Help for Homeowners in Pre-Foreclosure
What is pre-foreclosure? If you’re currently behind on your mortgage and worried about foreclosure, you’re likely a pre-foreclosure homeowner. But don’t panic. Foreclosure can be stalled — and avoided — if you act fast. At Frank Buys Houses, we buy houses in any condition. Let’s talk about what pre-foreclosure means for you.
What is Pre-foreclosure?
Pre-foreclosure occurs when you have been late enough paying your mortgage that the bank can foreclose on you, but it hasn’t gone through the process. The process of foreclosure does vary, but in general, you can still reverse a foreclosure until your house has been sold. Once your house has been sold by the bank, it’s out of your hands.
You don’t want to go through foreclosure. Even if you reverse it at the last minute (by selling your property or paying off the debt), it will still damage your credit report. It’ll make it very hard to buy another house or even rent a house. So you want to do everything you can to avoid foreclosure.
Luckily, there are a lot of things that you can do to halt the foreclosure process. But most of them are going to be temporary at best. If you really want to get rid of the problem, you want to get rid of the house. When you sell your house fast, you can stop the process of foreclosure and move on to build your financial future.
How Do You Avoid Foreclosure?
So you need help.
Foreclosure can be avoided by paying off your debt, declaring bankruptcy, coming to an agreement with the bank, or selling your house.
Paying off your debt is often a problem. Once you’re heading to foreclosure, your credit rating is usually quite bad. And because of that, you probably won’t qualify for any type of personal loan.
Declaring bankruptcy will follow you just as much as a foreclosure will. More, actually. But it will get rid of some of your debts. However, it won’t help if your house is your major debt, and you can’t afford it.
Sometimes you can come to an agreement with the bank. The bank will be able to tell you, for instance, whether you can short sell: sell the property for less than you owe on it. Or the bank could change your loan so you are “current,” but more months have been added onto the back of the loan.
Finally, you can sell your house. And often, that’s the best choice. If you can sell your house fast, you’ll be able to sell it before you fall into foreclosure. And then you can concentrate on using the money you get from selling your house to reestablish your financial footing.
Should You Sell Your House?
If you’re in pre-foreclosure, what’s stopping you?
Most homeowners hesitate to sell their house because they’re worried they can’t. They’re worried their house has to be updated. They’re worried that repairs need to be made. And they’re worried it will take a long time.
But you can sell your house fast through a cash buyer. A cash buyer will buy houses in any condition. And because they’re buying in cash, they can close fast.
On the ordinary market, a house sale can take up to 60 days to close. And that’s after the house actually gets an offer. It can take months to get an offer if the market isn’t hot — or if your property isn’t quite up to the standards of the local market.
And if you need to get an appraisal or a home inspection, you could find yourself sinking a lot more money into the house than you expected.
If you’re in pre-foreclosure, you should get help as soon as possible. Contact Frank Buys Houses today to find out more. Frank Buys Houses will connect with you and give you an offer on your property — so you can figure out the next step for you. We buy houses as-is in Stockton, Tracy, and Modesto, so you can get on with your life.