Prevent Foreclosures

Archive for the ‘Real Estate Short Sales’ Category

Sometimes, you can avoid having to go through the foreclosure process by doing a real estate short sale. Real estate short sales are commonly associated with upside down mortgages. When a homeowner is upside down, which means he or she owes more than his or her home is worth, then it does not make much sense to sell the home because the proceed from the sale will not be enough to pay the bank off. If the homeowner is only a little upside down, he or she may decide to fork up the difference out of pocket. However, most of the time, upside down homeowners do not have the money to pay up the differences. This is why a short sale is necessary.

When the bank feels that there is no way the homeowner could pay what he/she owes in full, the bank may decide that some payment is better than no payment at all. The bank may also decide that it is more profitable to go ahead and accept a short sale proposal rather than proceed with the foreclosure process. After all, in this buyers market, the bank is not likely to be able to sell a home for a large amount of money.

What are the benefits of a real estate short sale?

The main benefit of doing a short sale for a homeowners is to be able to get out of the mortgage obligation without having to pay it in full. If the homeowner is in foreclosure, the short sale will stop the foreclosure. That means, you should not have foreclosure on your credit record. However, sometimes, the bank has sent  your account to a collection agency or has reported foreclosure to the credit bureaus and then do not send them updates after the account has been settled under a short sale agreement. If this is the case for you, then it is up to you to make sure that the bank send proper notifications to credit bureaus and collection agencies or you can dispute with the credit bureaus yourself.

The effects of short sale on your credit

Unlike a foreclosure, having a short sale on your credit report is not as damaging but it is not totally good either. Usually, you will be able to borrow money sooner with a short sale on your credit record than a foreclosure or bankruptcy. So, if a short sale is an option for you, then credit-wise, it is a good option for you to take. However, you need to also consider disadvantages of doing a short sale too. With a short sale on your credit record, the interest rate you are going to get will still be high but not as high as you would get with a foreclosure or bankruptcy on it.

When Lenders Wanted to Foreclose

In the past, when home values were high, lenders would not think twice about foreclosing on homes that were in default. When homeowners could not afford the monthly mortgage payments, the lenders would soon send notices to remind the homeowners to pay up. When they still did not get any responses or payments, they sent foreclosure notices. A few months later, if the homeowners could not pay or come up with solutions somehow, the mortgage companies would proceed with the foreclosure auctions. At the auctions, the banks would set opening bids which are roughly the amounts they were owed.

Lenders No Longer Want to Foreclose (most of the time)

When home prices were high and kept rising, there were hopeful buyers looking for homes that they could fix and sell for much higher values. So, the system worked out well for the banks and the buyers or investors. The problem is that now home values are low and many homeowners are upside down, as in they owe more than their homes are worth.

Lenders know that at foreclosure auctions, they cannot set the opening bids as high as they want to in order to payoff the mortgages owed. Homebuyers are looking for real bargains and they are not going to pay as much as the lenders need to recoup all of the money owed on each home. Also, the foreclosure process costs money. The process is risky for the banks as they might end up getting very little money back, or worse yet, end up with the homes that they cannot get rid of or do anything about. Remember, lenders are not landlords and they are not in the real estate business.

Selling Homes at Auctions

Right now, it costs the banks more to proceed with the foreclosure process than what they are going to get back. So, unless your home is in an up and coming neighborhood with real value, then the bank would prefer to work with you to come up with something that works for them and for you. If your home is in a bad condition and homes around you are not selling well then it is likely that you can work something out with the bank. Many banks have shown that they prefer to have the homeowners in the homes and making some payment rather than have them out if the prospect of selling the home is not good. This is why a short sale is attractive to the bank when a homeowner has no way of being able to afford the mortgage payments. By making the bank see that it is better to have you in the home, you can avoid foreclosure or live rent free for a while.

• mortgages, including adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs)
• short sales
• deeds in lieu of foreclosure
• judicial and non-judicial foreclosure
• credit counseling
• liens, and
• using bankruptcy to deal with foreclosure.

