Rosemary

I am no expert with taxes, nor can I answer about your 401K or your citizenship. But I can advise you to contact a professional in all those areas. I am not sure what location you are but I'd just get the yellow pages and find a professional hopefully that will give the first 1/2 hour free and see what they advise you to do.

Short sales are all different and we should never assume what the lender will require or won't take or try to take. Check with the experts in those areas.

I wish you the best of luck with this, sorry I cannot answer those questions direct. I'd be out of line to attempt to answer them. Update me on the outcome. - Sat Jan 26 2008, 00:12

A short sale is when you owe more on your home than you have equity. A short sale is not automatic - you will need to obtain your lender(s) approval to do a short sale. It is usually an as is sale.

1. Find an agent (recommendation)
2. Then you list and market your home as a short sale on the MLS (the lender will require MLS history).
3. Send a request to the lender for a short sale request package (to find out what they require from you to do a short sale).
4. You have homework to do to gather up all the required documents
5. Call title and order a preliminary report to see what liens are on the property and other info on the property. If you have an agent this is pretty easy to do, otherwise you may not get this done from title. Open a pre-sale escrow to get the preliminary report. (you'll need the escrow officer anyway for HUD-1)
6. Find a buyer (hot!) with a decent offer/serious offer sounds better.
7. Request a HUD from title (you supply the payoff information, buyer info, and all figures) be sure its is all figures and review the HUD before you send it. Get the closing costs, escrow fees, add in the liens and other expenses.
8. Submit the short sale package to the lender(s) and ask for a short sale approval. (make sure you send everything that they require for a short sale and do it at the same time).
9/ Be available for questions/concerns and follow up to be sure they received what you sent to them.
10. Once they either accept, counter or deny your request will determine if you have a short sale approval.
11. Review, Review their counter and sign it if it is satisfactory to you. Then close as a normal sale.
Check out my blog/website for more information: http://www.motheranddaughterrealty.com and blog: http://activerain.com/blogs/brooksrm2042 - Sat Jan 19 2008, 00:32