Written by: Justin McHood
Many times, the difference between someone short selling their house and going through foreclosure comes down to one thing…
Luck.
Any number of things can happen that allow someone to short sell their home and avoid foreclosure – or on the other side, any number of things can happen that prevent someone from short selling their home and forcing their home to be foreclosed on.
And in my experience, people who have experienced either a short sale or a foreclosure have one common question that they ask me:
How long before I can get another mortgage?
And when I give them the honest answer, it is always fun to see their eyes open wide.
How long before you can get another mortgage if you short sell or go through foreclosure?
One. Day.
Many people don’t realize that there are financing options available that don’t care if you are:
- currently in foreclosure
- currently late on your payments
- have recently short sold your house
- have bad credit because you chose to walk away from your house
But there is — it is called seller financing.
Seller financing can take many different forms, but in the most general terms the seller currently owns the home you want to buy and they are willing to come to a financial agreement to let you buy it from them. There are very few rules when it comes to seller financing, so mortgage terms can be very, very flexible.
It is entirely possible that you can find seller financing much easier than you found it was to get a mortgage circa 2005, it is all up to the individual seller. According to Dean, right now there are currently about 1,000 properties available with seller financing listed as an option on the MLS in Maricopa County.
So my personal advice to people who are heart-broken about short selling their house or going through foreclosure is – if you want to own a home one day after foreclosure, start hustling around and looking for seller financing.
You may be surprised what you find.