In a real estate short sale, you have a seller with no money who needs to move out of the property. Understanding how moving costs money and having a plan for the proper thing to do is a very important step to understand.

The best answer occurs when the home mortgage lender allows some payment to the seller at the closing of the home sale that can be used for moving expenses.

Some short sale agents tell the buyer to pay money to the seller outside of the closing, or outside of escrow, so it does not show up on the closing statement.  One of the requirements for short sales is that all parties have to certify to the lender getting the short payment that the seller is not getting anything out of the sale.  Be careful who you listen to,  they may get you in trouble.

There is another seminar leader whose Realtor training is to pay the seller $2,500 for work the seller is doing as a part of selling a home.  The examples given are that the seller does the open houses and other work that the agent would otherwise have to do to market the short sale home.   It could be argued that this may have some merit, because it is a payment for services rendered and the mortgage lender may see that there is some way that the payment can be justified, so they may choose not to challenge it.  However, this a risky way of selling a home.   

So what do you do to avoid lying to the home mortgage lender?  There should be no problem if you want to take the idea above and pay the seller for work done, and pay a reasonable amount for whatever service the seller provides in a field that does not require a real estate license. 

This is a recurring problem and there are solutions that will not get you in trouble.  For a more detailed discussion on this topic, please go to http://shortsalesr.us/short-sale-dos-and-donts/dont-have-short-sale-moving-problems/.