A well written hardship letter can brighten the chances of selling your home as a short sale. In this article, we will look at some details along with a sample for your reference.
Hardship letters stand as the only document in the eyes of banks or financial institutions that you’ve applied for a short sale request, that can describe your financial inability to pay the mortgage of your land. And so you request the bank for approval of a short sale of your home, so that you can stop its foreclosure.
Useful Tips
Here are some fundamental tips for writing a hardship letter for a short sale.
- Write the letter in your own words, as a borrower.
- Ensure that you describe your financial condition properly, in detail and specifically. Provide as much written explanation of the problems in the letter.
- Be specific about financial problems, don’t beat about the bush.
- Don’t complain or crib. Present the facts properly.
- Don’t forget to supplement your letter along with documents proving your financial limitations. The documents may be unpaid medical bills, a layoff letter, or other similar documents.
- Statistics and numbers on your attached documents must convey that you’re inching closer to foreclosure or bankruptcy. That will strengthen your request for getting cooperation from your lender.
- The letter should be preferably hand written. All details like contact number and address must be mentioned clearly.
- The letter must factually give information about your financial crisis. Lenders don’t look at your economic problems from an emotional viewpoint. They just want to know the facts. So, whatever problem(s) you’re facing, mention them without fail.
Format
| [Date] [Company’s Name] [Company’s Address] [RE: Request for short sale] [Dear (Bank’s Name) Representative] Paragraph#1: Express what has happened to your financial situation since you purchased the home. Keep the reason brief and yet ensure you’ve made your point that some changed occurred owing to which financial crisis deepened. Paragraph#2: State about the location of the property and how market value of land has fallen drastically. Think from point of view of a land owner as how property has lost its value and won’t reap profit now. Paragraph#3: Numbers play a vital role. Use facts, deals and expenditure budgets to explain your problems. Be specific. This paragraph will be carefully analyzed by lenders as they want apt reasons to accept your request. Paragraph#4: Conclude by again expressing your inability to pay any money and request permission for short sale. Make your point that it’s not possible for you to pay any money and hence foreclosure or bankruptcy is inevitable. So you require permission for short sale. Leave your contact details or your short sale agents contact info. [Your Sign] |
| 11/2/2010 ABC Bank, 23, Park Avenue Street, Massachusetts – 400290 RE: Hardship Letter – Short Sale for Flat No. 205, Montreal Block, Ervin Road, Massachusetts- 53 Lender Name: Peter Francois Dear ABC bank, Since the last two months, I’ve been experiencing very difficult financial conditions due to my medical problems and I have been advised complete bed rest until my fractured leg is not healed. After deeply thinking over my present financial condition, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t have the required finances to comply with some or all the terms of agreement. I have been left with no option but to request you to help in avoiding foreclosure of my home. Even the market prices of my area have dropped since the last 6 months and my mortgage amount has gone beyond the value of the property I own. I request you to allow me to sell my land under your short sale program so that the price of the property can be considerably lowered and it doesn’t go into foreclosure. Moreover, we don’t have to file for bankruptcy. This financial hardship has occurred to me at an unfortunate phase of my career. I deeply appreciate any help from you and I enclose all financial transactions, bank statements, last two year’s federal return tax and other documents to make you more aware about my financial plight. If you wish to contact me for information, please feel free to contact my number 050-858858 at any time of the day. Also, you can contact my Realtor, Mr. Joseph, on 757-8585858. I, Peter Francois state that the above information presented by me is true to my knowledge. Sincerely, Peter Francois. |
