capitalizing on my short sale leads

[Des Shei]

as part of my marketing ( for rehab deals) i've also recieved a few calls from sellers who owe more than what the house is worth; however not all are facing hardships with payments. I'm currently working with a very motivated prospect right now and owes 243K on a 3fam house with 2389/mo payments; home value is right around 175K. She currently owns a primary residence with a mortgage in addition to this investment property and would hate to lose this one or both(in case they come after her). She is current on her primary home mtg but 2 months late on the multi due to vacancies on 2 of 3 units. is this possible or would i be wasting my time? I haven't ventured into short sales but i would like to capitalize on these leads if possible. Advise needed if there's a way. i have all the pertinent info captured from my lead generation spreadsheet.
regards,
Desmond

[Hazel L]

Unless these leads are somehow involved in the real estate industry (which is also counted is a financial hardship) by claiming income as investors with multiple properties, I'm afraid most of those leads are going to be written off as bad investments and cannot short sale.

Also, if a homeowner chooses to short sale an investment property they may be subject to a deficiency judgment.
The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 covers the deficiency judgment for only primary residences, so unless your leads are okay with eating the difference between short sale and mortgage amount, I would not in good conscience recommend them to try and short sale a secondary residence unless the payments on the primary were suffering as well due to documentable hardship.