Foreclosure News and Information
From the daily archives:
Residential foreclosure mediation- what’s California doing? – Examiner.com
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Residential foreclosure mediation- what's California doing?
Examiner.com Residential foreclosure mediation programs give borrower-homeowners and their lenders the opportunity to work out new, mutually beneficial loan terms with … Fla. justices consider mediation for foreclosures Fla. justices consider mediation for foreclosures |
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A home equity loan and a home equity line of credit both provide money from the value of your home. But each one has its pros and cons. … Bankrate home equity line of credit loan debt homeownership HELOC economy
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Copyright (c) 2008 Peter Baptiste
Do you want to keep your home from going into foreclosure? Millions of people have foreclosed on homes across the nation. There are many reasons for this. There are ways to avoid foreclosure if you are serious about saving your home. These methods include loan reinstatement, forbearance, and a loan modification. The loan reinstatement is the most common way to save your home from foreclosure through the bank.
Many of the things you should consider when your home is going into foreclosure include: – The foreclosure process – Tips on Saving Your Home
The foreclosure process can take up to a year for some people. This is because there are many steps of the foreclosure process. Not every home forecloses in exactly the same amount of time. This process can take six months for some homes and a year for others.
When a foreclosure begins a bank will issue a statement of claim because you have missed at least three payments on your mortgage. Your ability to service the financing of your home will be questioned. The second phase of a foreclosure is when the statement of claim is served to you. The third step of a foreclosure is the bank demanding you sell the home. This will be stated inside of the statement of claim. The bank will give you time to try to sell the home. This timeframe can be up to six months. This period is usually called the redemption period. Toward the end of this period the fifth step is the Order of Sale. This documentation will be served to you as a homeowner. This will include a date when the bank is going to sell the home through an auction at the county courthouse in your local county. The final period is when the home is sold through the auction and you are required to move out of the home. This entire process can be very lengthy.
Some people are not serious about saving their home. Because of the length of time it takes before you will be legally removed from the home, some people live in the home for free right up until the day the home is sold at the auction. If you want to keep your home you should not let the home get past the third stage of the foreclosure process.
There are three primary methods you can save your home from foreclosure. These three methods include loan reinstatement, forbearance, and loan modification. If you are serious about keeping your home you should look at these three options and determine which method is right for you.
The forbearance agreement is a common way a homeowner can save their home. This agreement is made between the bank and the homeowner. The homeowner commonly has an emergency in the household that prevents them from making the monthly payments. They make an agreement with the bank to catch up on the arrearages by making larger monthly payments on the home loan until they are caught up. The bank will usually give the homeowner a six month period. This could double the payments in some cases and may not even be affordable for you. When you agree with the bank on a forbearance agreement it does not stop the foreclosure process. This puts the foreclosure on hold until you are entirely caught up with your payments. If you do not make the promised payments your home will go through with the foreclosure process.
A loan modification used to be the most common method of resolving the problems of foreclosure in the past. This method allows the lender to issue a new home loan agreement with you where all of the arrearages are added to the end of the loan. This would extend the life of the loan but the homeowner can continue making their payments as if they were never behind and everyone wins. This is not a common solution anymore and banks rarely agree to allowing a homeowner have a loan modification.
The loan reinstatement is the third way you can save your home from foreclosing. This method is when the lender has initiated the process of foreclosure and you find a way to pay back all of the missed payments, late fees, attorney costs, etc. These amounts must be paid back in full and zeroed out in order for it to be valid.
There are many positive sides to the loan reinstatement you might consider. These include being able to keep your home without the worry of losing it to a foreclosure. You are back at square one with your monthly mortgage payments. You are not behind and you don’t owe any additional money for late fees or anything else. This is the best method and banks are usually willing to accept this method if you can come up with the payments to catch up.
There is a downside to the loan reinstatement that you might want to consider. The downside is that if you have to borrow the money to be able to pay the bank all of the money you now owe someone else. This may be another monthly payment for you. If you are in the foreclosure process because your monthly payments are difficult to be able to afford you might have a hard time making payments on an additional loan too.
