Short sale newbie/questions

[DRand]

First, I would like to begin by saying that this is a wonderful site and very informative. I have a read a couple of things that have brought up questions that relate to my situation. I am seeking a short sale under the following circumstances:
- Our house is vacant. We relocated (PA to CA) due to change in employers.
- It has been on the market for 9 mos with no offers. We dropped the price $10,000 the first week of Dec. and have an offer in hand.
- We are current on both the 1st and 2nd mortgage, but cannot continue indefinitely. We are one bad event away from not being able to meet our monthly commitments.
- The house was not marketed as a short sale, but due to declining value and fully mortgaged property, we will not be able to get an offer to cover mortgages in the foreseeable future.
- The offer (proceeds) would cover the first in its entirety, and about 30% of the second ($20k of 63k).
- As an fyi- my realtor is comfortable (has executed a number) of short sales.
So, my questions:
- I read that the short sale process can take 4-10 mos. I am working with ditech/gmac and Wells Fargo and they seemed as though they would be able to work more quickly. Is this true?
-Since we are current on the mortgage, will they consider short sale? If so, is it likely that they will ask that we carry a promissary note for the balance (or portion of)?
- If we carry a note, will there be an impact on our credit since essentially we would be paying in full?
- Initially, Wells Fargo had said that they would handle negotiation with ditech, but when I called with offer (asking next steps), they said we would have to deal directly with ditech on the 2nd. What is customary? Since the first would be in full, do we need to worry about them?
I apologize for the lengthy post. While I will be looking to my broker for much of the process, I would like to know what to expect so I can call it out if things seem odd. I'd love to hear about other experiences with similar situations.

[Dan Bailey]

DRand,
Glad you made it to the forum and posted your questions. Cat or Moe will be by as soon as possible to answer your questions. Hang in there and good luck!

[Maurice Bedard]

Hi DRand,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining.............

Your agent should be able to help with most of your questions.......

the impact on the credit would depend on how they will report the note to the credit bureaus and if they charge it off first and is being collected by an agency............this would be something that would need to be negotiated along with the short sale so that the note is signed with the servicer that you have now............also your agent can try to negotiate a settlement with the second..............if the amount of the offer is going to pay 30% of the second..........that may be enough in this economy to suffice because the second may not receive that much if the property were to be foreclosed on.

So the agent should be working directly with the second on this.......