Short sale legal fees
Our short sale services are provided without charge to our clients. Our typical fee is one percent of the sales price of your property. We either collect our fee from the lender, from the real estate agent’s commission, or from a combination of both, never from you. No matter where our fee comes from you are our client, and we work towards achieving the best possible outcome for you. If you should decide that you no longer wish to continue pursuing a short sale after you give us notice we will close your file without any payment being required.
Preliminary due diligence conducted on the Short Sale Property
Prior to our initial interview with you we engage a company to perform a preliminary title review to determine potential obstacles to a sale of your property. This company reviews deeds, deeds of trusts and mortgages, lawsuits, foreclosure actions, bankruptcy proceedings and other publicly available information. The company that provides this service does so without payment from you but it does seek payment from your lender in the short sale.
Determining if a short sale is right for you
After the title review is completed one of our attorneys will conduct either an in-person or telephone interview with you. The purpose of this interview is to ensure that a short sale is a good option for you to pursue. In some instances we will recommend a different course of action that may better suit your situation. We also take this opportunity to explain the short sale process and answer any questions that you may have. If you are a good short sale candidate, we will formalize the attorney-client relationship with an engagement letter.
Communicating with your mortgage lender
Once you are a client we work with you to gather the paperwork required by your lender. We will submit this paperwork to your lender on your behalf and work on your matter two to three times a week, or more frequently in some instances, to ensure that your short sale is completed or until your lender makes a final decision. We will communicate with your lender in regards to the short sale so you do not have to. We provide regular status updates to you and the real estate agents involved in your transaction so that everyone is fully informed of the progress and efforts being made on your behalf.
Reviewing the short sale approval
Once a short sale approval is issued, one of our attorneys will contact you again to review the terms of the approval and answer any further questions you may have. We will also work closely with the title company to ensure that settlement occurs in a timely fashion. One of our attorneys is available to answer your questions at any point during the short sale process and even after the short sale is completed.
Service areas
We are licensed to accept clients in Maryland and Washington D.C. We have successfully closed files in Montgomery, Howard, Prince Georges, Baltimore, Harford, Cecil, Calvert and Worcester counties as well as Baltimore City.
Have questions about short sale transactions in Maryland?
Todd Heise can answer them.