The loan reinstatement method of saving your home from a foreclosure is the most expensive way to save your home and be able to keep it. It is important to remember that if you take a loan out to save your home then you must give the bank the entire amount you owe them including the fees. Do not just pay back the monthly payments you missed or the home may continue to go into the foreclosure process. A bank will not work with you on the loan reinstatement unless you zero the balance out.
You should be sure you can afford to come up with all of the money in this process also. If you really cannot afford to do this you might be digging an even bigger hole than you expected. It may be inevitable that your home goes into foreclosure but you are denying that you really cannot afford it. It is important to know for sure that you really can afford to save your home through the loan reinstatement program.
A loan reinstatement is the most commonly accepted method of saving your home if the bank has started the foreclosure process. It isn’t common for banks to agree to other methods because they want their money. You should be sure that you really can afford your home if you can get out of the hole you are in before you decide to pay off the entire debt.
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Florida Supreme Court Foreclosure Task Force – Capitol News Service
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Florida Supreme Court Foreclosure Task Force
Capitol News Service Foreclosures are clogging the state court system, so The Florida Supreme Court is recommending mandatory mediation between lenders and barrowers who have … |
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Ironwood facing foreclosure – Omaha World-Herald
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Ironwood facing foreclosure
Omaha World-Herald Ironwood Country Club will close at the end of December because of an overdue bank loan and is scheduled to be sold at a trustee's auction … Storied Omaha Golf Course Faces Foreclosure |
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Michael Lyon from Lyon Real Estate talks about the dire housing situation in California.
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Where do most people turn when they seek opportunities in real estate foreclosure investing? Sure, they take a look at free foreclosure listings or even sources of foreclosures that they pay for. While these sources may lead to productive and profitable deals, they also usually require extensive marketing and business promotion in order these preforeclosure opportunities to be most meaningful in real estate foreclosure investing. How do you learn how to do these things in your pursuit of foreclosures? The key is real estate training and, more specifically foreclosure training/short sale training. With all the real estate foreclosure investing options out there, I think the greatness of the current market also can be risky for the investor because, without the proper short sale training or even basic foreclosure training, you run the risk of not really knowing what you are doing. Profits can be lost and so too can foreclosure opportunities when you lack the proper real estate foreclosure investing training. Real estate foreclosure investing is an amazing opportunity but there are many aspects to consider, especially if you are really going to learn real estate short sales. Good foreclosure training and good short sale training programs cover all the features you need to learn, including marketing, negotiations, and even the emotional aspect of the sale, a natural by-product of foreclosures that can often complicate short sale deals. My efforts here are to assure you that there are indeed unlimited deals to be found within the realm of real estate foreclosure investing. Whether you’re just curious how to make money with foreclosures or really dive in and engage in serious real estate foreclosure investing (made easier with quality loss mitigation training), then you owe it to yourself to check out my Preforeclosure Cash Flow System and the many short sale training modules within it that cover how to really launch your career in real estate foreclosure investing. In closing, the entirety of the foreclosure process is ripe with deals that are there for the picking. In today’s market, the short sale process is as much as part of real estate foreclosure investing as any other part of the business. Look at other types of foreclosures too and keep your eyes open because the deals are out there. I also suggest that you commit yourself to real estate short sale training, and your pursuit of real estate foreclosures, investing in them, and profitability will be more productive and more rewarding. I wish you the very best in success in real estate foreclosure investing and in business as a whole. By D. C. Fawcett, Business Building Coach to the Foreclosure IndustryFor more information visit: http://www. realestateforeclosuresinvesting. com
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Rules would help avoid foreclosure – News & Observer
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Rules would help avoid foreclosure
News & Observer The NC Office of the Commissioner of Banks has proposed new regulations that would stop foreclosure once a homeowner asks for … NC proposals would hinder foreclosures |
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Profit from foreclosures is more than buying a property at a foreclosure auction for pennies and then reselling that property for a windfall gain the next day. There are other possibilities. In this article, we will consider three ways you can profit from foreclosures.
