Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Unfortunately, there is no standard answer to this question. How badly the foreclosure reduced your credit score, as opposed to a short-sale is individual and unique. You will likely have to hire someone who is an expert at the FICO credit score model to determine what the difference is. There is also no standard measure of what the loss of additional points on your score translates to in terms of dollars. It's a matter of what you can prove - generally it would involve a very complex calculation of how much more is credit going to cost you in the future as a result of the difference. You also have to be able to prove that it was the agent's fault, and not the bank's fault as is most often the case when short-sales fail. Contact a local attorney who works in the field of real estate licensee misconduct or malpractice. It is a pretty obscure field, but there are attorneys in Northern California who handle such matters. You need to meet with someone, and have them review all of the facts to determine if you have a case, and if so, what it might be worth.

*Due to the limitations of the LawGuru Forums, The Gibbs Law Firm, APC's (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. Further, information you provide to the Firm through this website is not confidential - it is available publicly to anyone visiting this website. The Firm shall have no obligation to keep the information you provide herein confidential in any context. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence. As required by 11 U.S.C. �528, we must now disclose that, "We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code. Assistance we provide with respect to Debt Relief may involve bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code."

According to this article in the Washington Post, Fair Issacs (the people who own the proprietary algorithms used by the reporting agencies to calculate your credit score) says there is no difference between a short-sale and a foreclosure in its effect on your credit score. A mortgage that is not paid in full is a mortgage not paid in full, and hits you the same either way. Both also give you a 3-year ineligibility for FHA loans as well. Therefore you have no damages on that basis to sue the broker/agent over.

In addition, short sales seem to be exceptionally tricky to put together, and proving that a short sale really would have taken place but for something the agent or broker did wrong would be a slippery slope indeed.

Sorry, forgot to add the link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/19/AR2008071900107.html