Yes, you can. In many sales, the buyer’s funds are used by the title company to pay off the remainder of the balance at closing. If you have low equity or behind on your payments, you can still sell. The best way to move forward with the sale is working with a professional buyer like Huck Buys Homes. They directly take over your mortgage so you can sell the house and be debt free. No relator commissions or bringing cash to the closing table.
I spent a morning with a Kansas City homeowner who wanted to sell their house as soon as possible. He had a job lined up in Topeka and didn’t have enough time to figure out what to do next with the house he was selling. He told me “you know, I wanted to try the traditional route but I couldn’t do it because the mortgage hasn’t been paid off”. I nodded and said, “you can still sell”. I proceeded to tell him that with selling a house with a mortgage in Missouri, my team and I at Huck Buys Homes can handle the mortgage and anything else that needs to be addressed. He was shocked when he heard me say that he could sell the house as-is.
After the cash deal was made, he was out of Missouri and settling into his new place just across the neighboring state of Kansas. He told me “couldn’t have done it without you guys”. I know it puts a smile on my face knowing I saved people a lot of stress, money, and who knows what else when it comes to selling a home even with a mortgage intact.
I have seen many homeowners overcomplicate this process. Before you even consider the idea of selling a house with a mortgage in Missouri, I need to caution you on a few things. Here’s what you shouldn’t do:
What actually happens here is a series of events that may seem complex and confusing. Here’s what goes on if you go down this road:
One thing to know is that the equity you’ll get may not be much. Another thing you may also be wondering is whether or not a lien will be cleared (assuming there is one on your property). Yes, it does get cleared. The lender will release the lien, the buyer receives a clean title, and you’ll walk away free of any debt.
You can walk away free from debt as well when you work with Huck Buys Homes. My team and I will give you a cash offer in Missouri for your house even if the mortgage is still there. Best of all, you won’t have to lose out on early payment penalties or additional fees that will take a bite out of your equity.
At this stage, these are where costly mistakes are made. I don’t know how many sellers have canceled their mortgage payments the moment they accept an offer. Consider me warning you here that when you accept an offer while canceling your mortgage payments, your credit is going to take a hit. I’m not lying to you here. You may be focused on the sweet rewards of getting leftover equity and accepting an excellent offer, but it’s not what it’s cracked up to be.
But what if you just made a payment? So let’s say you pay your mortgage on the 1st and close on the 5th. Yes, you’re not going to lose money. You could receive a refund for overpayment or escrow. In the meantime, the title company may adjust the payoff amount and your lender processes the final numbers. If you do get a refund, the lender pays that instead of the buyer. It may come a few weeks after closing.
However, if you are selling a home and need cash faster than a few weeks, Huck Buys Homes will be a better option. Especially if you plan to sell as-is in Blue Springs or in the surrounding communities.
Let’s turn our attention to HELOCs for a moment or the “Home Equity Line of Credit”. One client I had told me about why he turned to a HELOC: “I was dealing with some financial issues that hit me like a ton of bricks. I needed to handle that as soon as I could. So I consulted with my bank and told me a HELOC would be great for whenever I needed cash to pay off any debt I had. But the HELOC is still good for two more years. I’m not sure if I want to sell the house while that’s still good.”
If you are selling with a HELOC still active, it may be a good idea to check out which necessary steps you need to take beforehand.
Another thing I wish I could tell every homeowner is that low equity is not the best thing to come out of the deal. The math I’ll provide you will tell that story:
So let’s say your home is valued at $300,000. The mortgage balance is $295,000. The equity is $5,000. When listing with an agent, you might as well walk away with a sack of pennies. But oh no, I’m not finished yet. Let’s talk about the 6 percent agent commission ($18,000) and closing costs ($3,000 to $5,000). After all is said and done, you’re thousands of dollars short. When this happens, you bring cash at closing or the deal is dead in the water.
I had one client tell me “I didn’t realize this was a thing. I thought the low equity was nothing to sneeze at. Then we get hit with the commission and closing costs. The room was spinning when I heard that. I asked myself how I was going to come up with $10,000 at closing. What seemed like a done deal just disappeared in seconds”.
Tight equity can do that to you. For a professional cash buyer, you don’t have to worry about that. Huck Buys Homes offers no closing costs, no cash at closing, or agent commissions. We buy houses in Kansas City as-is, give you the cash offer that works for you, and that’s that. The shock you might feel may be from the disbelief of “how did I not know this sooner”.
So can you sell the house on mortgage? Yes. Can you sell with zero equity or if you’re behind on payments? Yes and yes. The traditional Missouri housing market will chew you up and spit you out. But not us. Once you sell the house to us, we take care of the existing payments, work with the banks, and take over the burden of the house.
If the house has a mortgage still intact and needs major repairs, yes it can be sold as-is. I was actually on the phone with a seller yesterday who gave me the rundown on what was wrong with his house. He told me this: “I have a roof that needs to be replaced and that was quoted at $12,000. The HVAC system is in serious need of a repair and that’s going to cost me $5,000. There is cosmetic damage at every corner and I cannot imagine how much money I’m going to shell out for that”.
The traditional housing market will be unforgiving for such houses. The lenders won’t touch such homes or let alone approve buyers for homes in poor conditions. Buyers walk away, deals die, and the current owner is stuck with the property.
The good news is that Huck Buys Homes buys the house in as-is condition and handles the heavy lifting. We’ll handle the repairs from the inside out. You walk away with cash and nothing to worry about regarding the house.
Yes. Many real estate transactions happen like that. Your mortgage gets paid off at closing via the title company.
Many modern loans won’t have prepayment penalties. But there isn’t a guarantee depending on who your lender is. However, it may be a good idea to request a payoff statement from them to ensure a confirmation.
If you have money set aside for property taxes and homeowners insurance, the lender will send you a refund after closing. Remember that it will come from the lender instead of the buyer.
At Huck Buys Homes, we will make sure that your house is sold as-is, even if you are wrestling with mortgage debt. Whether it’s in good condition or needs serious repairs, my team and I will have you covered. All you need to do is schedule a 15 minute property discovery and we’ll be able to come over and look at the place from the inside out. Contact us today to schedule it.
