Can I Try To Sell My House Without A Realtor Before My House Goes Into Foreclosure?

Of course you can try to sell your house without a Realtor before your house goes into foreclosure. Sellers can always try to sell their homes on their own as "For Sale By Owners" regardless of where it is in relation to foreclosure.

Where it gets complicated is if you need to do a "short sale". These are very difficult and you should have an agent to do this for you. Sometimes it takes a very tenacious agent to follow through with the negotiators in order to get anything done with the bank. They are literally inundated with files and you have to operate on the "Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease" philosophy and call them virtually every day for an update.

Lenders will require that the house be "listed" for at least 90 days before they will consider a "Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure" but how you "list" it is entirely up to you; you could list it with a FSBO company to be sure as that would be a binding contract. A "Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure" is where you are going to deed the house back to the lender and be written off the loan through a "Release of Mortgage". Therefore you have to show documentation that the house has been listed by way of a listing agreement with the lender.

You will have to provide a lot of other documentation as well and your agent can assist you in preparing this documentation. The most important document will be your hardship letter that will have to be provided to the lender as well. Your agent can assist you with writing this as well, as he or she will likely know exactly what should be in the letter.

More importantly though, is why would you want to sell your house without a Realtor? There are so many problems these days with buyers who cannot get financing or online lenders that are not reliable that you need to be protected on several fronts. A Realtor protects you and your investment through the whole sale process and a good agent is worth his or her weight in gold. Why would you want to limit your access to good buyers or your presence in the market place? Why would you shoot yourself in the foot with regard to the sale of your most valuable asset?