The Nevada Real Estate Short Sale Process - The Escrow Officer's View:
Short sales are still around in the
current Las Vegas real estate market. I have seen Short Sale escrows
take anywhere from 1 month to 6 months depending on the mortgage
company. The key ingredient to a
short sale is patience! It may take many months to obtain a
short sale approval from the bank. They require a stack full of
paperwork which may seem overwhelming to the sellers in the
transaction. But unfortunately it is needed for the bank to
review in order to grant approval.
Sellers need to be prepared to submit ongoing paystubs, bank statements,
a letter of their reason for hardship, their last two years of
taxes and a short sale information packet for the agent/attorney
to have the information needed to start the process including a
signed authorization to act on their behalf. Sellers also need
to be prepared to submit updated bank statements and paystubs
through the process.
Listing agents will usually process the short sales themselves
or they will work with attorneys who specialize in short sales,
help with the collection of the documents and negotiate with the
banks. There are also Short Sale Processing Units within the
title companies that can submit the documents to the bank but
cannot negotiate on behalf of the agents or attorneys.
Preferably within the short sale approval it should contain a
deficiency waiver. A deficiency is the difference of what is
owed on the mortgage and the short sale amount. The seller
should consult with their tax advisor on whether or not they
will owe for taxes on the unpaid portion.
Once the short sale approval is in, escrow can proceed to close.
