The owner was approved for the short sale and completed the sale without ever missing a mortgage payment, therefore her credit remained intact. The hardship was a relocation rather than financial and was an imminent future hardship
The owner wanted to move out of state so she could be closer to her parents and live and work where expenses were lower than California. Also her daughter was ready to graduate high school so she decided that it would be a good time to move out of state and short sale her home in Canyon Country California. The reason for the hardship was that she could not afford to both keep up her mortgage payments which she had never missed and pay a rent on her new out of state home. The owner had a very good job in middle management and did not have a current financial hardship.
Chase JP Morgan Bank took a loss of over $300,000 for the house and paid the owner $3,000 The owner had purchased the home for $610,000 and the value had dropped almost in half to little over $300,000, all of which was forgiven as settled by the lender. We used the words “imminent hardship” in describing that she had to move and could not pay both her current mortgage and a new rent. This meant that although she did not currently have a financial hardship she would soon be having one in the very near future once she moves away. We also explained that we would rather short sale the home now while it was occupied by the owner and her family and was being kept up in good condition rather than leave the house vacant and risk vandalism and dilapidation of the home and landscaping which would cause a further drop in market value.