Relocation Assistance After Short Selling Your Home
Nowadays, struggling homeowner's won't find much assistance available from the government. In fact, as of 12/31/18 the last of these of these programs ended or expired and were not extended. This includes HAFA, the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives and in California we had TAP, the Transfer Assistance Program. Unfortunately, there's no use wasting your time understanding these programs, because they no longer exist.
Perhaps in the future this might change, but for now there is no government assistance.
How to Obtain Relocation Assistance After a Short Sale
Although short sellers can't expect any relocation assistance from the government, it might be possible to obtain some relocation assistance from your lender, in exchange for certain concessions by the homeowner.
When we are selected to short sale a home, we always use professional negotiators to work with your lender on your behalf. In the past, we've been able to persuade the lender to provide a small amount of relocation cash, back to the seller, upon completion of the short sale transaction. In exchange for the relocation cash the seller might agree to continue residing and maintaining the home for the duration of the short sale process.
Why Would Lender Agree to Provide Relocation Cash?
Think about it from the lender's perspective. The short sale process takes a good amount of time and if the process fails, it takes even longer for the lender to foreclose. If the current homeowner moves out and stops caring for the property, it will surely deteriorate If the current homeowner continues to reside in the home as well as maintain it, the lender's job will be much easier should they have to foreclose. In fact, this is just one more reason why the lender might agree to a short sale rather than foreclosing.
While it's not always possible to get the lender to agree to any financial assistance back to the seller, you have nothing to lose by trying, so why not?