I'm in Foreclosure...Now What?

When you have missed a house payment, the lender will start calling and sending letters to contact you. If you can't catch up the house payment over the next couple months, the lender will send you a Notice of Default and file it at the county where the property is located. Then foreclosure proceedings will start. They will post the property three times and publish the foreclosure in the paper where the property is located. There will be a sale date, time and place on the paperwork. On that date the sale will occur if the amounts due and all late fees, and attorney, foreclosure fees are not paid in full. It is after the sale that the new buyer may show up to the home with the sheriff,if it is occupied, and you will have to move.

Before this happens there are some important things you should do to avoid this uncomfortable situation. Call a Realtor and get a free valuation on your home. Find out what your home is worth and if it is worth less than market ask your Realtor if they have experience doing a short sale. This is when the bank agrees to take less than the loan for your home. Put the home up for sale and get it sold. You can still sell it when its in foreclosure but the Realtor will still have to get the short sale approved and keep in contact with the bank for you. Make sure the realtor gets regular price reductions approved so it will get sold. Doing a short sale or if your able to get it sold for market is alot easier for you and the family to deal with than letting the bank control the timing and waiting for the sheriff to show up after auction. If you are unable to catch up the payments or cannot afford the payments then getting help from a Realtor is the best route to go. Foreclosure is not the end of the world. Consult a Realtor today that has experience in foreclosures and short sales.

Short Sales-Find a Short Sale Realtor

As I real estate agent in Idaho I have seen several new listings show up on the Multiple Listing Service that are "short sales". They are on the MLS for months with no price reduction but listed as short sales. The short sale is when the house is worth less than the loan and the bank is willing to take less than the loan total. They pay all the fees associated with the sale, including commissions. The seller receives nothing at the closing but cooperates in the sale with the bank and the realtor they select. Often times I end up showing a home that the bank now owns and was previously listed by one or two different realtors. I look over the past listing information and notice no price reductions for months, but listed as a short sale, pre-foreclosure home. The home was too much and eventually it went to foreclosure because the home was not priced so it would sell. The short sale never occurred. A former client of mine told me his brothers house was listed by a realtor and it was a short sale. It had been on the market for months. I asked if his brother had filled out his financial information for the bank and submitted a big packet to the bank with his realtor. The brother had not, just listed it months before and the foreclosure date was coming up. I told my client that if his brother had not filled out a large packet of info which included his financials that he was not doing a "short sale". His house was just listed for sale at a price he would never be able to sell it for. The house eventually went to foreclosure and they moved out. I feel that his real estate agent did not know how to do a short sale and get approval from the bank. Its alot of work and no work was done to complete that short sale. If you are are eligible for a short sale you need to make sure the real estate agent you select knows how to do short sales and is experienced with talking to the bank and getting that approval before listing. Ask the realtor you interview questions and lots of them.

1. Have you ever done a short sale packet for the bank?


2. How many short sales have you done and what were the circumstances?


3. Are you a full time realtor that has time to call the bank every week or every couple days?


4. How many short sales were you successful at completing?


5. Can I call the clients you have helped?

Do not assume every realtor knows how to do a short sale or pre-foreclosure sale. I have talked to Realtors that refuse to do them but refer them to an agent that does have expertise in that field and time to do them. They can still receive a referral fee if it sells. Short sales take alot of the agents energy and time and you need to find a real estate agent who will go out on a limb for you. Banks are very difficult to talk to and you need to make sure you are talking to the decision maker. Often times it is impossible for the average consumer to get access to the inside phone numbers to get the task of doing a short sale started. Banks prefer talking to an expert in that field and require data of comparable sales that can only be obtained through a Realtor. The Realtor will know the right questions to ask and will know how to submit a successful short sale packet to get the approval you need to short sale your home. Ask your Realtor if they have the SFR designation. This is the Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource Certificaton through the National Association of Realtors. In additon, ask the agent how many short sales they have completed.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blogspot! If you have questions about short sales, foreclosures, or your home is in trouble, you have come to the right place. I will be discussing each of these issues and more, loan modification, dealing with the bank and foreclosure scams. If you have any specific questions just ask. Welcome to my home, lets talk.