Short sale or cash sale on your Plainview house: the one test
A short sale and a cash sale are not two options you pick between on preference. One number decides it. If your Plainview house is worth more than the mortgage payoff, you have equity, and an ordinary cash sale protects it. If the payoff is higher than the house is worth, no buyer can pay enough to clear the debt, and a short sale is the route, because only the lender can agree to accept less than it is owed.
Get the written payoff from your servicer first. Until you have that figure, nobody can honestly tell you which of the two you are looking at.
What a short sale actually involves
A short sale needs three things: a hardship documented well enough for the servicer to act on, a buyer credible enough that the file does not collapse partway, and patience. Short sale approval is measured in months rather than weeks, and it moves at the servicer's pace.
What a short sale is not is fast, and it is not something a buyer can force. What a buyer can do is arrive with a clean contract, answer every request the same day, and stay in it when the file goes quiet for three weeks. That is most of what separates a short sale that closes from one that stalls out.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A three-bedroom on Gerhard Road. A three-bedroom on Knickerbocker Road North. A two-bedroom on Manetto Hill Road. All of them in Plainview, all bought by us.
Plainview is roughly 27,100 people in Nassau County, ZIP 11803, and the housing stock is mostly ranch, split-level, hi-ranch. Around Old Country Road and Manetto Hill Road, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. We know which of these streets take water, where the older systems fail first, and what the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District does to a resale price.
Where we fit, on either route
If you have equity, we are the simple route: a written cash sale number, a closing date you choose, no repairs, and no financing to fall through.
If you are underwater, a short sale is the route and we can work it with you. We know what a Nassau County servicer wants in the package, roughly how long short sale approval takes, and where these files usually stall. We also bring in the attorneys and HUD-approved housing counselors we have used for years when a situation needs them, and we do that whether or not the house ends up being ours.
Why the short sale clock matters when a sale date exists
A cash sale on a Plainview house moves at whatever speed you want, because the funds are not conditional on anything. A short sale moves at the servicer's speed, and the servicer is being asked to approve a loss.
So the practical advice is the same on either route: start earlier than feels necessary. A short sale begun months before a sale date has room to breathe. The same short sale begun three weeks out is a race, and it is one you do not control.
How selling a house in a short sale in Plainview works
- 1
Tell us where it is
Just the address in 11803 and roughly what shape it is in. It takes a couple of minutes. Leave the house exactly as it is; we do not need it tidied, photographed or fixed.
- 2
One short visit
One of us comes by once, usually for less than half an hour. On a ranch or split-level like most of Plainview, what we look at closely is the roof, the boiler and the wiring, not the finishes.
- 3
We put a figure in writing
You have a written number within 24 hours, a single figure rather than a "somewhere around". Feel free to check it with a Nassau County agent. When a house is ready to list as it is, listing can beat us, and we would rather you knew.
- 4
You choose when to close
Soon, or months away if probate, a tenant or your next move has to come first. You also avoid the 73 to 88 days a listed Plainview house typically takes to find a buyer and get through the buyer's mortgage.
Deficiency, credit and taxes: ask before you choose
Owners often ask which is worse for their credit, a short sale or a foreclosure. The honest answer is that it depends on how it is reported and on your wider picture, and a credit counselor can give you a better read on that than a buyer can.
What we can tell you is the transactional difference. A cash sale with equity behind it pays the mortgage off and you keep the balance. A short sale pays the servicer less than it is owed, on terms set out in an approval letter that an attorney should review before you sign it.
What you do not pay when you sell a house in a short sale
Every line below is a cost of listing a house in a short sale the retail way that simply does not arise here.
- Agent commission
- $48,500 at 5% of the Plainview median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $19,400 on a $970,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Everything a buyer would flag, paid for before you list none
- Cleanout and removal
- Dumpsters or haulers by the load, ahead of any viewing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities while you spend 73 to 88 days finding a buyer and waiting for their loan none
Get the number on your Plainview house, then decide
Ask your servicer for a written payoff statement. Not the balance on the last statement, and not what you originally borrowed. The payoff includes arrears, fees and interest through the closing date, and it is the number that decides whether you are looking at a cash sale or a short sale.
It takes one phone call and you are entitled to it. Bring that figure to us and we will give you a written offer on a Plainview house alongside a straight read on which route it puts you on.
Common questions
Do you handle short sales in Plainview?
Yes. We have worked a great many short sales across Nassau and Suffolk over the years. A short sale is slower and lender-driven, so we will be honest up front about what yours looks like, but being underwater is not a reason we send anyone away.
How do I find out what I owe on the mortgage?
Call the servicer and ask for a payoff quote in writing, good through a date far enough out to be useful. Do not work from the balance on your monthly statement, because it leaves out the arrears and fees that the short sale question actually turns on.
Can I do a short sale on a Plainview house if foreclosure has already been filed?
Often yes. A filed foreclosure does not close off a short sale, it adds a clock. Servicers have discretion to adjourn a sale date when a credible contract is in front of them, though nobody can guarantee it. Get an attorney involved alongside us.
Which is better for me, a short sale or a cash sale?
Whichever one your numbers permit. A cash sale is better in almost every respect except that it requires equity. If you are underwater, a short sale is not a worse choice, it is the available route, and it can still beat letting a foreclosure run its course.
Will I walk away with money from a short sale?
Usually not, since the lender is already accepting less than it is owed. Some short sale approvals include a relocation allowance and some do not, and that is the servicer's call rather than ours. Ask an attorney to review the approval letter before you sign it.