Foreclosure help in Georgia?
Question:
Answer:
The first thing you should do is research the foreclosure state laws in Georgia and find out how much time you actually have and what the mortgage company has to do to proceed with the foreclosure process. Unless there is a sheriff sale coming up shortly, the house should remain in your name until there is an effective transfer of ownership. Representatives from the bank say a lot of things that are inaccurate, because they don't know what they're talking about.
Once you've researched the state laws, you should look for various options to stop foreclosure. Here's a list of the most common ways that you can save your home, although not all will apply in ever situation.The list of various methods to stop foreclosure that is presented below is a nearly comprehensive accounting of the most common ways homeowners can use to save their homes, either by staying in them and avoiding foreclosure, or by getting out of a bad situation with as much of their financial lives intact as possible. There are really no magical ways to end the foreclosure process -- but there are enough tools that homeowners have available, that they can choose from a number of options to help them out of their hardship situations.
1. Save up and get current on the mortgage by paying back the payments you've missed, plus the interest, late fees, attorney fees, etc. Understand that there are often thousands of dollars of extra charges that are added once you start missing payments and especially if the lender hires a law firm to pursue the foreclosure.
2. Work with the lender to put together a repayment plan, which would require you to put down part of the amount you are behind now and pay back the rest over a period of months, along with you current monthly payment. Usually, repayment plans can be worked out through your lender's loss mitigation department, and will result in you paying almost twice as much per month as your regular mortgage payment. This is to help you get caught up on the payments you missed while you are paying your original monthly obligation.
3. Work with the lender to modify the terms of the loan to say that the missed payments are spread out over the life of the loan or put on the back end of the loan. This is called a mortgage modification or loan modification. Some lenders will not do this because they do not hold the paper to be able to modify it. This is especially true for mortgage servicing companies, who only service their loans and collect payments, but who do not own the loans.
4. Refinance -- find a hard money lender or traditional lender that will consider foreclosure refinance loans. Qualifications include lots of equity and lots of income, since your interest rate will probably be over 10%. Foreclosure refinance loans can be difficult to qualify for and may result in higher monthly payments, but they are a good way for homeowners to get a fresh start with a new note and new lender.
5. If you have an FHA loan, you can get a one-time loan from the FHA that will bring you current and is placed as a lien on the property that you would have to pay back if you sell or refinance the home. This is called a partial claim. You would have to contact the FHA directly for this one time payout to get you caught back up on your mortgage.
6. Sell to a private investor or friend/family member and lease/rent the property back from them. That clears off the foreclosure loan on the property and uses someone else's good credit to get a new loan and allows you to stay in the property. Investors can also work out short sales on properties, allow they usually do this in the hope of flipping the property by reselling it quickly at a profit.
7. Bankruptcy will stop the foreclosure process, but is usually an expensive alternative to setting up a repayment plan, mentioned above. Attorney fees, trustee fees, court costs, and high monthly payments cause a lot of people to fail their bankruptcies. Only consider bankruptcy if you desperately want to prevent foreclosure and if you have a significant amount of income you can dedicate towards the bankruptcy payments.
8. Short sales are a good option if you owe more on the property than it is currently worth. A short sale means the bank accepts less than what they are actually owed, and would allow you to get out of the loan, at least. The bank would not be able to come after you for the rest of the loan amount, since, by accepting a lower amount, they forgive the rest of the debt owed on the mortgage.
9. Sell outright if the property is worth enough and you have a willing and able buyer. List the house yourself of through a local real estate broker. In some cases, it is the right decision just to unload the house to stop foreclosure and focus on repairing your credit until you can purchase a new, more affordable home in a few years.
10. If 1-9 do not work, you can offer the bank a deed in lieu of foreclosure, which means you're voluntarily giving the property back to the bank and they are agreeing that the property is payment in full of the loan. This is not much better than a foreclosure, and you have to leave the property anyway, but it will prevent the sheriff sale and eviction process. The bank will not be able to ask for any extra money or sue you for a deficiency judgment, because they accept the property itself as satisfaction of the loan.
