So what are some ways to avoid foreclosure? Hey, I’m Brad with Arbor View Properties, a house buying company in Metro Atlanta. We buy houses all over Metro Atlanta and northern Georgia. Click on the link, and it will take you to our website. Come check us out. Do your research on us. We’re a legitimate company, been in business for many years and helped countless, countless numbers of homeowners through very difficult situations, complicated problems, complicated probates, foreclosures, divorces, you name it we’ve been through it.
So, I want to talk about avoiding foreclosures and the steps you can take to avoid foreclosure. Number one is do whatever you can to try to make your payment, try to negotiate with them, try to make that payment and catch it up. The further and further you get in the hole the harder and harder this is going to be. So don’t stick your head in the sand like an ostrich and hope this is all going to go away. The only way it’s going to go away is if you take the initiative and you work hard to figure this situation out. And if you don’t know what you’re doing or you have questions there’s foreclosure attorneys that can help you with us. You can call our company. We’d be more than happy to answer any questions that you might have. We’ve been through this. We know the situation. We’re a resource for you.
So number one is to catch up on payments. Number two is you can sell the house before the foreclosure happens, and you could sell it to an investor. Depending on how much time you have you might be able to list it with a real estate agent. If your house is in really good shape a lot of times what we tell people is if your house is in good shape and you have enough time, maybe give yourself 60 days or so before the foreclosure, try listing it with a real estate agent and you might get a buyer to come in and buy it, and you’ll always make more money if you list the house with a real estate agent assuming the house is in good condition.
If the house needs a lot of repairs, maybe it’s not in good condition, maybe it needs some work, maybe it’s got a lot of trash, whatever the case might be, you might be a better fit to speak to an investing companies such as ourselves who might buy it just completely as is. But if it is in good shape, I’m a realtor myself so I always recommend people list the house with a realtor. You’re going to maximize every dollar you get by listing with a realtor but there are some caveats to that, so if you have questions about that please reach out to us and we’ll be able to point you in the right directions.
The other option is a deed in lieu of foreclosure. What is a deed in lieu of foreclosure? That basically means that you are deeding the house back to the bank before the foreclosure happens. So, a lot of times and read your note, your promissory note that you made with them or your mortgage or your deed of trust or in Georgia, this is specific to Georgia, your security deed. And your promissory note probably has a provision in there which you can do what’s called a deed in lieu. And basically you’re just deeding the house back to the mortgage company and giving them the house back and they will not do a foreclosure. Your credit report will have a deed in lieu marked on it but that’s a little bit less serious than a foreclosure in terms of impact to your credit rating. So, that is one option there.
And then the final option is stick your head in the sand, wait around, and the bank will come take your house and they foreclose and you may or may not lose the equity that you have in the house. It just really depends on the situation. And you’ll end up ultimately getting evicted from the house if you decide to stay. You do have a period of time where you can stay in the house, I believe it’s up to 90 days based off of there was an act implemented during the housing crisis of ’07, ’08, basically gave homeowners up to 90 days to move out of the house before they could be evicted from the properties. Because lenders were coming in and immediately filing eviction and kicking them out of the house right away and that really wasn’t fair to these people who had lived in this house for many years.
So, you do have a little bit of time there but again you’re going to have a foreclosure on your record, the bank could come after you for your deficiency judgment. If there’s a difference between what’s owed on the house, that was very common in back in the crisis was there was a deficiency between what was owed and what the house was worth so the bank would actually come after you and tack on a deficiency judgment against you. And a lot of times the IRS considers that as income and you have to pay taxes on that money.
So please look into that, it’s definitely something to research. And again, I really recommend that you reach out to a company like us if you just have questions. We’re not going to pressure you into selling your house we’re going to tell you what is the best route for you to take and what we think might be the best route for you. And if we’re the best route great. If we think a realtor is the best route great.
If we think you should just give it back, we’ve told people before, “Just give it back to the bank.” The house might be, the numbers just don’t work on the deal and you might owe more on the house than what the house is worth and they are just too many issues with it where it just doesn’t make sense for us. And there have been times where we just said, “Let the bank take it. Let it be their problem. You walk away.” Especially and we’ve had this happen many times where someone has inherited a house from a relative and the house is in foreclosure and really it’s not their credit rating on the line when the house gets foreclosed, it’s their deceased relative’s credit rating which they’re deceased so their credit rating doesn’t really matter anymore and it’s not really their problem and they should just let it go and move on with life. And yeah I mean, it sucks, foreclosure sucks, it’s bad. It’s not a fun thing to go through, nobody wants to go through it, but it is what it is.
So those are your options if you’re trying to avoid foreclosure. Again, please call our company if you have any questions about anything, 770-810-5715, or click on the link, it’ll take you to our website. You can fill out the form on our website and someone from our team will give you a call or an email or a text. However you prefer to communicate we’ll reach out to you as soon as possible. Thanks again, guys. I hope you have a wonderful day.