QUESTION
What is a proper lawyer fee for a short sale in PA?
Asked on May 21st, 2015 on Residential Real Estate - Pennsylvania
More details to this question:
I've been preparing to put my house on the market this year. Due to home prices in my area dropping rapidly in the past few months, my realtor has advised me to look into a short sale. He has represented buyers, but not sellers, in this situation in the past. The firm he referred me to doesn't require any payment up front, but upon closing wants 30% of the seller incentive. That seems high to me. I have an 80/20, and the house is not too far under water. If my primary lender is not fully paid, I assume my secondary lender will not receive much...Wont that make my secondary lender more prone to come after me for the differential? Am I better off not negotiating a short sale and paying off the differential myself?
1 ANSWER
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Short sales, in my experience, are always tough to get done. You have to get an offer to buy your home, meet short sale qualification guidelines (often requiring the loan to be in default for some period of time), present a package of materials for approval with the lender or FHA/HUD and wait for the processing time. Buyers don't want to wait forever for a short sale proposal to be approved and often deals are lost as a result of delays.
Are you certain you won't get an offer sufficient to cover both mortgages? If you don't, only then do you need to worry about a short sale. Is your mortgage in default? Don't let it go into default just to try for a short sale. If you do have to go the short sale route, there are restrictions on the amount of attorneys fees that can be collected from the sale proceeds. If the attorney you're talking to is trying to circumvent those restrictions, then I'd say "beware".
Answered on May 23rd, 2015 at 6:22 AM