11. If 1-10 do not work, you can just move out and walk away and forget about the property. This is definitely not recommended if you care about your credit and plan to borrow money for several years, but foreclosure should teach you not to rely on banks to help you out when you face a hardship. All they really do is promise great deals when you think of going with them, and then throw you to the foreclosure dogs if you miss a payment. Many homeowners simply walk away because the foreclosure situation is so intimidating, but, as listed above, there are numerous options that are better than just giving up on the property.
Those are the most common options that can be used to stop foreclosure. There are a few others (suing your bank, etc.), but they involve much more cost and legal involvement and may not end up stopping the foreclosure process in the end.
Good luck.
ForeclosureFish
http://www.foreclosurefish.com/...
here are two resources for you.
the first is a website outlining the foreclosure process and the timeline.
just click on your state
http://www.foreclosures.com/pages/state_...
the second is the National Foreclosure Hotline set up by the federal governement to assist homeowners:
1-888-995-4673
good luck ☺
There are allot of unanswered questions! Take a look at this.
marksaveshomes.com
I don't think bankruptcy will save you, besides there is not enough time for that, takes about 90 days, just went through it. You are less than two weeks away from the first. I don't think you have time to do anything. Should have started this along time ago.
You obviously have an FHA mortgage if your lender said it will go back to HUD. HUD has several programs available for those facing foreclosure. I have outlined them on my 360 page but will copy and paste here. The first thing you should do is contact a HUD approved foreclosure counselor. You can find one here:
http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/h...
The following is general information about avoiding foreclosure and the programs that I know of:
There are several programs available from most mortgage lenders to try to help you over a tough period. The bottom line is, you have to contact your mortgage company and tell them your situation. Here are the programs that I know about:
Forebearance. During a period of illness or temporary job loss your mortgage company may agree to suspend payments for a period of time. Interest will continue to accrue and your mortgage will be extended to make up the amounts you do not pay.
Loan Modification. You essentially rewrite the terms of your mortgage with the lender. Often this involves taking past due payments and rolling them into a new mortgage with new terms. It allows you to get caught up and not worry about making double payments to play catch up.
The following is from the HUD website (which only applies to FHA insured mortgages but many lenders follow the same guidelines for conventional mortgages also):
Special Forbearance. Your lender may be able to arrange a repayment plan based on your financial situation and may even provide for a temporary reduction or suspension of your payments. You may qualify for this if you have recently experienced a reduction in income or an increase in living expenses. You must furnish information to your lender to show that you would be able to meet the requirements of the new payment plan.
Mortgage Modification. You may be able to refinance the debt and/or extend the term of your mortgage loan. This may help you catch up by reducing the monthly payments to a more affordable level. You may qualify if you have recovered from a financial problem and can afford the new payment amount.
Partial Claim. Your lender may be able to work with you to obtain a one-time payment from the FHA-Insurance fund to bring your mortgage current.
You may qualify if:
your loan is at least 4 months delinquent but no more than 12 months delinquent;
you are able to begin making full mortgage payments.
When your lender files a Partial Claim, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will pay your lender the amount necessary to bring your mortgage current. You must execute a Promissory Note, and a Lien will be placed on your property until the Promissory Note is paid in full.
The Promissory Note is interest-free and is due when you pay off the first mortgage or when you sell the property.
Pre-foreclosure sale. This will allow you to avoid foreclosure by selling your property for an amount less than the amount necessary to pay off your mortgage loan.
You may qualify if:
the loan is at least 2 months delinquent;
you are able to sell your house within 3 to 5 months; and
a new appraisal (that your lender will obtain) shows that the value of your home meets HUD program guidelines.
Deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. As a last resort, you may be able to voluntarily "give back" your property to the lender. This won't save your house, but it is not as damaging to your credit rating as a foreclosure.
You may qualify if:
you are in default and don't qualify for any of the other options; your attempts at selling the house before foreclosure were unsuccessful; and you don't have another FHA mortgage in default.
Check the HUD foreclosure webpage for more information. http://www.hud.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm...
Best of luck to you. If you have any additional questions, feel free to write to me.
If you have a FHA backed loan then you have a deed of trust. To foreclose on a deed of trust they must hold a trustee sale (auction) and you should have been given notice of the sale and date of the sale, if no one buys it a the sale then it will go back to HUD
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