Homeowners In Foreclosure
From all the years working with foreclosures both on the buying end as well as selling end, and reading all the tips and advice on how to deal with them, the following steps are really the most important things you must understand when facing this situation.
- There are times in a financial sense and business sense to walk away. Determining this isn’t as simple as saying “can I afford my payment still?” You must get a big picture idea of the consequences of taking or not taking action.
- Do not ignore your lender.
- Your credit is going to be affected by a foreclosure no matter what.
- Your going to owe taxes most likely.
- Whatever you lose on the value of your home from a foreclosure, you can make up with your next purchase (regarding price).
- You must really know what the market conditions are. Is the market getting better, worse, staying the same, etc. Knowing this determines how you will approach your lender.
- You really only have 2 choices if you cannot afford your payments anymore.
- Get cash to bring the payment back up.
- Get a buyer and short sale your home, but if you can do that, you wouldn’t be on this site right now.
- Be proactive! This doesn’t mean go on a website, fill in an app, and wait for the lender for 5 months…to where you only end up being told that you have to send a whole package.
- Do not try to do this without experienced professional help.
#1 Fact You Cannot Avoid Whether You Want To Or Not
You have to talk to a great agent, plain and simple. The successful sellers are talking to real estate brokers that have been in a market like this and most importantly, these successful brokers know how to talk to the banks.
Dealing with the banks requires a very fine tuned and specific process. It is not as simple as calling them, sending paper work, and waiting for a solution. You need to be able to communicate to the banks in their preferred manner. Good brokers know this.
How we can help
When you decide to hire us for this task of selling your home while it’s in foreclosure, we will most likely have to ‘Short Sale’ your home. This is when we sell the home for a dollar amount less than what your total mortgage balance is (as agreed upon by your lender).
There are sellers all across the East Bay doing this and we one of the brokers that know how to do this best because we know how to talk to the banks. Here is a general snapshot of what to expect.
- We will look at the facts as they pertain to you in a house like yours in a neighborhood like yours. This makes our decisions realistic and practical.
- We will look at the facts and figure out how to make a good decision on what the best way to work with your lender is.
- We hook you up with a real estate attorney, tax attorney, and/or CPA, to find out what are the tax and legal consequences for you, if any.
- If there are tax, legal, and credit consequences, we show you how to minimize them.
Now that you’re reading this, wouldn’t it make sense to take just one step further and spend 30 minutes to talk to a professional broker to see what facts pertain to you and see how to do the least damage to your credit and overall financial situation?
If you would’ve done this 3-6 months ago and had gotten started and had it all done today, would that feel better than the position you are in tonight?
In 3-6 months from now, what is going to happen is going to be based on what you decide today. So our job is to look at the facts with you and determine if it makes sense to move forward. If it doesn’t make sense, then simply stop, stay in the home, endure the pain, and at some point your situation will ultimately pass.
Give us a call and learn how you can be like one of the successful sellers that have sold their home while in foreclosure.
