One of my regular listings will probably need to go short sale. Divorce situation, been on the market for 95 days and keep doing price reductions, last payment was made in August. However, it is a VA loan. Seller talked to someone with VA and they have not heard from mortgage company yet. The person at VA talked to seller about doing workout program. My questions are, with VA loans: 1. Do they have to try a workout program first before a short sale will be considered? 2. Does VA allow short sales?

I'm in Augusta, Ga and have a VA short sale. I talked to the VA regional representative and he told me to proceed with the marketing using a short sale. He said they would have another appraisal done and if my short sale falls within a formula they use to compute whether to foreclose or accept the short sale then assuming I don't go below their cutoff, then, I should be okay. I'm thinking they are looking to net at least 89% of the appraisal value (that's just a guess). He did say to decide what price would move the house the quickest and then add back in commissions and any concessions.

So, even though I can't give you the magic formula they use when they get their appraisal back, he did ask me to provide him with a copy of the sales contract when I get one. He plans to follow it because he will be talking to the mortgage company that is holding the loan. He doesn't want this one back in inventory if we can short sale it. They're also wanting to minimize how much inventory and expenses they have to pay out on their guarantees.

Hope this gives you the incentive to go forward. It did me...

Dian Smith
Keller Williams Realty, Inc.
Augusta Partners