How to Write a Winning Hardship Letter

I've seen a lot of sellers struggle with writing a short sale hardship letter.

Generally speaking, they start out OK by talking about how they got into their present situation, but about one-third of the way through the letter, they seem to change course. They take this unexpected 90-degree turn. It's as though it's all too depressing for them to continue writing in the same vein.

All of a sudden, they're wearing rose-colored glasses and laying out how they plan to turn around their lives and what nice, responsible people they are. They are, in effect, giving the bank every reason to either reject their short sale on the basis that their hardship is only temporary or to smash those dreams by demanding a seller contribution from these pure-as-the-driven-snow and under-water sellers . . . read more about writing a Hardship Letter.

More Articles by Elizabeth Weintraub:

• Reasons to Do a Short Sale
  
• How to Avoid Short Sale Mortgage Fraud
  
• Why Buy and Bail is Wrong

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_{At the time of writing, Elizabeth Weintraub, DRE # 00697006, is a Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento, California.}