Tips to Write a Hardship Letter for Short Sales

When homeowners want to sell their house as a short sale, the bank will often request a document called a hardship letter. This is simply a letter detailing the nature of the hardship to determine if the sale will be allowed to go through or not. Here are some tips for writing a hardship letter to get approved for short sales.

Does your situation meet the requirements of a hardship?
Notice the letter isn’t referred to as a financial hardship letter, but simply as a hardship letter. This is because a hardship isn’t solely based on your financial status. It can be any situation that is making the ability to meet your financial obligation for your mortgage payment difficult. Being upside-down in your loan is one of the requirements of a hardship, but your request won’t usually be granted solely because of that reason. Common reasons homeowners write hardship letters include divorce or other difficulties in their marriage, loss of employment, military deployment, death of a spouse, or necessary home repairs that are out of the financial means of the homeowner.

3 key elements all hardship letters need
Before you begin writing, make sure your letter addresses your name, property address, and account number. When you write your hardship letter, you need to detail three very important points. The first topic you need to cover is the circumstances at the time your loan closed on the house and how your hardship situation occurred. Give every aspect you can–it’s important to show the full scope of the event you’re dealing with. Then, cover the ways you have attempted to remedy the situation to get back on track with your mortgage. The last point you need to cover is about why you feel this situation will not change. Make it clear the approval of your short sale request is the best, if not only, solution.

Common mistakes in hardship letters
It’s hard to see your current situation laid out in black and white. When you read it, you might be tempted to put in something that will show your plans for your life to improve. This isn’t the place to do that. Make sure your letter is coherent and easy to follow. It is important to convey your situation in detail without it turning into a novel.

Stay away from online templates
A quick check on Google for “how to write a hardship letter” will bring you a lot of templates. Most of them are filled with bad grammar, bad format, and bad advice. Plus, it’s a good bet that your bank is familiar with a number of the pre-written hardship letters out there. You get one chance to make this request, so do it right. Talk one-on-one with whomever you’re doing your short sale through to get the scoop for writing a properly written hardship letter that applies to your individual situation.

Knowing how to properly craft a hardship letter is the first step to making the process of your short sale go as smoothly as possible. Use these tips to help draft a letter that will get your short sale request approved.

Need help making sense of your Jacksonville, NC real estate options?  Contact Blue Hen Homebuyers at info@bluehenhomebuyers.com.