Tampa Short Pay Lawyers

What Are the Benefits of Short Pay?

The benefits of short pay for a debtor are fairly obvious. You can renegotiate the terms of your mortgage to a lower monthly payment you are actually able to make, representing a huge financial relief. Even more importantly, you will get to keep your home, at a reduced rate.

It may be less obvious, however, why lenders would agree to such an arrangement, especially since short pays more or less amount to discounts. Lenders can incur massive costs when someone is no longer able to pay their mortgage, up to and including foreclosure and eviction, which leaves them – often a bank – with a property they did not intend or want to acquire.

It is thus typically in a lender’s best interest to resolve a default issue as efficiently as possible to limit monetary damages on the investment. Short pay agreements are one way a lender can recoup some of that investment and avoid a far more expensive alternative. It is not ideal, but a short pay agreement can sometimes be the best option in a bad situation.

When Does Short Pay Make Sense?

A short pay agreement will not be right for every defaulting scenario. Remember that the point of the refinancing is for the homeowner to continue to pay their mortgage, just at a reduced, more manageable rate.

This means the debtor should still have some form of reliable income. A good example is if a married couple is suddenly unable to pay their full mortgage because one partner is laid off from their job and cannot immediately find new work.

The other partner is still employed and can continue to pay toward the balance, but not at the current, now-unsustainable rate. It also helps if the debtors have decent credit, as banks and lenders are far more likely to negotiate with those who have a strong history of repaying their obligations.

There are also situations where, for various external reasons, the value of a home may depreciate. This can mean a debtor might owe more on their mortgage than what the property is actually worth. Short pay refinancing can often serve as a useful means of resolving this discrepancy.

Lenders can be sympathetic to temporary financial difficulties with debtors who have otherwise been compliant in lending agreements. If you are a lender presented with a short pay proposal from an otherwise agreeable debtor, it may be in your best interest to work with them toward a resolution that does not involve foreclosure or eviction. You are likely to lose less money through the short pay approach.

In addition to saving you from further financial headaches, agreeing to a short pay agreement can dramatically assist an individual or family in crisis. It also helps the local community by preventing a foreclosure and eviction, which can in turn initiate a domino effect of depressed property values that can in turn affect other properties lenders may have interest in.

How Does the Short Pay Process Work?

The first step in exploring short pay refinancing is to get the affected property appraised. Using the resulting current value of your home as well as your present financial circumstances, a debtor will then need to negotiate a new mortgage agreement, often with the help of experienced legal representation.

Once this has been secured and approved, debtors will have to take the new agreement and the home appraisal to the original lender and propose short sale refinancing. Alternatively, the borrower can find a different lender to take on the new agreement.

Why You Need Quality Legal Assistance for Short Pay

Short pay refinancing requires a complicated series of negotiations among several parties. It is a lot to administrate in the best scenario, much less one in which you are already struggling to keep up with your mortgage.

At Cremeens Law Group PLLC, we are happy to help relieve you of some of that burden. Our Tampa short sale lawyers have assisted numerous clients with refinancing their mortgages through short sales and consequently saved their homes. We can represent you in each negotiation and make sure any agreement is in your best interest.

Do not wait to find out if a short sale can help save your home. Call (813) 683-8688 or contact us online today to schedule a free consultation.