Selling a home during a hardship
By James Sanson, REALTOR® · Updated October 2026
IMPORTANT NOTICE
heroSOLD is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
Selling during a hardship, whether pre-foreclosure, a short sale, divorce, separation, deployment-related hardship, illness, or a situation that does not fit a normal listing, is what heroSOLD handles with discretion, in coordination with your attorney, JAG, and lender. We do not promise outcomes. We help you understand options.
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Tell us what is going on
Four quick questions. We aim to respond within one business day. The first conversation is free with no obligation. We listen first.
How should a home sale in a hard situation be handled?
With structure, even-handed treatment of everyone on the title, and coordination with the people on your side who handle what we are not licensed to handle: your attorney, CPA, JAG, lender, or counselor. Divorce, separation, illness, financial strain, legal issues, or a deployment hardship can make the home one piece of a larger situation, so before you sign with anyone, ask how they have handled a sale like yours.
Our internal rules for hard situations:
- We listen first. The first conversation is not a sales pitch. We let you describe what is happening, ask clarifying questions, and walk through options. If selling is not the right path right now, we say so.
- We do not promise outcomes. Hardship pathways (short sale, VA compromise sale, lender hardship programs) are not promised. Lender approval, court approval where applicable, and various other parties can affect what is actually possible. We tell you the options, the trade-offs, and what is still in our control.
- We work in sync with your attorney and JAG. If you have legal counsel, our communication should run through them when it does. We respect court orders, support obligations, and command expectations. We are not your attorney, and we do not give legal advice.
- Discretion is operational, not just promised. Our internal communication, vendor management, and showing logistics are designed to keep your situation between you and our team. If you need separate communication from a spouse or another party, we handle that. If you need certain people not to know what is happening, we work within those constraints.
- We do not judge. Nothing you share is going to come up in a casual conversation later.
What pressures come with a hard-situation sale?
Five, and they stack: layered crises, conflicting priorities, legal constraints, shame and privacy, and time pressure on top of all of it.
- Layered crises. The move or sale is happening at the same time as separation, divorce, illness, financial strain, legal issues, or all of these. There is no clean "just the home" to focus on.
- Conflicting priorities. If two parties are involved (spouse, business partner, family member), you may not agree about whether to sell, when, for how much, or who handles which decisions.
- Legal and order constraints. Restraining orders, custody arrangements, court orders affecting property, and command involvement in certain matters can limit who can communicate with whom, who can access the home, and the timing the sale must follow.
- Shame and privacy. You may feel embarrassed, judged, or worried about gossip in your unit or among people you know. The instinct to handle it alone is strong, even when doing so makes things worse.
- Time pressure on top of emotional load. Pre-foreclosure has timelines. Divorce decrees may dictate when the home must sell. Deployment may end before the situation resolves. The clock does not pause for the emotional process.
Every one of these is a real cost. They do not get better by ignoring them, and they do not get better by trying to handle the home sale through a generic agent who has not seen these situations before.
How does a home sale work during a divorce or separation?
If you are selling because of a divorce or separation, the home is part of a larger property division that your attorneys (and possibly the court) are managing. Our role is to coordinate the real estate side cleanly, not to take sides or substitute for your legal counsel. For the full framework on selling during a divorce, see our selling during a divorce guide. For the military-specific layered considerations (BAH, deployment, JAG, SCRA, command privacy, USFSPA), see our military divorce home sale guide.
What we do
- Communicate with each party separately if you both prefer that arrangement. Documented agreements, signed authorizations for what each party can decide alone, clear ground rules for how showing access and decisions get handled.
- Work with both attorneys to ensure that listing terms, sale timing, and net proceeds distribution match what your divorce settlement specifies. We do not improvise around legal documents.
- Handle showings and access with whatever protocols you need, including arranging access for showings during specified windows and with the agreed-upon party present (or not present, if that is the agreement).
- Document the financial side cleanly so closing proceeds can be distributed per your settlement without surprises.
