CHAPTER 12 The Selling Process for a Home in Foreclosur eclosure
Let’s assume that you have missed four mortgage payments and that your lender has issued you a Notice of Default. Your foreclosure process can take several months to over a year, depending on the jurisdiction and your negotiations with your lender. Faced with a lengthy foreclosure, it’s easy to become so discouraged that you might not recognize all your legal options. After a foreclosure process has begun, you have the right to sell your home up until the time of — or in some instances, the day before — it is sold at foreclosure auction and the lender takes possession. This time before the auction and transfer of possession is known as “pre-foreclosure.”
DECIDING WHETHER TO SELL
Before deciding to sell your home, ask yourself whether you have exhausted all possible alternatives for getting caught up on your mortgage. These alternatives, detailed in Chapter 3, include restructuring your loan, refinancing to obtain lower payments or interest rate, or asking your lender for forbearance — temporary suspension of your payments to allow your recovery from short- term financial problems. Restructuring or refinancing your mortgage may be challenging. If your finances were difficult enough to cause you to miss your mortgage payments in the first place, those same financial conditions could make it difficult to qualify for a new loan or obtain new terms on the old one. 88
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