Foreclosure. For a lot of homeowners, there isn’t a dirtier word than “foreclosure.” It’s the kind of phrase that some are scared to say out loud, lest you bring it upon yourself. For others, a home foreclosure might sound like an impossible thing, that is, until a few problems pop up and all of a sudden it becomes a very real possibility. As we’ve seen with recent economic and societal events, sometimes your situation can change in a hurry. The markets can swing wildly. Jobs can evaporate. Financial institutions can falter. And all of a sudden, you’re falling behind on your mortgage payments and find yourself unable to keep up. Before you know it, your lender is calling you daily looking for payment and hounding you about making good on your mortgage while you scramble to get by. Then, you find yourself in pre-foreclosure and, before you know it, foreclosure. When you get there, it can feel as though you’re out of options, especially if lenders are getting more aggressive in demanding repayment of the loan.
The good news is that there are ways to stop or prevent foreclosure from happening. Many of these ways allow you to maintain control over what happens to your house. Whether you file for bankruptcy, get your mortgage loan modified, go through the courts, or sell your house, you have a lot of options at your disposal. If you do decide to sell your house, you can do it fast by selling your house for cash to Ocean City Development. We’ll help you avoid foreclosure and get you out of a jam in a jiffy. But here’s some more advice about selling your home to avoid foreclosure so you have all the facts.
Can you avoid foreclosure by selling?
What is Foreclosure?
So the most basic question we need to answer is, “what is foreclosure?” You can’t understand how to avoid it if you don’t understand what it is, what it entails, and what the foreclosure process in MA looks like.
Essentially, foreclosure in MA, and anywhere else, is the process of when a borrower is unable to pay their mortgage payments for a reasonable amount of time. The lender who provided the loan will then begin the process of repossessing the Massachusetts house or property. It’s also possible for foreclosure to happen if the homeowner or borrower is unable to pay their property taxes or homeowners association (HOA) fees, though that is a different foreclosure process to the one we’re mostly discussing.
In the foreclosure process, the mortgage lender is able to take ownership of the house or property from the borrower and then sell it to recoup the outstanding money that was still due on the loan. While you might wonder if this is allowed, the lender has the legal right to take back the house because a mortgage is a secured loan. That means there is collateral put against the loan in the event that the amount cannot be repaid and, in his instance, that collateral is the house or property itself.
In the most common setting, a borrower repays the loan in monthly payments, usually due at the beginning of the month. However, in the situation where they are unable to make those payments, they are now in danger of losing ownership of the house. That’s because when a borrower signs an agreement to take out a mortgage loan, they acknowledge that the bank or lender can foreclose on the house if they default on the loan. This could also be referred to as putting a lien on the title of the house. If and when the borrower pays off the entire mortgage loan, that lien on the title is taken away and the homeowner owns the house or property outright.
Lenders try to avoid foreclosures by making sure that people who qualify for their mortgages are vetted in certain ways to ensure they are able to make payments. The lender will usually verify factors such as income, credit score, and the borrower’s debt-to-income ratio. Of course, none of this accounts for what might happen in the future, especially if there are surprises and downturns ahead. Even people with pristine credit scores can find themselves in trouble. And just like that, you find yourself needing to sell a house in foreclosure in MA just to keep your head above water. Thankfully, that’s a situation that Ocean City Development wants to help you by buying your house in foreclosure for cash.
What is Pre-Foreclosure?
Before you are officially in foreclosure, you could find yourself and your MA house in pre-foreclosure. But what is the difference? Well, the key difference is that, as the name suggests, pre-foreclosure comes before foreclosure and is a period in which you can still make some important decisions to avoid the finality of foreclosure altogether.
When you start falling behind on your mortgage payments, your lender is going to start reaching out to you with default notices on the property. These notices are meant to inform you that they intend to start the foreclosure process soon unless they receive payment or work out an arrangement with them. This is the beginning of the pre-foreclosure period. This is the time that exists between the bank informing you of their plans and the eventual time when they are able to take possession of your Massachusetts home or property in foreclosure.