The Foreclosure Survival Guide gathers all the information Attorney Stephen R. Elias has used to help hundreds of clients over 30 years of practicing law and shows you how to deal with foreclosure.

Like many hardworking people facing foreclosure in this rough economy, you deserve answers to your pressing questions. Thorough and easy to understand, The Foreclosure Survival Guide can help you stay in your home or walk away with money in your pocket.

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When facing foreclosure, most people wonder if mortgage companies will work with you to prevent foreclosure. The simple answer is yes. However, the extent of how the mortgage company will work with you depends on the individual mortgage company. Although mortgage companies would rather work with you to prevent foreclosure, in practice, it is quite difficult to come to an agreement with mortgage companies.

Why is it difficult to work with mortgage companies to prevent foreclosure?

While all mortgage companies will say that they would work with you and help you however they can, in practice, they are there to gauge how much you can pay, negotiate higher payments than you can afford and send the rest to collection even without notifying you. Most mortgage companies have many departments dealing with people who are behind in payments. It is not uncommon for the person on the phone with you to say one thing and then you receive something else in the mail.

It is hard to talk to the person with authority at the mortgage company. Almost all mortgage companies will treat you as just another case they have to deal with and their objectives are to get as much out of you as possible and as fast as possible. If you are prepared to pay some parts of your mortgage payments, then they are likely to take it but then you are also likely to get a letter from their collection agencies.

How to work with mortgage companies to prevent foreclosure?

Before you contact your mortgage company and try to negotiate, you should find out about all your options. You can get a free foreclosure consultation or you can do a lot of research by yourself.

Prevent Foreclosure Today – Immediate Prevention. Most homes can be saved. Fast & Free Advice

Then you can prepare your hardship case that will include sending the mortgage company a hardship letter or several hardship letters to explain your situation. If you have talked to your mortgage company and have settled on a solution, you should get them to put your agreements in writing. Don’t
trust that things will go as planned until you see everything in writing.

This section of How to Prevent Foreclosure continues from the How to avoid foreclosure section. There are many ways to prevent foreclosure. We have discussed some options to prevent foreclosure, we will discuss more ways to prevent home foreclosure. You can take the steps below to help prevent foreclosure.

Options to prevent foreclosure

Besides catching up with payments, selling your home, letting someone else take over the payments, and renting your home to raise cash to catch up on your loan payments, there are other options to prevent foreclosure below. Alternatively, you can get a loan to prevent foreclosure. There are mortgages to prevent foreclosure especially.

Deed in lieu of foreclosure can prevent foreclosure

When you are facing foreclosure, a way to prevent foreclosure is to give it back to the bank. With deed in lieu of foreclosure, you give the lender back the deed to the house, saving them the cost and time that the foreclosure process would take.

You can refinance your home to prevent foreclosure

If you have equity in your home, you may be able to refinance your mortgage, paying off the lender that put you in foreclosure. But, most people in foreclosure have already looked into this option to prevent foreclosure and it is not viable.

Do a short sale to prevent foreclosure

Short sale is becoming very popular as a way to prevent foreclosure. With the right foreclosure and short sale specialist, you stand a good chance that the bank will do a short sale, therefore preventing your foreclosure. See short sale section.

Work it out with the lender to prevent foreclosure

Depending on the lender, you may be able to work out a payment plan with the lender and avoid foreclosure. You may even get lower payments, interest rates or skipped payments.

Filing bankruptcy to prevent foreclosure

Although filing bankruptcy can stall foreclosure, it will likely not prevent foreclosure in the end. When you file for bankruptcy, you may be able to live in your home for a while longer and the foreclosure process may be halted. But, your situation will not have changed or improved and the lender will fight to resume the foreclosure process. So, in a way, this would not prevent foreclosure and may even make the situation worse.

Free Consultation

You can find out from experts what your options are when it comes to stopping or preventing foreclosure, here is a link to a free consultation.

Prevent Foreclosure Today – Immediate Prevention. Most homes can be saved. Fast & Free Advice