Can you make the payment?
If yes, most of this does not apply yet. If no, the choice narrows to how you exit and how much control you keep.
Colorado homeowners
Six ways out when you owe more than the home is worth. What each one costs you in credit, in cash, in time, and in how long before you can buy again.
A live person answers, not a robot and not a phone tree.
If yes, most of this does not apply yet. If no, the choice narrows to how you exit and how much control you keep.
No lender approval, no credit damage, and you pick the closing date. Worth knowing your exact gap before ruling it out.
Slower and more paperwork, but you negotiate the terms and know them before you sign. Four years to a conventional loan.
Seven years before a conventional loan, a six-year deficiency window, and no control over timing. Doing nothing scores worst on every measure.
Three questions decide this. Answer them before comparing anything.
Can you make the payment?
If yes, most of this page does not apply to you yet.
Do you have to move?
A job, a divorce, a health change. A deadline you did not choose.
How much cash could you bring to a closing?
Not what you would like to bring. What you actually have.
Those three answers eliminate most of the six options below before you read a word about them.
Fit check
No credit damage. No cash needed. You keep the home. Extra principal closes the gap faster than the market will.
Cleanest exit there is. No lender approval, no credit hit, and you pick the closing date.
The lender takes less than the payoff and releases the lien. Needs their approval. Roughly 85 to 160 credit points.
You hand the home back instead of selling it. Faster than foreclosure, similar credit effect, and the lender has to agree.
Only works if rent covers payment, taxes, insurance and repairs with room left. Run real numbers, not optimistic ones.
The most expensive exit. Seven years before a conventional loan, and the lender decides the deficiency without you.
Compare the decision
If you are past staying and past paying the gap, it usually comes down to these two.
Slower and more paperwork, but you negotiate the terms and you know them before you sign.
Nothing to negotiate and nothing to sign. The outcome arrives rather than being agreed.
"Short sale" sounds worse than it is.
"Walking away" sounds easier than it is.
The names carry feelings the numbers do not support. Compare the four things that actually differ: cash required, credit effect, how long until you can buy again, and who controls the outcome.
On every one of those, doing nothing scores worst.
A first call is useful with these. It is general without them.
Selling normally and bringing the difference does no damage at all. After that, a short sale is lighter than a deed in lieu, which is lighter than a foreclosure. The gap between a short sale and a foreclosure is years, not months.
Four years after a short sale on a conventional loan, or two with documented extenuating circumstances and 10% down. Seven years after a foreclosure. That difference is the strongest practical argument against walking away.
It is faster and involves less paperwork, because there is no buyer. But you give up the chance to negotiate the deficiency against a real offer, and many lenders refuse one when a second lien is on title.
Being underwater triggers nothing by itself. Missing payments does. Doing nothing while payments slip narrows your options to the two at the bottom of this page, which are the two you would least choose.
Often yes, and earlier is better. A short sale can be attempted before a foreclosure completes. Once the sale date is set, the room to maneuver shrinks quickly.
Call or text and we will work through it. A live person answers at 303-955-4220, not a robot and not a phone tree. No cost, and no obligation to list.