Credit Repair Secrets: Remove Short Sales & Boost Scores 160 Points!
24 Nov 2025 · 9 min
Daniel Rosen explains how short sales tank credit scores by up to 160 points and why bureaus often misclassify them as foreclosures. He walks through a five-step dispute process: challenge the bureaus directly, file a CFPB complaint, send warning letters, or hire an FCRA attorney if needed.
Questions this episode answers
February 21, 2023
Up to 160 points
Up to seven years (clock starts at date of first delinquency if payments were missed)
1) Dispute with the bureaus; 2) Dispute with the lender and request current status; 3) Wait for the lender response; 4) File a CFPB complaint (consumerfinance.gov); 5) Send warning letters to each bureau (include CFPB complaint).
creditrepaircloud.com (dispute-letter templates, Round One letter), consumerfinance.gov (CFPB complaints), creditheroscore.com (Credit Hero Score trial), creditherochallenge.com (Credit Hero Challenge)
Chapters
Hey credit heroes. There is a disputing secret that can remove short sales and boost your credit scores up to 160 points. And today I'm going to teach you exactly how to do it, so you better stick around.
So the big question is, how can we take our passion for helping people with their credit and turn it into a successful business without taking loans? Without spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing so we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Daniel Rosen and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets.
If this is your first time listening to my podcast, every week I give credit repair tips and advice on bootstrapping your business from nothing. So be sure to click subscribe now and get ready to start changing lives. Okay, let's get into this. Short sales don't sound as bad as foreclosures, but they're reported the very same way, and they can do just as much damage to your credit score. For anyone new to credit repair, a short sale is when you can't make your mortgage payments, so you sell your property for less than the amount that you still owe, and that loss is known as the deficiency. Banks will often say that short sales are a better option than foreclosures because they allow homeowners to avoid the stigma of a foreclosure. But in reality, most lenders Lenders won't distinguish between the two. Short sales and foreclosures are both reported to the bureaus as settled for less than the full amount or not paid as agreed. So the fallout is the same. Here's how this relates to us. Short sales rise when the home values fall. They spike from 2007 to 2009 during the great Recession, and they could be on the rise again. Short sales usually stay on your credit reports for up to seven years, but if payments were missed, the clock doesn't stop start until the date of the first delinquency. According to fico, the impact of a short sale depends on what your credit was like before the sale closed. Unbelievably, the higher your score was, the further it will fall. If your credit score was good, a short sale could drop at 100 points. But if your credit score was excellent, a short sale could drop at as much as 160 points. I know this sounds crazy, but that's the credit system. Short sales are complicated, frustrating, and difficult to get rid of, but that's why I worked so hard to finding the secret to disputing them. Here's the thing to remember before you dispute a short sale, confirm your obligation to the deficiency and determine what, if anything, you still owe. Some lenders may ask you to sign a new promissory note saying that you'll pay off the remaining debt, while others reserve the right to bill later. Some banks will try to collect the money immediately after the sale closes, while others will turn the debt over to a collection agency. And in some cases a portion of the loan can be forgiven, but those are rare. Confirming your obligation of the deficiency gives you the opportunity to get in good standing with the lender. And if you're in good standing with the lender, you'll have more options when you start disputing here's why this is important. The first step to disputing negative items on credit reports is removing any conflicting personal information from your reports. Ultimately, when it comes to short sales, other than pointing out incorrect personal information, basic disputing techniques often don't work. You can dispute them, follow up, ask for reinvestigation, send warnings, or file complaints, but nine times out of 10, they still get verified. The good news is I discovered the secret to removing them and it's actually very simple. Here's what you need to know. The credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian and Transunion, they don't even use the word short sale. No they don't. It's not in their vocabulary. They use account status codes to communicate with furnishers and for reporting purposes. For example, if your account is sent to collections, there's going to be a specific two digit code that the furnisher reports to the bureaus to indicate that the account was sent to collections. For example, if your account is sent to collections, there's going to be a specific two digit code that the furnisher reports to the bureaus to indicate the account was sent to collections. If the account is charged off, there's going to be a two digit code for that. If your vehicle was repossessed, there's another code for that. But when it comes to short sales, no code exists. The bureaus never identify short sales with a unique status code. In fact, they almost always report them as foreclosures. And that is the secret to deleting short sales from your credit reports. Here's how it works. Step one Dispute the short sale with the bureaus. This letter can be really simple. You can just list the short sale, the account or reference number, and the reason for the dispute. Like this short sale is inaccurate. Please remove it. You can use the round one letter if you don't already have the round one dispute letter template, you can download it free at creditrepaircloud.com dispute letter templates and I'll put the link over in the Show Notes. If the short sale is removed, great, you're done. If not, you'll get a response stating that it was verified and you should move on to Step two. Step two Dispute the Short Sale with the Lender this letter is also very simple, but this time you're contacting the lender directly, not the bureau's. You can use a Round one letter again, or if you have a credit