Know more about foreclosure process

When you fail to pay the mortgages for your house, you will be slapped with a foreclosure notice. Foreclosure is a long legal process.  A mortgage lender seeks a foreclosure as a last recourse to recover his money. 

A foreclosure process starts with pre-foreclosure procedures. When a person misses out on the first couple of payments he is served a notice. If the owner pays no heed to it, a second late payment notice is served. If even this is ignored a final request is made. If the last request too elicits no response, then the mortgage lender is entitled to seek for the payment in full. A standard clause, called the acceleration clause, in your mortgage agreement entitles the lender to seek the payment in full along with late payments and other applicable penalties.  Once this clause is evoked the process of foreclosure formally begins.

Next, the lender sends a foreclosure letter certified by the sheriff or legal officer to the house owner. This is followed by a publication of a newspaper notice about the foreclosure. Soon, a court date is set. All parties involved in the case are summoned for a hearing. Once the court is convinced, it will pass the foreclosure order. Armed with this order the lender publishes the note of foreclosure along with the date of auction.

The auction takes place under the supervision of a legal officer. Once the auction is closed, new purchase contracts are issued.

Legal matters make a foreclosure process a lengthy and time consuming affair.  However, even when the ball is in the court, matters between the lender and the owner can be settled amicably. 

Short Sale Expert

Finding the right short sale expert can be a daunting task. It takes more of luck and less off effort to get one.  Most of them masquerade as experts. And there are many who outsource it to a third person and collect a commission. All of them advertise so aggressively that you won’t even get to know the true specialist from the spurious ones.

If a customer understands how things work out in short sale, one can well sniff the conman out. In fact a short sale specialists answer to some questions can help you know his true colors. When you approach a so called expert, enquire about the following:

Ask the specialist to explain you the process in details and what to expect. Elicit in details the services they will provide and also how you need to pay for their services. Be wary of those who make it look very simple and rosy.

Try to learn more about their experience in the related field. Grill them for their success stories and then seek references. Cross check it to know the truth. Not many of them may have a long experience. This is because short sale is a trend that is just a couple of years old. As long as the short sale specialist is aware of the process, you need not worry. One having experience in a couple of short sales can help you properly.

A true short sale specialist will explain all the risks involved with a short sale. This includes legal and tax issues. One who comes clear on this can be trusted right away. One who prevaricates or beats round the bush is probably a rookie.

A short sale specialist with a basic understanding of the process can help you properly.

Learn how to prevent foreclosures

Foreclosure can bring you endless woes. Apart from getting you evicted from your home, it can bring down your credit score drastically. Worse, this gets reflected in your credit report for years to come. As a result it becomes impossible to get loans for any of your future ventures. When foreclosure stares you at the face, you need to go the whole hog to avert it. All it takes to avoid foreclosures is awareness and determination.

Your money lender is the best person to help you out of such a crisis. It makes lot of sense to confide to him. No sooner than you smell a crisis, get in touch with the lender to know how you can bail yourself out. As the money lender has dealt with such situations in the past, he can tell you what measures need to take. On the contrary if you start ignoring the lender’s letters, you push yourself further down into trouble. Avoiding the lender strictly means inviting foreclosures.

Another way out to avoid foreclosures is to file bankruptcy. Under bankruptcy law, action won’t be initiated against you unless you become solvent. For that you need to have a good past credit record. Availing federal loans or federal accreditation is also a good option. Federal accreditation will ensure that you get loans despite your present situation. Other available options to prevent foreclosures include reinstatement, forbearance, short sale, deed in lieu of foreclosure etc.

The best way to avoid foreclosure is to avoid delay. Acting fast can steer you out of a crisis soon. 

How to sell your house?

Selling your house can be a good deal only if you sell it the right way. Most people end up losing because they do not know how to go about. Chalking out an elaborate plan before you put your house on sale can help you get a lot more than what your house is worth. .  

What do you need to do before you put up the sale notice?

