the house in that time, the bank will foreclose upon it.In addition, some banks issue what are called "deficiency judgments" when they approve a short sale. In this case, you'll still be liable for paying the difference between your home's purchase price and your loan balance. If you're facing foreclosure because of job loss or high medical bills, you may be extremely short of cash and could find it just as difficult to pay the deficiency judgment as it is to pay your monthly mortgage.Walking Away. You've no doubt heard about many people who owe more money on their home loan than their home currently is worth "simply walking away" from their home and its mortgage. This can make sense if you're using more than half of your income to pay your mortgage.However, and this a big however, walking away from your mortgage and not even trying to get cash for a home will do extensive damage to your credit rating. You'll have that foreclosure record on your credit file for seven years and will make it difficult for you to get a credit card, buy cars or even get another job (more and more businesses are looking at applicants' credit history and "disqualifying" from employment those with a bad credit rating). In addition, walking away may not free you from all of your obligations -- your bank could still slap a deficiency judgment on you (see Short Sale, above). If you walk away, the bank also could come after you for the full amount of your mortgage after it takes the trouble to sell a home for cash.Sell Home for Cash. The great thing about this option is that you can sell your home very quickly, sometimes in a matter of days (rather than the weeks or even months it can take today in certain housing markets). These arrangements are especially attractive because mortgage loans are extremely tough to get today (mortgage lenders are tightening their loan requirements, often stipulating that home buyers have good to great FICO scores and have at least a 20-percent down payment.Engaging in a cash for home sale to one of the many companies around the country who provide this service can be a great way to sell the home for cash in a lender-approved short sale. Because the investor is paying for your house with cash, there are no long forms to fill out and no long wait for a loan approval.You'll also save several thousand dollars on real estate agent commissions because these cash for home transactions require no middle man (or woman).

As an intelligent person I know you are aware that real estate agents are not fast or inexpensive, and banks are not exactly renowned for their lightning fast processes either, but what else can you do? Depending on your situation one solution is to sell the house quick by offering a discount to cash buyers. Remember even a well qualified buyer takes time, even months, to get a bank loan approved and get through escrow. Are the traditional methods the best or only options you have? Maybe if you knew of someone that might be able to get enough cash together to make you an offer. If only it were that simple. You might even be able to close on the deal by the end of this month! But that only happens in fantasy land, right? Actually you are in luck as real estate investors are very much in the practice of doing just that. In fact this is just one of many examples of how and when a real estate investor may be involved in any number of properties. For now we will focus on one specific scenario and that will be buying a property in cash for a quick and easy transaction. Often times when a property is going to be sold at a discount it is referred to as wholesaling. In a typical wholesale deal a real estate investor will have a contract for the property owner to sign granting the investor control over the sale of the property for a limited time. The contract will usually consist of terms which generally boil down to an agreement to sell the property for a specific price and within a specific time frame, generally thirty to sixty days.The idea of having a contract to sell your property, much less sell it at a discount, probably sounds a little scary or even strange. Be assured that these contracts are short, simple and to the point. If they were not then no one would sign them! Also keep in mind that you do not have to sign a contract before the ink is dry and there will be some time to think it over. Have it reviewed by your own legal advisor to help put your mind at ease. These short and sweet contracts will not take a legal professional much time, and subsequently not much of your money, to have it reviewed. Signing a contract provides incentive to a cash buyer as no one is going to want to put a lot of time and effort into a deal that they do not have confidence in. A signed contract means the deal is half done already and assures the buyer that the seller is serious. In this situation the buyer now knows that the property is available to them and due diligence may be conducted prior to closing the deal. The advantage of this type of a transaction to the seller is the speed. The whole process of discovery, offer, entering into a contract, performing due diligence, and final decision is most often going to be much quicker than dealing with a conventional loan and real estate agents. Both the seller and buyer score a win.