In life, we all go through less than ideal situations. This could be anything from an illness, a death in the family, or a job loss. As a homeowner, having a rough time may mean losing the biggest investment of your life: your Jacksonville house. If you are unable to make your mortgage and insurance payments, you may be facing foreclosure with your lender if you miss a certain amount of payments; this all depends on your mortgage document.
Foreclosure or short sale in Jacksonville?
First of all, it is important to understand that foreclosure is a process. The first step is called pre-foreclosure. This means that the property is in default and the bank may or may not foreclose on the property. In most cases, the foreclosure process will not begin until you have missed between 3-6 payments. Once you have missed a certain number of payments and if you haven’t contacted your lender for a payment plan, they will file a lis pendens.
The second step is a short sale. This is where the owner is trying to sell the property for less than the owed balance. Depending on the bank, they may or may not accept offers less than the balance due at this point. If the owner can get the bank to short sell, it is much better for their credit.
If the owner and the bank can’t come to an agreement on a short sale price, the property will end up going to foreclosure. This does put a large hit on the homeowners credit and stays there for 7 years. Some homeowners feel like this a the best option because they think it’s a huge hassle to do a short sale. In fact, short sales aren’t too difficult if you have the right attorney in charge of the case. They can save a homeowners credit and allow them to move on in life.
During the foreclosure process as described above, you have the opportunity to list your Jacksonville house as a short sale. The best time for a short sale is the time period when you realize you are unable to make your payments as outlined in your loan agreement, and before the lender files legal action against you and officially owns your house. You will be able to list your house on the market and try to get an offer that will satisfy the balance of your loan or get really close to it. This might be a difficult process because you will have to be in constant communication with the lender about the offers you receive and will have to wait for them to approve or counter offer the offers you receive. If you do have an offer that the bank is willing to accept, selling your Jacksonville house to that buyer would relieve you of some of the credit damage of having a foreclosure, although it would still negatively affect your credit.
So is foreclosure or short sale in Jacksonville better? Obviously doing a short sale helps the homeowners credit and still allows them to sell the property. If a seller can get through signing some paperwork, it is worth exploring a short sale and seeing what kind of offer you can get for the property. The best option would be to avoid foreclosure and start negotiating a sale of your property before you miss any payments.
The good news is you don’t have to do this alone! At Mac home development, we have navigated tons of short sales and have made the process easy and simple. Call us today and see what your options are for selling your house!