When facing foreclosure, losing your house is likely if your financial situation has not improved. But you don’t necessarily have to go through a foreclosure auction. If you take action quickly, there are a few ways to avoid foreclosure. You don’t have to let a home loan foreclosure take its toll on both your credit and your finances.
There are three options available to help you avoid foreclosure. These alternatives to foreclosure are:
A deed in lieu of foreclosure.
A Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing.
A homeowner-initiated sale of your property.
If you want to get out of pre-foreclosure, take action immediately. But even if you’ve been served with foreclosure papers, it’s not too late to take action.
Filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is the surest way to immediately stop the home foreclosure process once it has started. The filing even stops the foreclosure sale date for a specified period—during which you can pursue any other available options. However, bankruptcy hits your credit even stronger than a foreclosure.
You can also sign over the deed of your condo or house to the lender in exchange for loan forgiveness. But a deed in lieu is not always accepted by the lender, if the property has a second mortgage against it. Caution: You will lose any equity you might have with a deed in lieu.
It’s possible to sell your house before foreclosure. If you initiate the sale of your property before the bank can sell it at auction, you will most likely protect some of your money and your credit.
When you find a buyer whose offer is higher than the loan balance, you can pocket some equity instead of losing it at a sheriff’s auction. But if the only offers you receive are less than the loan balance, take the highest offer to the mortgage company for their consideration. If they accept the offer and dismiss the loan, you have a short sale.
San Antonio Cash Home Buyers has served the San Antonio, Texas area for many years. Our satisfied clients will back up our claim to the quickest and most reliable cash house buyer around. We have extensive experience helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.
We don’t need loan approval to buy your property. Because we work with our own money, our all-cash transaction is quicker than the typical real estate deal. And you will have cash in hand at closing to settle your debt.
We are quick sale home buyers. Whether you need a short sale without a realtor’s involvement or want an offer to protect your equity, we move quickly. In less than a month we can typically complete a sale. And as for a short sale, that sometimes takes others a year to close, we normally process everything in a couple of months.
Whether you sell to us directly, or indirectly through a short sale, our cash offer is the amount of cash you collect. You pay no commissions or other closing costs. And you will never pay any hidden fees.
When facing a mortgage foreclosure, no homeowner is going to make any repairs. So if you’re worried about having to make costly repairs when selling to us, don’t! When our offer is accepted, you have no responsibility for the property’s condition.
We take care of any paperwork involved in the sale. You will need to sign and date in a few places. But otherwise, you will have no paperwork to complete.
When your loan is in default, contact us. We have years of experience helping homeowners avoid foreclosure auctions. Because we regularly buy short sales, we know most of the lenders and how they do business. You can trust us to work on your behalf as well as ours.
A short sale will negatively affect your credit score—but nothing like a foreclosure does. The other consequences are minimal. Short sale help for seller’s relocation expenses is sometimes available because the bank saves the costs of a foreclosure auction. Most of your future loan applications won’t ask for disclosure of short sales.
Faced with a foreclosure auction or a short sale, you need to short sell your home. Besides the possibility of getting some short sale lender’s assistance for relocation, you can usually purchase a new home immediately. Your credit score could be affected by as little as 50 points, instead of up to 400 points with a foreclosure auction.
After you start falling behind on house payments, the lender will begin contacting you. If you do nothing, you will receive a notice of intent to foreclose. If you continue to take no action, you will be served with foreclosure papers—followed by a Notice of Sale (which will be posted on the courthouse door).
After the auction, the constable (on behalf of the new owner) serves an eviction notice with a court date. If you don’t appeal the judge’s ruling, you will have five days to move out. If you refuse to vacate, you will have 24 hours before you and your possessions can be physically removed from the property.
If you get behind on the mortgage and continue with missed payments, you are in pre-foreclosure. The house can stay in pre-foreclosure for 120 days before foreclosure begins. You then have 20 days to cure the default. If you take no action, you will receive a Notice of Sale in the mail at least 21 days before the sale date.