Foreclosure

Understanding the Foreclosure Process:

When you borrow from a lender you are obligated to pay back that entire loan, usually through monthly installments. The foreclosure process will start whenever you start to fall far behind on those monthly payments.

Typically, your lender will issue a notice after missing three or more monthly payments. If you ignore the notices or continue to fall behind on payments, the lender will begin the foreclosure process which can take from the six months to a year.

Unless the foreclosure is stopped or postponed the lender will take back the house and auction it to the highest bidder in an attempt to recover their losses.

Your lender is not in the real estate business, so they don’t want to take back the property, deal with repairs, or anything else that comes with property ownership.

We can help with this process and will explain it more below.

Selling Your House in Pre-Foreclosure

You have the right to sell your house until the last moments before an auction or the bank has taken the possession of your property. During that time, your property will be considered as a pre-foreclosure. You can sell your home during that period if a buyer is willing to pay the entire loan balance for you or someone else negotiates with the bank on your behalf for a discount on the loan called a Short Sale.

A foreclosure can do serious damage to your credit score. It will usually remain on your FICO credit for 7 years. Therefore, it is always suggested to try other options before choosing the foreclosure as a final option.

A short sale can be a much better option as it does not affect your credit the way a foreclosure does. A short sale could be reported as a charge-off, a settlement, a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or “settled for less than the full amount due” on your credit report, but not always.

Negotiating with Your Lender

If you want to sell your property and avoid foreclosure, you will have to contact your lender and you’ll have to tell them that you want to sell your property. This can postpone the foreclosure auction and allow you to sell your house to an end buyer.

You have the legal right to choose this option, and the lender cannot oppose you. In fact, most lenders are ok with this, especially after the recent mortgage crisis to work with you.

It’s important to have guidance during this process, as negotiating with the lender can be a difficult and time-consuming process.

Finding the Right Buyer

In order to sell in pre-foreclosure, you just need to find the right buyer to buy the property and to get the money to pay the loan.

The challenge lies in finding a buyer who will pay more than the loan you owe, especially if the house is already below market value.

This makes it difficult because no buyer will want to pay more than the house is really worth, especially if there are repairs to be made and other issues such as maintenance costs or back taxes.

That is why the better option for most people behind on payments, is to work with an investment company who is looking to buy the property to fix it up or rent it.

A company like us here at Property Nation, will not only negotiate with the lender for you, but we will also be the buyer of the property so you don’t have to worry about fixing it up or finding someone to pay off the entire loan. Through this, we can also help you postpone the foreclosure process to give you more time to get back on your feet.