S.W. Florida Broker Joe

Joe Kendall Broker Associate with Sandals Realty writes: Many people do not understand what qualifies you for a short sale. To easily understand how you could be approved for a short sale by reading my guidelines for writting a hardship letter.  

I would like to give you some tips on how to write a hardship letter to your mortgage lender:

Remember you are composing the "hardship letter" for your bank or your mortgage servicing company, do not write a book because most likely it will not get the attention of an over worked loss mitigation employee and they will look at it as your trying to build up a case that you may not have in their minds from the start. The person that is going to read this is not an English major, but someone that understands general information that is factual.

Please Keep it to one page (Do Not Type It , but write it out with an ink pen or print the letter out in ink, again Do Not Type This Letter !) be right to the point, put the emotional aspect t in the beginning and in the closing your message. Like anything else, no matter what people read its always the first sentence and the last sentence people remember and registers in there mind as they process your thoughts you have just put to them on paper

Here is an example list of hardships that lenders consider:

• Illness  (explain before and after effects)
• Loss of Job ( what income you made before and now current, explain in the unknown future if it's unclear. 
• Reduced Income (what you made before and what is now current )
• Failed Business   ( how much was invested, how much money was lost and how this has impacted you currently)
• Job Relocation ( forced to relocate ( current mortgage payment and what your new mortgage payment will be in our new location ) show your current income can not support two homes in a simple math problem)
• Death of Spouse or C0-Borrower
• Death (supporting documents )
• Divorce (support documents )
• Marital Separation (how this has impacted your ability to pay all your current bills )  
• Reduced Income (what was it before and now )
• Medical Bills   List all the bills current and future balance , list how much money you are currently behind)
• Damage to Property (natural disaster or unnatural)

Now that you understand what your lender or servicer is looking for, it’s time to sit down and write a hardship letter. . Make sure you make it unique to your personal situation. Do not talk about local or national media issues, make it very personal coming from your heart. This is a place where "Personal Drama" is good !

Remember that your hardship letter is a very important part of the workout process, but it's the seed you plant in the bank employee mind as they review your complete file over several days and is the driving force backed by facts and numbers that puts your life on the line for help and understanding of your personal situation.

Example Hardship Letter:

Name: (Your Name)

Address: (Your Address)

Lender Name: (Your Lender)

Loan #: (your Loan #)

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to explain my/our unfortunate set of circumstances that have caused us to become behind in our obligation to maintain our current mortgage payments . We have done everything in our power to make ends meat but unfortunately we have fallen so far behind that it looks very bleak so we are asking for your help. (ADD YOUR PERSONAL, EMOTIONAL FEELINGS HERE )

We would like you to consider working with us to modify our loan or doing a bank short sale. Our number one goal is  to keep our home and we now have come to conclusion our dream home and all we have worked for our in-tire lives is coming to end end and we have to come to terms with this. Please understand it's very hard and we did not ask for ourselves to be in this situation we are in today.

The main reason that caused us to be so far behind is ( insert the No 1 reason here and be to the point   ) Soon after being late and our income not being no where near enough, we had fallen further and further behind. It’s now to the point where we cannot continue to catch up or pay what is owed to you. It has always been in the past and up to now,  to fully meet our monthly obligations to pay what we owe and stay current. But at this time we have exhausted all of our income and resources so we are asking for your help.

(The approximate date start of the hardship, we believe that our situation is ? on future timetable is ? )

Our situation has got-ton worse because (reason here) and we feel that if you could rework our loan balance and mortgage payment or agree to do a short sale? We feel this  would benefit us and (the name of the lender here). We would appreciate if you can work with us to lower or delinquent amount owed and or payment so we can keep our home and also afford to make amends with your firm.

We truly hope that you will work with us and together we can get this settled so we all can both move on.

Thank-You for your time in considering me and my family's  under these hard and difficult times

Borrower’s Signatures       Date

Co-Borrower’s Signature   Date

I hope you find this information helpful. I have successfully closed several short sales with many of the major banks and mortgage companites in this country such as Bank of America, Countrywide Home loans, Chase Bank , Citi Bank, Wells Fargo, Saxton, Litton Home Loans, Ing Direct and many more.

I look forward to talking to you.