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Can I short sell my home if I’m not behind in my mortgage payments? The answer to that is if the lender will negotiate with whoever’s negotiating the short sale for you, you can. Our experience has been that many lenders are very, very reluctant to discuss with you the short sale. Now if you want to sell your home and the sales price is less than the full mortgage amount and you want to preserve your credit, you are in a position to pay the difference between the mortgage and what you sell your home. Or work out an arrangement with the lender so you can pay it out over time. But the key to selling it, if you want to be released from liability and not have to pay the deficiency between the amount that you sell the property on and what you owe the lender is getting the lender to go along with it.

And as I’ve indicated, most lenders are very reluctant to enter in to those negotiations. In fact some lenders have told certain borrowers that “Well we’re not gonna talk to you until you quit making your payments for two months. After you quit making your payments for two months, call us back and see about negotiating the sale.” Which bothers some people because then that’s going to affect their credit and they would like to preserve their good credit. So if you have any questions about short sales well give me a call at 727-847-2288. Thank you.

Video Summary

Do I qualify for Foreclosure Relocation Assistance Program? The answer to that question is, it depends on the lender. Recently we have not seen a lot of lenders volunteering that information or volunteering those funds. We have been successful in cases that are litigated to offer to the lender a judgment of foreclosure or a deed in lieu of foreclosure called Cash for Keys. And that may be considered relocation money, but it’s basically money if you agree to go nicely and leave the house in good order. So that is available; however, you’re probably going to have to retain an attorney and fight the foreclosure.  And in order to try and resolve the case on that basis in the industry or the lawyers call that “Cash for Keys” and could be considered relocation expense money which was a term that was used probably a couple of years ago.

And I believe that the Bank of America was using it, or Wells Fargo, one of the two, and they were doing that even after the foreclosure took place, and they would let the people stay in there and work out something. They’d give them some money to relocate them.  But now it’s now just Cash for Keys, and it’s something that has to be negotiated and the lenders are not necessarily offering that without a foreclosure defense. If you need some help with your foreclosure, give us a call at 847-2288.  Thank you.

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If my home goes into foreclosure, can I remove and sell the kitchen cabinets and other fixtures inside the home? The answer to that question is no, you should not be selling the fixtures. Whatever’s attached to the property is real property and they have a mortgage against it, so it’s really basically a fraud against your lender if you start removing kitchen cabinets and fixtures. Now appliances, that’s something different, in that usually the mortgage does not cover appliances. But as far as light fixtures, kitchen cabinets, water heaters, windows, things such as this, that’s all part of the house and should not be removed in a mortgage foreclosure action and that is part of the real property. So hopefully if you’re in a mortgage foreclosure action, well give me a call and we’ll see about trying to help you out as far as a defense is concerned, or see what your alternatives are.

My phone number is 847-2288.

Video Summary

Can a Chapter 13 forestall a mortgage foreclosure action?  You betcha it can! Because once you file any kind of bankruptcy action, it is a federal court, and so it immediately stays the foreclosure action.  And even if it’s scheduled for foreclosure sale, the Chapter 13 will stop the foreclosure sale if it’s filed just before the sale date after it’s already been going through a foreclosure.

I don’t do bankruptcies; however, my understanding of a Chapter 13 is that you basically say that I can make the payments, and I’m a little bit behind on my other payments, so the bankruptcy court – this is my understanding – will take your deficiencies or the payments that you’re behind, and let you spread that out over a 60-month period, but that means you’ve got to make your regular payment, as well as one-sixtieth of the back payments.  And if you don’t make those payments, well, you get kicked out of a Chapter 13.

Now sometimes it’s sort of frustrating if you’re trying to foreclose a mortgage where people will file more than one 13.  We call those a Chapter 26 or Chapter 39 if they keep filing, you know, several times after you go through the foreclosure process, but it can be very useful.

Also, if you file bankruptcy action, you have a good chance of possibly working out a mortgage modification in the federal bankruptcy court.  So if you need a referral to a good bankruptcy lawyer, well, give me a call and I’ll be happy to give you the name of an attorney who will be glad to try and help you or refer you to someone that will do a Chapter 13 for you.

My phone number is 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

How long can I stay in my property if I quit making my mortgage payments?  Well, you can stay in it until such time as the mortgage foreclosure action is concluded, which is the sale of your property.  It’s a public sale or auction, and even after the sale, then whoever purchases it must wait approximately 14 days before a Certificate of Title is issued.  You can stay in there for that long, and then even after that time period because then the lender or whoever holds your mortgage must apply for a Writ of Possession, and then if they get a Writ of Possession, then the sheriff will serve that on you and then you have 24 hours to vacate.

I realize I have not given you a timeline as far as whether it’s nine months, a year or two years, and that’s because there isn’t a pat answer to that. It depends on the lender. I’ve talked to people who haven’t made payments for two or three years, and the lender has not filed a mortgage foreclosure action, and even when a mortgage foreclosure action has been filed, many of them languish in the court for years and not be pushed forward.

Also, if you retain the services of our law firm, we’ve been able to assist people in staying in their home for a considerable length of time, even after the foreclosure action, and try and work on trying to get a mortgage modification or resolving the foreclosure action without a deficiency judgment.  Also delay it long enough if you want to try and affect a short sale.

So the amount of time as far as days and years or months is dependent upon how quickly your lender moves as far as referring the matter to a law firm to foreclose on you, and then how quickly the law firm proceeds with a mortgage foreclosure action, and even after filing the foreclosure action, how quickly they move the proceedings along. So I tell people if you don’t do anything after you’ve been served with a mortgage foreclosure complaint, you probably have about nine months to a year before they will be able to put you out of the property.

So if you get sued in a mortgage foreclosure action and would like some assistance, give me a call at 727-847-2288.