So you’re facing foreclosure and need to sell your home fast. What do you do? It’s easy to become disillusioned with the process when you are in a foreclosure dilemma. However, you should know that it is possible to sell your house fast in this situation.
The first step is to act quickly. Calling a real estate agent can help you get started, but there are other ways to do this as well. Selling your house fast isn’t always an easy task, but it can be done if you are creative about it.
You’re in danger of losing your home, and you don’t know what to do. Do you let the bank take control of your home when foreclosure looms? Put your house on the market for sale? If you put it on the market for sale, is that even a wise move? How much time do you have? What are your options?
Table of Contents
Don’t ignore your lender.
If you can’t pay your mortgage, you may be on the verge of foreclosure. If you’re in this predicament, you need to act fast. Your financial well-being is at risk if the foreclosure process takes too long.
When you find yourself in default on your mortgage, don’t ignore your lender — don’t wait until the last minute to reach out. Put a note in your email program to send a message to your lender as soon as an automatic payment is due or after you get a letter from the bank saying that a subsequent payment is late.
You need to start preparing for foreclosure well in advance of any actual failure so that you can act quickly and decisively when it happens. Here are some things to do before failing status:
1) Make sure you have all the paperwork necessary to show that you can afford your payments and that no other creditor has priority over the one you have now. 2) Make sure your house looks good, including taking care of the lawn, repairing screens and mowing the grass. 3) Ensure all of your utilities are paid up and that all bills are current. 4) Clear out any clutter from rooms where people often hang out like kitchens and living rooms so that these will be easier to sell quickly 5) Find a good
Manage your expectations.
A house is one of the largest purchases most people will make in their lifetime — and, like any major purchase, sometimes things don’t work out and you need to get rid of the thing.
If you’re facing foreclosure, it’s important to understand your options. Selling your home quickly might not be a realistic goal. However, you should know that there are people who can help you in this difficult time.
Here are some tips for selling your home fast if foreclosure looms:
Manage your expectations. Selling a home is rarely fast or simple. It can take months from the time you first put your home on the market until you close the deal and move out. If you’re facing foreclosure, that time frame could be even shorter because buyers will be able to sense your urgency and may take advantage of it.
Sell as-is. If you have time to renovate or repair, it can help fetch more money for your property; but if you don’t have much time before the bank takes it away, don’t worry too much about improving anything except appearance (landscaping, minor repairs that improve curb appeal). Buyers want to see themselves living in the house, not what they’d do with it after they buy it — and they’ll factor
Don’t break the law
Selling your home when you’re facing foreclosure can limit the damage to your credit report and pay off your mortgage debt. If you’re running out of time and need to know how to stop foreclosure quickly, here are seven strategies that may help.
1. Ask your lender for a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure.
2. Sell the property yourself.
3. List the property with a real estate agent.
4. Consider a lease option — if you can make it work.
5. Accepting a cash offer from an investor or a wholesale buyer may be your best option — if you can get one
6. Don’t break the law.
7. Let your house go into foreclosure — if you must
Consider a short sale
Going into foreclosure has long-lasting consequences. A foreclosure can stay on your credit report for seven years, making it hard to get another mortgage or even rent an apartment. If you are facing a foreclosure, the sooner you sell your home, the better.
Foreclosures can take as long as a year to complete, and for most of that time you will still be able to live in your home. During that time you should be doing everything you can to preserve your credit and sell your home so you have other options when the time comes to leave your house.
The best option is to sell your home before it goes into foreclosure. That enables you to pay off any mortgage debt and walk away from the sale with some equity. But if that’s not possible, a short sale may be a good alternative.
In a short sale, the homeowner sells the house for less than what is owed on the mortgage and uses the proceeds of the sale to pay down the mortgage debt. The lender must agree in advance to accept less than it is owed and forgive any remaining debt. Short sales are not easy and they can’t always be done quickly enough to avoid foreclosure. But they are worth considering as an alternative if you owe more than your house is worth and face an imminent
Protect your credit.
For many homeowners, the worst possible outcome to the foreclosure crisis is to lose the home and damage their credit.
If you’re contemplating foreclosure, here are a few tips that may help you protect your credit:
Apply for a loan modification. This can be an effective way to avoid foreclosure and still keep your home. The Loan Modification Scam Alert website has information on how to apply through government programs or through your lender.
Ask for forbearance. If you want to keep your home but can’t make payments right now, contact your lender and ask for forbearance — that’s an agreement to stop making payments temporarily while you get caught up on other bills. Lenders would rather do this than foreclose and suffer the expense of finding another owner.
Get professional help.
There are many reasons why you may want to sell your home quickly. You may have fallen behind on your mortgage payments, and foreclosure is looming. Or, you might be relocating for a job or other reasons and need to get a quick sale.
Whatever the reason, selling a house in the middle of a foreclosure is not an easy task. But there are steps you can take to make it easier to sell your home fast when foreclosure looms.
One of the most important first steps to take when trying to sell your home fast is to get professional help. This includes getting an agent who’s familiar with the area and knows how to market your property properly. It also includes getting legal advice from an attorney who specializes in real estate law.
Last Words
There are a few basic steps to take when trying to sell your home prior to foreclosure, including advertising your property, carefully screening potential buyers and setting the right asking price. We detail each step in the article above, but we encourage you to also speak with a real estate professional to devise a specific plan of action.
