Today we’re answering the question “How much does it cost me to short sale my house.” That question is kind of a two layered question because there are two different aspects with regards to how much it could cost somebody. There is the fee aspect from working with your realtor or attorney and then there’s the fee aspect of what you may or may not have to pay the bank.
In terms of fees, the bank is going to cover the majority of the fees that are involved in the transaction. They’re going to pay commissions, transfer costs and a lot of our fees. When someone is looking into how much it’s going to cost them out of pocket to get the home sold, really it’s going to cost them little to nothing at all; remember this is case specific.
Now, how much are you going to have to pay the bank to short sale? This depends on whether or not you have a purchase money or non-purchase money loan. We go into the details of what this looks like for you when we have the free initial consultation. As a non-purchase money loan, there very well may be some money that they have to pay back the bank. We actually have a very good success record of getting that money forgiven or getting that amount down to as little as possible. In any case, it’s going to come out as a better situation with a short sale than it would as a foreclosure. If you have purchase money, you don’t owe the bank anything after the short sale.
One final question is if you can make money on a short sale and the answer is, yes, you can. A lot of banks offer seller incentives; normally, unless the bank is approving that seller incentive the answer is no. These incentives can run anywhere from $750 to $30,000. You can receive money in a short sale, but it is bank and program specific. We know which banks these are and which programs there are, so please contact us to set up your free consultation because at Wells Realty & Law Groups, we do what other agents can’t.