Pre-foreclosure is often your last chance to solve the problem before the lender begins foreclosing on your MA house. The good news, if you’re in pre-foreclosure, is that the lender won’t take your house, but it is something of a final warning of what could happen. This would be an ideal time to reach out to Ocean City Development if you want to sell a house fast for cash in Massachusetts during pre-foreclosure.
Consider a Short Sale
One option to consider if you need to sell a house before foreclosure is doing a short sale. This involves listing your MA house on the housing market but the reason it’s called a short sale is that you are going to sell the house for an amount that falls short of the mortgage balance. A short sale is when a homeowner in financial distress sells their house for the amount that is currently due on the mortgage. When the house sells, all of the proceeds go directly to the lender or bank but not to the seller. It’s effectively a way to avoid foreclosure and satisfy the outstanding amount. Usually, this releases the borrower from any responsibility, but if the sale price is too low, the lender may still want to receive the outstanding balance in some other form.
Applying for Forbearance
Banks and lenders can seem scary during a foreclosure process, but sometimes you can reach out to them and make an arrangement that will delay foreclosure so long as the borrower meets a new set of demands. This is what’s known as forbearance, which actually translates to “holding back.”
Every lender has its own set of criteria for who qualifies for forbearance and what that looks like. Some common forms of forbearance include a full moratorium on loan payments until the borrower is able to start making them again, reduced payments that only cover interest or a portion of the monthly payment, a reduced interest rate that brings down the monthly payment amount, or a split mortgage, which splits your single loan into multiple ones with unique interest rates.
It’s important to note that your bank may not grant you forbearance and, in that case, you will either need to start making payments, sell your MA house fast, or realize that you’re headed towards foreclosure.
Restructuring Your Mortgage Loan
Another way to potentially avoid foreclosure is to speak with your lender about a restructuring of the mortgage loan. This would also require the lender to agree to the modification, which sometimes means “restarting” the loan. So long as you make the payments under the new terms, you will avoid foreclosure and you’ll be able to get back on track. This can often be a viable solution as lenders don’t always want to go into foreclosure. The costs and time involved are something they’d like to avoid if they’re able to keep you paying the mortgage payments. However, you should note that if you miss payments under the new terms, you’ll be right back where you started and facing potential foreclosure once more.
Selling Your House Fast
If it feels like foreclosure is coming and there isn’t much you can do about it, and you don’t want to have to deal with a short sale, the best solution would be to sell your house fast to avoid foreclosure by selling it to Ocean City Development. We will work with you on a fast and easy solution to buy your MA house before foreclosure and we will pay you cash for your house.
The process begins as soon as you contact us. Let us know about the current situation with your Massachusetts house. Once we have all the information we need, we’ll present you with a fair offer which you can decide on at your own speed. No matter what, there is no obligation to accept the offer. If you do, it’s your call how fast or slow the closing process moves. And in the end, we will put cash in your hands and handle the house so you don’t have to worry about foreclosure.
Selling Your House After Foreclosure Begins
Believe it or not, you can still sell your house after a foreclosure has begun. Right up until the moment the house is sold at auction, you can satisfy the outstanding debt by selling the house. In fact, many places have a “statutory right of redemption,” which allows a homeowner the right to buy back their house after foreclosure if they are able to satisfy the loan. Ocean City Development can be a great resource for you in this kind of situation as we’ve bought MA houses in foreclosure and similar situations before.
Selling Your House to a Cash Home Buyer
Why sell your house to a cash home buyer like Ocean City Development? For one thing, we don’t charge real estate commission fees like you’ll have to pay by working with a real estate agent. No matter what the sale price, that’s a big chunk of money. We also don’t work with lenders or banks so there’s no waiting for approvals. When you sell your house to us, we can move as fast as you need. We’ll make you an offer within days, often within 24 hours. And if you need to sell your house fast, we can close immediately and put cash in your hands within a few days. Contact us today to find out more about the benefits of selling your house to a cash buyer.
Conclusion paragraph
Foreclosure is a scary term that can have lasting effects on anyone who has to go through it. If you want to avoid losing your house or would rather sell your house for cash than lose it in foreclosure, reach out to Ocean City Development today for a no-obligation offer. You’ve got nothing to lose!