Attention Sellers: Are you short selling your home?

Most of the listings in my local market of Tampa, Florida are short sales.  Nobody particularly likes them, but they are unavoidable.  Listing agents who represent sellers in a short sale are responsible for negotiating the seller's debt with their lender (or lenders in most situations).  This is a tedious and long pursuit that often takes three months to a year to get an approval from the lender.  During this time, sellers are receiving letters from their lender's attorney advising the home is entering or is already in foreclosure.  Many sellers throw the letters to the side and think nothing of them and do not advise their Realtor of the letter.  I understand sellers are fed up and just want the mess to disappear, but sellers must understand they cannot completely wipe their hands and let the Realtor handle everything.  The Realtor is busy with calling the lenders every few days and marketing and showing the property.  I have run across many sellers who do not keep track or respond at all to the lender's attorneys because they think the Realtor is going to handle everything.  Sellers must stay involved in the short sale of their home and they need to stay in contact with their Realtor for regular updates on what is going on with sale of their property before it goes into foreclosure.  As a rule, I always go onto the County Clerk's website to check the status of the foreclosure proceedings but I advise the seller that I rely on them to keep track of what is going on with their home because they will be notified way before I would possibly check. 

Don't let your home go to auction while you're in the process of a short sale.  Keep track of what is going on while your home is in foreclosure.  A simple phone call to your lender is sometimes all that is needed to delay the auction and the foreclsure.  A phone call that could be 2 to 3 years of bad credit compared to 7 to 10 years of bad credit. 

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