Foreclosure Process, Anyone?

Okay all you savvy AL real estate folks:

A relative of mine is getting ready to lose her house in foreclosure. It's legitimate. They took out a loan that they knew they couldn't repay and now it's time to pay the piper. But debating the cause of the current wave of foreclosures isn't why I'm posting.

Do any of you have links to websites that explain the foreclosure process (in particular, in California), including what steps might result in a tenant/owner not having to move quite so quickly?

Any websites with dependable info that I can give her would be appreciated.

Thanks

Sorry, I don't have any helpful links. But I've been through it recently. :-( I had my loans (1st & 2nd) through Countrywide.
Seems to be happening left and right these days. :(

Sorry, I don't have any helpful links. But I've been through it recently. :-( I had my loans (1st & 2nd) through Countrywide.
Seems to be happening left and right these days. :(

I'm sorry, Bella. That's terrible. I've been MIA a lot lately, and I missed this.

She has hers (1st and 2nd) through CW, as well. Truly, they knew they were getting in over their heads when they bought the house in the first place.

They did the same thing that my mother did about 15 years ago.

They put a chunk down on the house and left the rest in savings. Savings disappeared to make the house payments anyway, and now that the savings is gone, so is the money for house payments and now, the house. She has 5 children living at home. She should have put as much down on the house as possible, and they would have had more manageable house payments.

Anyway...

It usually takes about 4 months to get to sheriff's sale in California. (Or "Trustee Sale" as it's called there)

Have they been officially notified of the default? Is the lender taking it to court or settling out of court? The clock doesn't start ticking until they give notice of default. If they are suing for money owed (taking it to court) the proceedings can take longer.

Can they sell the house first? Maybe a short sale? Or surrender deed in lieu of foreclosure (that can drag things out for a while but don't always work?) Maybe refinance? Sometimes banks will let you roll the back payments back into the loan if you can give them a little something to catch up. She could also try bankruptcy to save the house - if default hasn't been claimed. Or dod they just want to let it go?

http://www.all-foreclosure.com/timeline.htm
http://www.maldonadomarkham.com/california-foreclosure-law.htm

I can't see how they could get any more time once proceedings start. In Wisconsin, it takes over 6 months.

Been there, done that, too.

Yep, I am a Countrywide alumnae also. Here in Texas they just auction off the home and then Countrywide buys it themselves at a ridiculously low price. They then market the home and sell at good price.

They USED to let the homeowner try to sell the place but they no longer do that as a rule. I think it is a sham with them buying back the property themselves. Just think about it. :(

They can't stop you from trying to sell it yourself. You just have to do it before the sheriff's sale.

Kristin:

They were officially notified of the default some time ago.

They actually saw this coming a long time ago but the bottomline is that they got in over their heads.

There is no way for them to make up the debt, and with a 1st and 2nd out on the house, and even if they could, they would just wind up in the same situation. They just can't afford the payments and bills and taxes, etc. Not even close, actually.

They don't want to declare bankruptcy, which I don't understand, since their credit is terrible already. But it sounds like it's too late for that, too, at least in order to try and save their home.

They just put the house up for short sale a couple of days ago but it sounds like it could be scheduled to go to auction next month; although no official notice has gone out yet.

Unfortunately, they bought their home about 3 1/2 years ago, while the market was at a high here in CA.

I think that based on what I've been able to dig up and have learned from talking to people, there's not much left that they can do.

I feel really bad for her children.

I guess I'm just trying to help her figure out how much time she has before the bank is likely to serve her an eviction notice.


YR, the owner can sell the house until 5 days before the auction.

Then, in California, it's usually 4 months from when the foreclosure was recorded.

Used to, IF you called the mortgage company, they would give you another couple of months to sell the home.

They could put an ad in the paper to rent it out or do lease to own with a significant deposit or money down, to make up the back payments.

Gosh, that is really sad. I hope they will be okay.

I've dealt with a lot of mortgage companies, because my mortgage got sold over and over. We ended up at Wells-Fargo in the end. I'm not familiar with Countrywide....

I agree with Yellowrose, would it be possible to offer it up rent to own...??? Someone to put down deposit and take over payments? I guess that would be risky....?

I know that doesn't solve her problem with where to live....but maybe she could rent it out for a while for the amount of the payment, and then later take posession again?

I was threatened with foreclosure once way back in the day, and I was under the impression the whole process took at least six months. I had to pay a significant amount to get myself out of that mess, because it was the late payments plus the fees plus their attorney costs, yadda yadda. It was a long time ago and even then it was around 3000 dollars for me....and my house payment looking back on it was quite low..

SG - I'm sorry this is happening to your relative. :( It is not fun to go through. But sometimes you come to a point where it's just not worth all the stress. I reached that point when I was trying to scrape up as much money as possible just to make 1 MONTHS worth of a payment. All the while knowing that my 2nd mortgage's payment would keep going up and I was going to be buried before long.I finally told myself that this was no way to live and began looking for a rental. I tried selling, Countrywide would NOT approve a short sale and basically screwed my chances of selling. So it was auctioned off (at a pretty high price actually).
Sounds like most of the foreclosures in CA had mortgages done through Countrywide. Sheesh!!