There are many reasons for having to short sell. There are some obvious hardships that are quite simple to prove. And then there are others that result in approved short sales, even if they don’t initially sound much like “hardships” at all.

Let start with the most common hardships that are easily approved and widely accepted by lenders:

• Facing foreclosure
• Unemployment/underemployment
• Employment or military based re-location
• Divorce or separation
• Death of a co-borrower/household wage earner
• Unaffordable mortgage
• Increase in expenses
• Decrease in income
• Business failure
• Natural disaster impacting property or employment
• Medical issues

However there are many other reasons to short sell that do translate in to qualifying hardships if presented in the right fashion. I have personally seen short sales approved for many reasons such as:

• Homeowner left place of employment to go back to school
• Voluntary employment change 
• Homeowner left town to care for an ailing relative in another state
• Since buying the home, homeowners had children causing the home to be too small for their needs
• Since buying the home, homeowners found out they were infertile and could not have children, leaving them with a home too large for their needs
• Homeowners found their commute too long and wanted to relocate to be closer to job
• Clients had bought a new home and failed to sell the old at a price to satisfy mortgage debt
• Investor owners ended up with tenants gone wrong

There is a lot of misinformation out there on the web regarding what is and is not an acceptable hardship. I have seen many unlikely-to-be-approved short sales actually get approved. There are a lot of variables to every short sale and no cut and dry rules for any. Before assuming your “hardship” doesn’t qualify, talk to me!