How To Sell a Home With an Underwater Mortgage
In the big crash of 2007-2008, almost thirty percent of the homes in this country had mortgages that were “under water”. But even in a normal market, it is common for a certain portion of mortgages to be under water. An underwater mortgage, or a home that is “upside down”, simply means that you owe more than your home is worth. Because your loan balance is higher than your property value, you can’t sell your property without bringing a big chunk of cash to the table, which most people can’t afford to do.
In another case, you might not owe more than your home is worth. You might owe about the same as the property value, or slightly less. In this scenario, you aren’t under water, but you STILL can’t sell your house! Why not? Because you don’t have money to pay closing costs, commissions, and price reductions, or to deal with repair requests from the buyer. Those expenses can typically total around 10% of the sale price. And that does not even include “seller concessions“, where you might agree to pay the buyer’s loan fees and closing costs. That can be another 3% of the sale price. So, for example, with a property selling for $200,000, you might need to come in with $20,000 – $26,000 out of pocket, just to get your home sold!
How Can I Sell My Home?
We may be able to buy your home, even if it has an underwater mortgage, or even if you don’t have enough money to pay for the closing. The way we do it is to simply take over the payments on your existing loan.
This allows you to sell your home and move on, without having to come out of pocket for all the costs related to selling the home.
In this type of transaction, your loan would stay in place, but you would no longer be responsible to make the loan payments. We would make the payments every month until the home was sold or refinanced at some point in the future.
Because we would be taking over an existing loan, rather than getting a new loan, we could close very quickly. And most importantly, you would not have any closing costs, fees, or commissions to pay!
Here is an example:
Let’s say your home is worth $200,000, but you owe $205,000 on your current mortgage.
- Market Value: $200,000
- Sale Price: $205,000
- Existing Loan Taken Over By Buyer: $205,000
- Closing Costs To You: $0
- Your Money Out Of Pocket: $0
- Estimated Time To Close: 7 Days
You would walk away and not have to make a payment on your existing loan ever again!
If you would like to sell your home, but didn’t think you could afford to, please call us at (480) 447-3577, or provide your info in the form below. We will get back to you right away to discuss your options and view your property.