Repair cloud account, you can use the Furniture Dispute letter in our letter library. Simply fill out the letter and dispute the short sale, but this time also make sure to request the current status of the short sale. This is very important. Step Number three Wait for the Response when you receive the response from the lender, 9 times out of 10 it will be verified and they'll clearly identify the account status as a short sale. And this response is exactly what you need to get it removed. Step 4 File a complaint now that you have proof that the bureau's verified the item as a foreclosure, and you have proof from the lender that it's actually a short sale, it's time to file a complaint with the CFPB and you can file these complaints online@consumerfinance.gov after filing your complaint, save a copy or take a screenshot because you'll need it in the final step. Step 5 Send warning letters to the Bureaus Send a warning letter with a copy of your complaint to each of the three credit bureaus. Point out the facts and show your proof. Tell them they're inaccurately reporting a short sale as a foreclosure. Tell them that you have filed a CFPB complaint and you're considering legal action if the account is not removed immediately. Warning Letter templates are also available to Download free at creditrepaircloud.com dispute-letter templates if you follow these steps, you will almost always get a deletion. The bureaus understand that they're wrong and they'll do anything to correct it. I say almost because there are some cases where the bureaus simply ignore you or they respond inappropriately. If that happens, there's one additional step that you can take that's going to guarantee a deletion 100% of the time. Contact an FCRA attorney. They'll often help you for free in return for getting part of your cash settlement if you want to learn more about FCRA Attorneys, check out my episode FCRA Attorneys for Credit Repair and one last note about this five step process. In some cases, lenders will use the status code AU to mark short sales. AU is a special comment code designated for random statuses that aren't significant enough to have their own status code. If the status code AU is used, it may be a rare circumstance that this method may not work and in that case you would want to dispute the short sale based on other factual errors. Here's my final point. A short sale not only means someone lost their home, but it means that their credit has been damaged so badly that they won't be able to buy a new home for a very long time. So if you're one of the millions of Americans who've gone through a short sale, take action and start the dispute process today. And remember, financial freedom is within reach. You just need to take these five steps. And just a reminder, this podcast is.
Brought to you by Credit Hero Score.
Credit Hero Score is the only credit monitoring service that integrates directly with Credit Repair Cloud. Get instant access to your credit reports and scores by signing up for a seven day trial for only $1. Sign up right now at creditheroscore.com and now for my favorite part of the episode. Every week I feature one of our credit heroes inside our Credit Repair CL Facebook community so that you can see firsthand what real people are doing as they run and grow their business. And today's spotlight is on Greg Lloyd. A few days ago, Greg left a comment in our community celebrating his recent win. He said whoop whoop. Signed up last year for this but put it all on hold. Just wasn't the right time. Got my first paying client today. Making life better for them already. Congratulations Greg. Timing is such a big part of success. I'm so glad you didn't give up. You saw the opportunity, you waited until the time was right and now you have your first paying client. And I can't wait to see more of your wins and watch your business grow. And I'll end by saying if you don't already have a credit repair cloud account, check it out. It's the software that most credit repair businesses in America run on. Just sign up for a 30 day free trial at creditrepaircloud.com freetrial and if you'd like to change lives and grow your own credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge. It's a live experience that has helped tons of credit heroes to get certified in disputing and gain confidence as they run their credit repair business on a solid foundation so they can change a whole lot of lives and make a great living in the process. We're starting the next challenge very soon, so you want to join before the doors close or you're going to have a long wait until the next one. So sign up right now@creditherochallenge.com and if you're finding value in the things that I share on this podcast, click below to subscribe and follow. Also, give me a five star review or share the show and help me to change more lives. And if you'd like to read the show notes, they're posted on my blog and if you have a question or a comment, drop it down below because I read each and every one of them. If you want to learn more about how FCRA attorneys can work with you, check out my podcast, FCRA Attorneys for Repair. So take care Credit Hero, and keep changing lives.
Hey everybody, it's Daniel again and really quick. I'd like to invite you to join what I believe is the best thing we have ever created inside the Credit Repair cloud community. And it is a challenge that we call the Credit Hero Challenge. If you're just planning out your business or you're just getting it started and you dream of having a start successful business of your own so you can quit your 9 to 5 and fire your boss and have financial freedom or so you can add another revenue stream to your existing business, if that's your dream, you need to get into this challenge. We created this challenge to help you to create and launch your very own credit repair business to build a proper foundation for a really successful business. This challenge is going to help you to understand the strategy, the tactics and all the things you need to be successful at Credit Repair. It really is the greatest thing we have ever built and it will change your life. So I recommend you do it right now. Stop everything. Pause this audio, go online and go to creditherochallenge.com that's creditherochallenge.com and join the next challenge. And there's a challenge that's starting in just a few days. So go get started right now@creditherochallenge.com.
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