short saleWhen people make an arrangement to sell their home as a short sale, it means that the home is worth less than the mortgage amount. This is a relatively new phenomenon in the site-built real estate market, although it has plagued mobile home owners for years. The reason that the short sale is more common now is that many people bought at the top of the market when it was highly inflated, and their mortgage amounts were high because they had no or little down payment. Lending standards were lax, and people bought way too much home for themselves that they could not ultimately afford once the loan terms reset.

Mobile home owners who need to sell their homes for less than they are worth often walk away, but a short sale for someone in a site built home is so much better off. They can sell their home for less than the loan, and not have a foreclosure on their credit report. It's a good move for homeowners who are upside down in their homes, and it's also good for the lender, as well, since they don't have to go through the long and expensive foreclosure process.