Owe More Than
Your Home Is Worth?
You still have options.

You sell your home for less than you owe, and your lender agrees to accept the lower amount and release the lien so the sale can close. It is not a foreclosure and it is not bankruptcy. You stay in control of the property and the sale the entire time.

Typically no. Commissions and standard closing costs come out of the sale proceeds and are approved by the lender as part of the deal, because the lender nets more from a managed sale than from taking the house back.

Plan on 90 to 120 days from accepted offer to closing, sometimes longer if there is a second lien or mortgage insurance involved. A conventional sale here closes in 30 to 45 days. That gap is the single biggest reason short sales fall apart — buyers get tired and walk — which is why I set the expectation honestly with every buyer up front.

It will hurt. A short sale is generally reported as a debt settled for less than the full balance, and it typically carries less impact than a foreclosure with a shorter recovery window. But a large share of the damage usually happens before the short sale, from the months of late payments that led up to it. Anyone telling you it is painless is selling you something.

That depends on the loan, the lien position, and the exact wording of the approval letter — and it is the most important question in the entire transaction. An approval that releases you from the deficiency and one that preserves the lender's right to collect look nearly identical. I am a Realtor, not an attorney, so I will hand every approval letter to a Nevada real estate attorney before you sign it. I would rather lose the sale than watch someone sign the wrong version.

Not always. Some servicers will consider an imminent, documentable hardship even if you are current. It varies by lender and program, which is exactly what we find out early rather than assuming.

Then I will tell you that, and we either list it normally or you keep it. That happens more often than people expect — Las Vegas values have moved a lot since 2020. The numbers review costs nothing and carries no obligation either way.