Can You Sell a House When You Owe More Than it’s Worth?
There are a few things you should know when you are looking to sell a house when you owe more than it’s worth in Oshkosh, WI. If you are reading this article you have definitely started in the right spot for finding out how to sell a home you are underwater on.
Many homeowners think their only option is to continue to pay down the mortgage each month until you have enough equity to sell. Well, that could be an option when selling your house in Oshkosh, but you may not want to wait that long. So what are your other options?
You Can Do a Short Sale on Your Oshkosh House
So What does a short sale in Oshkosh, WI all entail? Great Question!
Even though it has the word “short” in it, that is probably the farthest thing from the truth. On average, most short sales take between 3-5 months. The quickest short sale we have done was on a fixer upper house in Green Bay & that was completed within 3.5 weeks. But, you might be wondering “what is a short sale“?
A Short sale is when you request your lender to accept a lessor value than what is owed on your mortgage. The lender will only do this if you fall into some sort of financial hardship. A very common scenario is when someone loses a job, misses a few mortgage payments, & receives a notice for foreclosure. Then instead of getting foreclosed on, we negotiate a short sale with the lender to still sell the property.
What are the problems with a short sale? Well, other than the fact that it takes a while, your credit will be impacted. Originally when you bought the house you signed a mortgage stating you would pay off your loan in full by “xx” date. Because you are not paying your loan off & actually taking a loss your credit will be damaged for up to 2 years. However, this is far less severe compared to a foreclosure on your record.
If you have no desire to own your property anymore & if it does not matter to you if you have a blemish on your credit record for the next 2 years, I would personally recommend going the short sale route.
You Can Rent-to-Own Your Oshkosh Home
If you owe more on your Oshkosh home then what it is worth, you could also try doing a rent to own program. Rent to own has its pros & cons. Below I will go over the advantages to renting out your home & the disadvantages to renting it out.
Pros
- Tenant Will pay down your mortgage
- Tenant will pay a premium on rent to own contracts
- You will avoid Realtor commissions
- You can collect a non-refundable deposit
- You can have tenant responsible for most repairs
Cons
- You still own the house until the tenant performs on the contract
- You are still responsible for major repairs such as a furnace, a/c, roof, windows, etc. The typical tenant repairs are everything under $500
- You are responsible for the mortgage, taxes, property insurance
- If your tenant quits paying you could go into foreclosure
- This is a rental property so you need to maintain it as such
So after reading both the pros & cons of the rent to own oshkosh houses, which choice would you rather go with?
Does a short sale sound like a better option? Or maybe, you have extra cash availible & you can sell your house outright & bring the difference to closing. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about the property anymore & it might make more sense for you.
I hope you found this article beneficial on how you can sell your Oshkosh, WI house when you owe more than it’s worth. If you would like to talk to us about receiving an offer on your property please give us a call or fill out the form below.