First try to find out the value of your property in the open market. Enter your zip code in a value estimator site or a real estate site to get a clear idea. Always hold the value of your house higher than what a site says as property appraisers always value a house below its actual market value.  An idea of the value can let you know how much to expect.

Look out for an opportune moment. As market dynamics keep changing the demand for a house will keep rising or falling. Wait for the demand to rise. And for this you need to bide your time. When the demand rises you can command a higher price than you can even expect.

Do not take the help of brokers. They will invariably push the price down for some non existent reasons.  Most brokers have a tacit understanding with real estate developers. So inviting brokers is like shooting yourself in the foot.

Last but not the least spruce up your house before putting it to sale: Presentation matters a lot in real estate sales. Real estate agents make a fortune out of selling a spruced up decrepit house.

Selling your house to a plan can spare you many a pangs later

Short Sale Expert

Foreclosure is the last thing that any house owner would want. However, land lords are forced to go into it when all other means of paying mortgage loans gets exhausted. In an extreme scenario many property owners consider the option of short sale. Though this is a good alternative to foreclosure, the process entails lot of risk. Before you enter into a short sale you need to seek the advice of short sale experts.

Short sale involves selling the house at a cost that is lower than the debt owed. When executed successfully, it helps both parties find a middle ground settlement. A short sale expert can provide perfect legal aid to both parties to reach an amicable settlement.

Short sale specialists can skillfully solve situations that may crop up during your short sale negotiations. For instance, a situation may arise when the lender and buyer may disagree on the price. This is precisely when a legal expert can be handy. He can broker a truce between the two parties and bail you out safely. Every difference is ironed out smoothly and chances of an error get reduced drastically. Also the expert can suggest you several valuable options.

Delegating the task of short sale to an expert can buy you peace of mind. 

Consult a short sale specialist to short sale your house

If you are unable to keep up with your home mortgage payments, you may have to face foreclosure proceedings. Nothing can be more painful and embarrassing than to have your home foreclosed. It destroys credit completely and makes it extremely difficult to get back on your feet. The best way to avoid any such possibility is by opting for short sale.

When a lender agrees to do a short sell, he agrees to accept an amount that is less than the amount due. This is primarily why lenders do not agree to do a short sale. Instead if they go for a foreclosure, they would be able to recover their money completely. Needless to say, convincing a lender to do a short sale can turn out to be an insurmountable hurdle. Also, not all properties and sellers qualify for short sales.

To know more about short sales you can consult a short sale specialist. A short sale specialist is a person designated by the National Association of Realtors to help distressed house owners see through a short sale process. They provide free of cost advice to house owners and liaison on behalf of them with lenders. A short sale specialist ensures that the entire process of short sale is carried out within legal parameters.

It is also important for a house owner to consult an attorney. This is because lenders who accept a short sale often pursue a borrower legally for the amount not settled. An attorney can insulate you from such malpractices. Also, a lawyer can help you determine whether your loan qualifies for a claim or a deficiency judgment.

Foreclosure process

The process of foreclosure is a long and elaborate one.  So, it has been noticed that most financial institutions are taking more time to foreclose on home owners who have defaulted. Today the average time taken to carry out foreclosures in America is around two years.

One primary reason for the delay in the foreclosure process is because the number of cases has increased by leaps and bounds. On the one hand the foreclosure involves a lengthy review process and on the other it also has to face several legal hurdles.

Another important reason for the long process is the government protection that defaulters enjoy. Bill has been passed in the congress that allows property owners who have defaulted to stay in their homes for longer.

In the coming days foreclosure process will become longer. Presently defaulters can stay in their homes for an average of about 20 months before facing eviction. Analysts now believe that the average period of stay would slowly increase to 22 to 23 months.

Many attorneys say that evicting a defaulter soon is like being very unfair to the defaulter. Every defaulter has the right to retrieve his position and the government should give them a long rope. This is bound to make foreclosure process a bit long drawn one.