1) Bid at the foreclosure sale
2) Buy an REO from the lender
3) Negotiate a sale with the distressed property owners
The Foreclosure Process
When borrowers fail to make their scheduled mortgage payments, or when owners fail to pay their property taxes or some related obligation such as homeowners’ association fees or special assessments, transfer a mortgaged property without lender approval, or undertake renovations that diminish the value of the property, because a contract is shirked, foreclosure can occur.
A legal “notice of default” or a “lawsuit to foreclose” (depending on the state) is typically filed to initiate a foreclosure. This formally announces to the property owners, other parties who may have legal claims against the owners or their property, and the public in general that legal action is moving forward to force a sale of the property. This notice is delivered to the borrower at least one month before a sale (typically between 60 to 180 days) and subsequently posted on the Internet or in newspapers as public notice.
In response, the borrower can do several things to prevent or delay the process.
1) Workout the loan with the lender and perhaps reinstate or even refinance their mortgage defaults.
2) File a legal defense against the lender and in turn drag the process into court and delay it for a year or longer.
3) File for bankruptcy and automatically stay the action. Bankruptcy courts have even been known to annul a foreclosure sale that has already occurred.
Okay, but with no loan workout, and when legal defenses or delaying tactics are ignored or run out, the sale date arrives and the property is auctioned to the highest cash bidder. Thus bringing us to the first way you might profit from foreclosures.
The Foreclosure Sale
Though foreclosure sales typically lose money for lenders, lien holders, and property owners because foreclosed property sells at a price lower than market value, foreclosure auctions are not that easy because they are not a typical market value transaction.
No information about the property is given other than its legal description. You must pay cash. There is no “contingency” allowance for financing. The property is sold “as is” with no guarantees or assurances about the title, condition, environmental hazards, or even that the property will be conveyed free of occupants (you may inherit the owner, tenants, or squatters).
It’s true that savvy bidders can turn big profits at the auctions, but there is a caveat. Never bid blind at a foreclosure sale — you have to do your homework.
REOs
Lenders that win the bid at an auction classify and sell the property as an REO (”real estate owned”). Thus bringing us to the second way you can profit from foreclosures — purchase an REO direct from a mortgage lender.
Since lenders often want to remove REOs from their books as quickly as possible, they may grant buyers favorable terms such as low or no closing costs, below-market interest rates, and low down payments. Moreover, when the property needs fix-up work, lenders are prone to accept offers at a discount price. Lenders don’t give REOs away, but you can get good deals.
You can find REOs by attending and following up after foreclosure sales, or by contacting a real estate agent who markets REO listings.
Distressed Owners
Lastly, you can profit from foreclosures by buying property from distressed owners.
Divorce, job loss, accident, illness, business failure, and other setbacks do cause people to miss mortgage payments and get into foreclosure. You may be able to help them salvage their credit record and some equity, while at the same time secure a bargain for yourself.
But the “get rich quick” gurus greatly exaggerate the possibilities of profiting from property owners who face foreclosure. The reality is that when you talk with property owners in default, you’re far more likely to uncover a minefield of problems requiring skill and creativity then just a simple deal.
Owners who are in foreclosure, for instance, typically owe more on their mortgage than their properties are worth. This means you must talk the lender into a “short sale”. The lender must be willing to reduce the balance due on its loan so you are able to receive a reasonable profit for agreeing to make up delinquent payments and take over the loan. This is not easy.
Furthermore, many who face foreclosure contend with the claims of multiple creditors. You must be sure that none of those creditors has filed a lis pendens, or the IRS a tax lien. If so, you will have to clean it up to gain clear title.
Moreover, before you finalize a pre-foreclosure purchase, be sure to thoroughly inspect the property and accurately estimate the costs of repairs, renovations, and perhaps environmental cleanup. You will never profit from foreclosures if you gloss over property inspections and make only an eyeball guesstimate of expected costs.
Finally, bear in mind that someone facing foreclosure will not be an easy person to deal with. So don’t act like a shark. Instead of a “Here’s my offer-take it or leave it” approach, why not take a sensitive, empathetic, problem-solving approach. You’re more likely to come up with a win-win agreement.
Here’s to your success.
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