There are numerous ways to work with foreclosure.
Quite frankly, as a Homeowner if you have received notice of a pending foreclosure, you need to act right away. We may be able to help you to avoid going into foreclosure, or if it is too late for that; we may be able to help guide you back out. We will introduce you to Lenders and attorneys that will give you straight answers. You need to know your options, and we can help point you in the right direction to get the process started.
Today there may be more homeowners facing foreclosure than ever before, some of whom you may know. The problem that many of these people face is that they may have purchased a home with a very low interest rate loan that made their monthly payments seem too good to be true. The thing is that these were very likely sub prime loans that adjusted up. Unfortunately, when the rates reset many homeowners have found that the loans truly were too good to be true because they could no longer afford their mortgage payments. Whether this or any one of a dozen other issues is what has caused your particular situation, we will try to work with you to turn things around.
The Real Estate Market has changed and everything associated has changed with it. On any given day whether you turn on the TV or read the news and you hear about one bank or lending institution after another closing it's doors forever. Consumer foreclosures and bankruptcies are right now at a ten year high, and people losing their homes are almost a daily occurrence. It just doesn’t always have to end up that way.
What is even scarier is that there are thousands upon thousands of homeowners that are in ARM loans RIGHT NOW that when they adjust up will result in a future financial hardship and ultimately a pending foreclosure. And many of them have absolutely no idea what awaits them.
Send us an email today. Time can be your asset or liability. Make it work for you and not against you.
If you are in financial trouble and you are worried that your home will be foreclosed on, take a deep breath. While foreclosure is very serious and something that you shouldn’t ignore, it is something that can possibly be reversed and dealt with. Banks do not want to foreclose homes; it means a loss of money to them as well as a lengthy legal process that they honestly just do not want to deal with. A foreclosure doesn’t happen over night and typically does not happen when you are late on a payment or are a month behind for a couple of months. Generally, your mortgage holder understands when you have to make a late payment every now and again. Generally speaking, the majority of people have a late mortgage payment from time to time, but this does not mean that they will be foreclosed on or anywhere near it.
Will I Know?
There is no doubt that you will know if your home is being foreclosed on. Unless you don’t open your mail and you never answer you telephone or check your messages, it is mot very likely that you won't know that your home is being foreclosed on. As was stated above, banks do not want to foreclose on a home. The bottom line is that a bank has a better chance of recovering the debt from the current owner than it has a chance of not losing money throughout the foreclosure process. Banks are not in the business of foreclosing mortgages; they are in the business of loaning money. Therefore, the bank does not want to foreclose on your home and will make every possible effort to notify you that they need your help to work through your delinquent payment issues. You’ll likely receive notices in the mail, some which are registered or certified so that the bank is sure you got them. The bank will also call you at home as well as at work and every other number that they have in an attempt to make some sort of payment arrangement with you to reconcile the debt.
While you might get what seem like threatening letters, the bank just wants you to get in contact with them and let them know what is going on. These threatening letters are an attempt by the bank to make contact with them, not simply to call and tell you that they are taking the house away from you. If you are worried about being yelled at by someone on the other end of the phone, remember that they are simply calling to try to work with you.
If you don’t respond to these calls and letters, within a few weeks or few months the foreclosure process will commence. The first thing the bank will do is send you yet another letter to let you know that they have begun the foreclosure process. Again, unless you simply do not read your mail, you’ll know that the process has officially begun. Around this time you might start getting even more mail and you won’t be able to deny what is happening. You might get letters from lawyers encouraging you to file for bankruptcy to save your home; you might get letters from investors wanting to buy your house from you before the bank forecloses. You might walk out to your mailbox every day of the week and find it stuffed full of correspondences from your lender, investors, and lawyers. All of these people want to help you, so you will definitely know what is going on. With so many attempted correspondences, it will be hard if not impossible to deny what is going on. You don’t simply wake up one day and find that your home is being foreclosed on. So, call the bank and make some payment arrangements with them.
If all else fails and you want to entertain filing for bankruptcy, we can introduce you to experienced, competent attorneys who can help you to be sure that this is a good or bad idea. Or, if you decide that selling the property is the answer, so that you don’t have the foreclosure on your record, we can help you with that. The thing is; foreclosure doesn’t happen fast so if you act soon enough you’ll have time to do many of these things.
Help with Foreclosures - Is It Too Late?
It’s almost never too late to stop a foreclosure once it starts. If you’ve been avoiding all the letters and the calls, you can still stop foreclosure in its tracks. Often they will want you to make a big payment to satisfy the delinquent payments, other times you may be able to negotiate more favorable terms, so call and let the bank know what is going on try to set up new payment arrangements. The goal is to bring your loan current, and if you can do that in the next three to six months (may be even longer) you’ll probably find that your bank will work with you. If, on the other hand, the bank is no longer willing to work with you, you can show up at the foreclosure auction and bid on your own home. The deposit for a bid is usually about $5,000, so if you have this and feel confidant that you can finance the home within 30 days you might try to go this route, but I wouldn't suggest doing this without consulting a very knowledgeable
Real Estate Attorney.
It’s important to note that if you do bid on your home and win it at a foreclosure auction some old debts that were attached to the property may be reinstated when you take ownership of the house again. Either way, buying your home back at a foreclosure auction is a great way to get off to the right start again as well as keep your home. The great thing is that you can continue living in your home this whole time, so you aren’t suddenly without a home if your home does get foreclosed on.
The bottom line is that your home cannot be foreclosed on without your knowledge. You will have plenty of notice from your bank, along with your personal knowledge that you haven’t been making timely or adequate mortgage payments. Thankfully, the bank doesn’t want to foreclose on your home, so you can stop the process, and there is no doubt that it can’t happen unless you are aware.
Avoiding Foreclosures with Short Sales
It is undeniable that the mortgage world is in some chaos lately. All of the statistics out there are staggering, and sobering, and it is forcing more and more Lenders and homeowners to look at other options. Lenders are dealing with more delinquencies than they know what to do with and some are willing to do almost anything to avoid foreclosure. Many lenders are accepting short sales, something that has not generally been done in the lending business. When we say short sales we are referring to a situation where the balance of the loan will actually be for more money than the actual value of the house. This kind of situation, when it is approved at all, is done only to avoid foreclosures and until 2005 was rarely considered.
Today short sales are more common than ever before, but they do require a lot more time and effort on the part of both the Seller and the Buyer than a traditional sale. Everyone should be ready and willing to do more paperwork, get it to the decision makers ASAP and plan on waiting for long periods of time for the Seller's Lender to respond. It can take as much as 90 days or longer just to have the Lender respond. That is not to say that they will approve the sale, they may not, or they may need additional time and information before a final decision is made.
If the Lender does approve the sale; they will generally demand that the property close in a very short time from the approval date; sometimes within 10 days. What this means to the Buyer is that they need to be prepared with their home inspection done, their financing in place. All this even though they don't know ahead of time that the transaction will be approved when all is said and done.
Lenders do not offer short sales to just anyone, for instance they may extend the sale to those that have suffered the loss of a job, illness, death, divorce or change in family status, but it is not likely that they would offer a short sale to someone who simply wants to sell and move on.
The Short Sale process is not necessarily for every Buyer. Their is no way to accurately predict how the Seller's Lender will respond. A Buyer can in-deed get a real good deal by purchasing a Short Sale property. On the other side of the coin, they could waste a lot of time and miss other good values that are being offered in a traditional listed property.