What Should I Do if I’m in Danger of Foreclosure?
Video Summary
What’s the first thing you should do if your property’s going to go into foreclosure? Well, the first thing that I suggest you do is contact an attorney who specializes in foreclosure defense. He should be able to tell you the foreclosure process and tell you what your potential liability is for the bank coming after your other assets. Also, he can give you some idea as to how long it will take the bank to foreclose on your property, give you some kind of timeline.
You also have various options, one of which is to try and do a mortgage modification, which many people try and do before they ever contact an attorney and come in very, very frustrated. But my suggestion to you is to continue to send to the lender your financial information in order to try and do a mortgage modification. I will say that the lenders have not, in my experience, reduced your principal amount. What they try and do if they do a modification is to reduce the amount of your monthly payment rather than your principal balance. Depending on who your lender is and who the owner of your loan is, you may or may not be successful.
One of the other options is a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Chase Bank does have a program – it’s called Cash for Keys – where they may agree to give you relocation money if you deed your property over to them rather than them having to go through a foreclosure action. That program was available several months ago. I haven’t seen too much activity lately, but I know that Chase did have that program. It’s a problem if you have a second mortgage because you have to be able to transfer your property to them without a second mortgage.
The other process or option you have, which the banks really encourage, is to do a short sale, meaning that you sell the property to someone for less than the amount of money that is owed and then negotiate with the lender as to whether or not they’ll approve the sale and agree to release you from any responsibility for the remaining money that’s owed under your loan. The problem with a short sale is, you need to have some place to move once you sell your property because when you sell it – well, you no longer have a house. And so, that is something you must consider.
So, I suggest you contact a knowledgeable foreclosure defense lawyer and he will explain your various options, what your timeline is and even answer your questions as to whether or not bankruptcy is an option. If you have any more questions, give me a call and I’ll be glad to try and answer them for you. The number is (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos
What is Involved in a Tax Deed Sale?
Video Summary
I’ve received a question about what is involved in a tax deed sale from a recipient of our newsletter. The tax deed sale starts back whenever they issue tax certificates and you purchase a tax certificate. That is done on an auction type basis and it’s a reverse auction. So if you bid on a tax certificate for whatever the taxes are on a particular piece of property and no one bids against you, you get it at an interest rate of 18 percent. If someone is bidding against you, well, they bid 17 percent and then you can bid 16 percent, all the way down to I guess 0 percent as far as bidding for the tax certificate.
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ce you acquire the tax certificate, you hold it until such time as the owner pays you in full for that, or after there have been two tax certificates or two years when the taxes have not been paid, then either one of the tax certificate holders can apply for a tax deed. And when you make application for the tax deed, all back due taxes have to be paid. Now sometimes you see a situation where no one really wants to step up and pay these back due taxes so you may have three or four years’ worth of back taxes before someone applies for a tax deed. Once you apply for a tax deed and you pay the back due taxes, the clerk then does a title search to determine who the owners of the property are and who the mortgage holders are, and then they give notice to the owner and anyone who has an interest in the property and tell them that the property is going to be auctioned off for the back due taxes.
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he taxes, once the auction takes place, are bid on a dollar amount and the bidding starts at the total amount of the back due taxes. So if no one bids at the auction, then whoever has paid all these back due taxes on the tax certificate receives the property or certificate of title, whereas if there’s a third party bidder or someone else bidding, then the amount continues to go up and any amounts above what was owed on the back due taxes is paid out to the owner of the property as their interest.
The only time that the value comes into play as to the value of the property and how it might affect your bid is in the event it’s someone’s homestead property. In that event, the statute provides that you have to bid a certain amount, a certain percentage, which I don’t have right off the top of my head to tell you what percentage of the assessed valuation is if you’re going to be purchasing someone’s homestead property for back due taxes.
The successful bidder under a tax sale will receive what they call a certificate of title. Once you receive the certificate of title, then you’re the owner of the property. However, if you want to sell the property or obtain a mortgage on the property, you’re not in a position to do so because you don’t have what they call marketable title and you may have to go through a suit to quiet title and be able to clear the title. At Waller & Mitchell, we offer that service for a flat fee of $1,500.00 plus the cost, which would run somewhere between $500.00 and $1,000.00. Another way of clearing the title is if you hold the title that you received from the clerk’s office from the tax sale for four years, you may be able to avoid having to go through the suit to quiet title, as far as that’s concerned.
So that’s how you go about a tax sale: you have to go through the process of obtaining a tax certificate and having at least two years of tax certificates issued before you’re able to apply for a tax deed and then there’s an auction that a third party can come in and big more than what the taxes are. You don’t have the ability to force anyone to pay the taxes, so your money’s tied up until someone applies for a tax deed or the owner decides to pay the back due taxes.
If you have any more questions about the tax deed or you have one that you want the title cleared, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
How Can I Set Up a Trust for my Grandchildren?
Video Summary
You can set this trust up in your will and that’s called a testamentary trust for your grandchildren. Another way to do it is just set up a living trust, also called a revocable trust, and provide for your grandchildren in a revocable trust or your living trust. However, if it is for a very small amount you may want to consider setting up something on the Florida College Prepaid College Program and there is another way to set this up so the grandchildren receive the account when they are age 21 by setting up an account in your name as custodian under the uniform transfers to the minors act and the account is held until such time as the minor reaches the age of 21. And if you pass away they can petition to have another custodian appointed such as your child or you can put it in their parents name to hold for them until they are 21 years of age. If you would like to do a trust or some estate planning for your grandchildren give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
How Often Should I Update My Will?
Video Summary
Hi. I’m Chip Waller. How often should you update your will? Well, the question is answered by saying when there’s been a change in circumstances: in the event that you have a death in your family, in the event that you relocate, in the event that there’s a birth in the family, grandchildren, or when you have sold property that you had left to someone in particular. So anytime there is a change in your circumstances, that’s the time to update your will.
I suggest that you review your will at least once a year in order to look at it to see if that’s what you wanted to say, and whether or not there have been any changes in circumstances since you’ve made out your will. If so, then give us a call and we’ll be glad to update your will.
In addition to your will, you might want to check in on whether or not you have a living will ,which says that you don’t want your life prolonged artificially; a healthcare surrogate, which is a healthcare power of attorney; a HIPAA waiver, which authorizes someone to make medical decisions for you if you’re unable to do so; and also a Durable Power of Attorney, which could be executed to help you in the event that you would lose your mental or physical capacity, and authorize someone else to transact business for you.
So if you have any questions about your will or any of your estate planning documents, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. Thank you.