Veitengruber Law spends a lot of time helping our clients stay in their homes. We work tirelessly on
foreclosure defense matters, and we've saved countless properties from being sold at Sheriff's Sale. Since we do focus much of our attention on keeping homeowners out of foreclosure, you may be wondering why.
In other words: if we dedicate so much of our time to
avoiding foreclosure - it must be a pretty darn undesirable outcome, right? Foreclosure is right for
some people, but many people have gotten themselves into an unfortunate financial jam and would like to get out of it without losing their home in the process.
What is the BEST 'foreclosure alternative'?
When we are helping a client
avoid foreclosure, it's for one of several reasons:
- The homeowner doesn't want to lose their home;
- The homeowner doesn't want a foreclosure on their credit report;
- The homeowner wants to avoid a deficiency judgement.
Therefore, the
best foreclosure alternative depends on the desired outcome for each individual client. If you are in danger of losing your home to foreclosure but you really want to
keep your home, Veitengruber Law can help you negotiate with your lender to get you approved for a loan modification or refinance. In doing so, we are often able to bring monthly payments low enough for our clients to manage, allowing them to bring their mortgages current and continue living in their homes.
Another way to
avoid losing your home to foreclosure is to file for bankruptcy. In doing so, your bankruptcy case will engage an automatic stay. An automatic stay is an injunction that prohibits any of your creditors from collecting or attempting to collect any money from you until such time as your bankruptcy case has been officially settled. The automatic stay also stops any foreclosure action dead in its tracks, giving you and your foreclosure defense attorney time to determine the best course of action regarding your home.
If you don't want to or
wouldn't qualify for bankruptcy, you would very likely be approved for a loan modification as mentioned above. Getting approved for a loan modification or mortgage refinance would keep a foreclosure and/or bankruptcy from appearing on your credit report
For the homeowner who is ok with the sale of their home, but would really like to avoid the credit score damage inflicted by a foreclosure, selling via short sale may be the answer. A short sale involves getting permission from your lender to sell your home for less than the amount left on your mortgage.
Short sales are great finds for buyers, but why would a bank agree to accept (often significantly) less than what they are owed? The answer is simple: a short sale is the lesser of two evils. Lenders will almost always receive (a lot) more money for a property that is sold through a short sale rather than a foreclosure sale (Sheriff's Sale).
In addition, if you can find a buyer for your home in a short sale scenario, your lender is much less likely to file a deficiency judgement against you. In a foreclosure, a
deficiency judgement can be obtained by a creditor (your bank or lender) for the difference between the sale price and how much you still owed on your mortgage.
Theoretically, lenders can also petition the court for a short sale deficiency judgement, but the reality is that they often don't pursue one because they've received more money than they would've if the property had been sold at Sheriff's Sale. Also, many lenders want to stay in the good graces of their customers, and chasing down already distressed homeowners after a short sale has repaid a significant portion of the debt simply isn't good for business.
The bottom line is that if you're looking for a foreclosure alternative, there are a wide variety of potential solutions.
Veitengruber Law has seen it all, and we can help you determine the best fix for you and your home.
Image credit: Nicholas Cardot