What we do not do
- Give legal advice on property division, support obligations, or anything else affected by the divorce.
- Take sides between the parties. On the real estate, we treat both owners equally; the personal dynamics belong with your respective attorneys and any court-appointed mediator.
- Move forward without explicit authorization from whoever the legal documents specify holds authority to sell.
Confidential first conversation
Tell us what is going on. We listen first; we will not use anything you share beyond the first conversation without your explicit permission. The conversation is free with no obligation.
Get a confidential conversationOr call 855-750-SOLD
What are your options if you are behind or owe more than the home is worth?
If you are behind on mortgage payments, facing a notice of default, or otherwise upside-down on your loan, there are pathways. None of them are promised; eligibility depends on your specific situation, your lender, and, where applicable, other parties (the VA, a servicer, a court). We coordinate the real estate side; the approval side is the lender's call. For the full timeline-and-options framework, see our pre-foreclosure help guide.
Standard sale with negotiated seller credits
If you have some equity but a tight margin, sometimes a standard sale with negotiated buyer credits in lieu of full repairs can preserve your net proceeds without the complexity of a hardship pathway. This is a normal real estate negotiation; no lender approval required.
Short sale
If your sale price will not cover the full mortgage balance, your lender may agree to a short sale, where the lender accepts less than the full amount owed. The lender has to approve. The process takes longer than a standard sale because of the lender's underwriting and approval. We help you gather the documents your lender asks for and package the file. We are not the lender, and the lender's decision is the lender's decision.
VA compromise sale
If you have a VA loan and a short-sale-style scenario, the VA has its own process called a compromise sale. It has its own eligibility criteria and approval timeline. We coordinate with the VA Regional Loan Center and your lender; the VA's decision is the VA's decision.
Lender hardship programs
Some loan servicers offer hardship programs separate from short sale or compromise sale. Loan modification, repayment plans, partial claim, or deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure pathways all exist. For the full menu of these and how they work, see our military hardship home options guide. These belong primarily with your lender and a HUD-approved housing counselor; we coordinate on the real estate side, but we do not provide loan modification services.
What we do not promise
We will not tell you what your lender will approve. We will not tell you what the VA will accept. We will not tell you what the timelines will be. What we can tell you: which documents to ask your lender about, mistakes that can cost a seller hardship-pathway eligibility, and what your real estate options look like in parallel with whatever financial path you are pursuing.
Does the SCRA help if deployment causes a hardship?
It can. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) gives active-duty service members specific protections, and whether they reach your situation turns on your status, the timing of your loan and orders, and the type of action being taken.
What we do: help you document your situation before any lender or court conversation, coordinate with base legal assistance (JAG, Staff Judge Advocate, or branch equivalent) on the SCRA filings that are appropriate for your situation, and run the real estate side of whatever path is selected.
What we do not do: file SCRA paperwork on your behalf. Give legal advice on the SCRA application. Substitute for an attorney or JAG. The SCRA-specific decisions belong with legal counsel.
If your service member is deployed and you are the spouse leading this conversation, see also our military spouse home-selling guide for the spouse-led mechanics layered on top of a hardship situation. For the broader menu of military-specific hardship paths, see our military hardship home options guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hardship home sale?
A hardship home sale is a real estate transaction structured around a difficult life circumstance, such as pre-foreclosure, low equity, divorce, deployment-related financial strain, illness, or another situation where a standard listing approach does not apply. Hardship sales may require coordination with lenders, attorneys, JAG, the VA, the court, or HUD-approved housing counselors as well as the real estate transaction itself. heroSOLD coordinates the real estate side; the financial, legal, and counseling sides are handled by the professionals named throughout this hub.
What kinds of hard situations does heroSOLD handle?
Pre-foreclosure, short sale, divorce or separation that involves selling jointly-held property, deployment-related financial hardship, illness or family medical situations affecting the home, and similar layered circumstances where a standard sale process does not fit. We also handle situations where a service member's command involvement, restraining orders, or custody considerations affect how the sale needs to be structured.
