Emily S. Knell

Thank you Barbara, I do need to revise that part of my answer. I just got off the phone with my lender. FHA regulations have changed in the past 3 days, it can be a bit confusing, in a nutshell here's how it goes....

If you're able to do a short sale without having a financial hardship or being late on payments (*which is possible, there are many banks that allow this) you CAN purchase a home immediately, of course some restrictions apply. I have clients who just short sold & we are currently house hunting with an approval letter in hand, FHA loan, min. credit score must be 640, and their interest rate is just 6%!

After 12mos. so long as you're current on ALL other bills, you CAN still buy again. with an FHA loan, again some restrictions apply. These restrictions are: Next home must be smaller (100sqft smaller OK), or the actual new mortgage payment must be less than before, but it still can be just by $100 less in total payment.

IF you're short selling and have missed payments, you CAN purchase again through a Conventional loan in 2yrs,,, with FHA in 3yrs.

Extenuating circumstances are: Court ordered sale because of divorce,,, death of a co-borrower (when still, the other party could still afford the home, but not comfortably), job relocation.

Still, the bottom line for you vs. Indymac is simple. Indymac, since the inception of the $75Billion set aside for struggling homeowners has helped ZERO people to get a Permanent loan modification.

Feldman Law Center, for example, boasted in a radio commercial just the other day that they helped A person reduce their principal balance by $64K. Woo hoo! What about all the people in the Inland Empire for example, hundreds & hundreds of whom are negative by $200-300K??? If the best principal reduction they can boast about & pay expensive air time at rush hour is for ONLY $64K,,,,, we're all in store for short sales not going away any time soon. - A few hours ago