Mortgage companies require writing a Letter of Hardship to submit with a short sale packet on a home. This is one of the hardest things to do as the homeowner in this situation because you have to open up about your financial difficulties. A letter of hardship is a written or typed out statement explaining the reasons for your default on the mortgage and why they should accept you in their short sale program. The letter will need to explain, supporting the additional documents that are being submitted in the packet to prove hardship.
Here is a basic breakdown on how to write the letter:
- Date
- Name, address, and phone number of the company processing your short sale
- Your name, address of the property, phone number, and your loan number
- State your hardship, acknowledge your problems, and make it brief but include the important points
- Explain why you fell behind, supporting documents, details of events, and dates of events
- Your proposed outcome, tell what you want to happen, what steps your taking towards a work out plan, and prove to the mortgage company that you are trying to resolve the problem.
- If your trying to keep the home, explain how you plan to get payments back on track and attach evidence of your budget
- Show what and where you set some money aside, if you do
- Specify what kind of payment you can keep.
- Thank them for their time
Do
This letter can be written by hand or typed out, it will get read either way but I think it would seem more personal if you wrote it yourself. When writing the hardship letter, your should be honest and represent facts clearly. You want the person reading this to understand your documents better and for them to feel for your situation. Your should supply legit excuses for the letter and show that you are willing to work with them through the process.
Do not
Be very careful not to complain about your situation and blame others for your situation. This shows that you are not acknowledging the situation. Do not write that the home was a bad purchase, you were unhappy with neighbors, or have problems with the association.
An involuntary reduction of income, an increase in unexpected expenses, and any kind of hard-luck circumstances that were beyond your control are what the mortgage companies are looking for.