Do I have to know exactly what kind of hardship I am in to talk to you?
No. You can start with something as simple as "I don't know what to call this; I just know the situation is bad and the home is part of it." That is fine. We listen first, help name what is happening, and then walk through options.
Can I sell my house if I am behind on payments?
Yes. Being behind on payments does not prevent you from selling the home before a foreclosure sale. If the price covers what you owe, a standard sale pays off the loan, including missed payments and fees, at closing. If you owe more than the home is worth, a short sale may be available with lender approval. The earlier you start the conversation, the more options you have. See the pre-foreclosure help guide for the timeline-and-options framework.
How do I know if I qualify for a short sale?
Short sale qualification is the lender's decision, not ours. Lenders look at factors such as demonstrated financial hardship, the home being underwater (worth less than the loan balance), and a documented inability to bring the gap to closing. Specific eligibility criteria vary by lender, loan type (VA, FHA, conventional), and program (such as the VA compromise sale process). We help you understand the documentation your lender asks for and coordinate the real estate side of the transaction. The qualification determination belongs with your lender or servicer, and questions about lender-side eligibility may also belong with a HUD-approved housing counselor.
What is the difference between a short sale and a pre-foreclosure sale?
Pre-foreclosure means the lender has started or is about to start the foreclosure process because of missed payments, but the home has not yet been foreclosed. A short sale is a specific type of sale where the lender agrees to accept less than the full amount owed on the mortgage. The two often overlap but they are not the same thing. Whether either applies to your situation depends on your specific loan status and lender; we coordinate with the lender, but we are not the lender, and we do not promise approval of any specific path.
Will my command find out about my hardship sale?
We do not contact your command. Our communication with you is confidential between you and our team. The exception is situations where a service member's command must be involved as a matter of law or policy (certain orders-related issues, certain SCRA filings), in which case the disclosure happens through the legal channels that require it, not through us. If you are concerned about command privacy, mention it during the first conversation, and we will walk through what we can and cannot keep separate.
Can you work with us if my spouse and I are in the process of a divorce or separation and we disagree about selling?
Yes. We have processes for this. We are willing to communicate with each party separately, document agreements clearly, and work in sync with your respective attorneys. We are not a substitute for legal counsel; the property division decisions and timing belong with your attorneys and the court. We coordinate the real estate side of whatever they tell us is happening.
What are SCRA protections, and how do they apply to a hardship sale?
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act provides certain financial protections for active-duty service members, including potential reductions in mortgage interest rates during active duty, foreclosure protections, and specific lease termination rights. Whether and how SCRA applies to your specific situation depends on your status, the timing of your loan and orders, and the type of action being taken. We help you document your situation before any conversation with a lender, but we are not your attorney; SCRA application questions belong with base legal assistance (JAG, Staff Judge Advocate, or branch equivalent) or a private attorney.
What if I owe more than the home is worth and I cannot bring cash to closing?
There are pathways for sellers who are upside down on their mortgages. These include short sale (lender accepts less than the full balance), VA compromise sale (specific to VA-financed loans, requires VA approval), and, in some cases, hardship programs offered directly by the loan servicer. None of these are promised; eligibility depends on your specific situation and the lender's discretion. We coordinate the real estate side. The approval side belongs with the lender, the servicer, and, where applicable, the VA. We do not promise outcomes.
Related guides
These detailed guides go deeper into each type of hard situation:
- Short sale help, if you owe more than the home is worth.
- Short sales on a VA loan, how the VA compromise sale process works.
- Pre-foreclosure help, race-the-timeline strategy when payments are behind.
- Military hardship home options, service-member-specific protections (SCRA, JAG, etc.).
- Selling during a divorce: civilian-side divorce home-sale framework.
- Military divorce home sale, the additional military-specific layer.
- If your situation is PCS-driven instead, use the PCS home sale guide.
- Get matched with an agent, one conversation, no obligation.
Get a confidential conversation
We do not promise outcomes. We help you understand options.