Orange County Short sale Homes
Orange County short sales or short sale homes sales, while rare, are popular for a reason: a large portion of the real estate purchases in Orange County in the past years were done with little to zero down payment, and these homes became 'underwater', the sellers owe more money than the property is worth, needing some forgiveness from the lender at the moment of selling. The short sale happens when the lender agrees to discount the amount owed on the home. Since the foreclosure process can be lengthy and more costly than accepting a short sale, most lenders are willing to negotiate the sale of a home with the current home owner and a potential buyer, while accepting less than the amount owed before the home goes into foreclosure. Short sale processes can be very time consuming and sometimes it can take months to negotiate a short sale, so if you need to move into a home quickly, short sales are probably not the right thing to pursue, and home buyers should look into standard sales or bank owned sales. Read more about the Short Sale process in Orange County below.
Below are short sales in Orange County, California. This page is updated daily with photographs, descriptions and maps of Orange County short sales. For further information about any of these Orange County Short sales, please contact us.
If you are looking for foreclosures instead of short sales visit our Orange County foreclosures page. It is updated daily with bank owned properties in Orange County, California.
Orange County Shortsales
- All Listings
- $500,000 - $600,000
- Over $1,000,000
The Short Sale Process in Orange County
The Short sale process in Orange County is very similar to other areas. It depends on the lender ( or lenders involved) but basically is made out of four steps:
1. Seller gets information and short sale package from bank, chooses a real estate agent as the listing agent, who lists the home for sale as a short sale. The short sale package usually consist of:
- Letter of authorization, which lets your agent speak to the bank.
- HUD-1 or preliminary net sheet
- Completed financial statement
- Seller's hardship letter ( very important, reason for short selling)
- 2 years of tax returns
- 2 years of W-2s
- Recent payroll stubs
- Last 2 months of bank statements
- Comparative market analysis or list of recent comparable sales
2. Seller finds buyers, chooses an offer to submit to lender as part of the short sale package. When submitting an offer, the listing agent will need the following:
- Listing agreement
- Executed purchase offer
- Buyer's pre-approval letter and copy of earnest money check
- Seller's short sale package
3. Now this is the tedious part. The lender will acknowledge receipt and assign a negotiator, order a BPO ( Broker Price Opinion), sent for review and then approve the short sale and submit a short sale approval letter. This part takes the longest, averaging 120 days.
Many buyers will get frustrated waiting and in many cases the original buyer will back out and a new buyer will come in. Agents have some idea of when approval will come in by knowing when the file is sent for review. Its crucial that the listing agent keeps in touch with the bank to avoid any delays, and when the file is sent for review, the buyers may want to start the loan process so they've got a head start in case the bank wants 15 days to close, that can also happen.
So for many sellers selling a short sale, a buyer who's willing to stick for the long process, and who's willing to deal with the lenders requests or modifications to the purchase offer is the best buyer that they can get, which defeats the 'all cash offers' or highest offers.
Our agents in Orange County at OCDreamhomes are experienced short sale agents on both sides of the transaction: they have closed multiple homes representing a short sale seller or a short sale buyer. We are here to help, so please contact us.