I do not condone all of these activities for all instances. But by using these strategies you may be able to slow the sherif
1. Chapter 7 bankruptcy – This bankruptcy dissolves all debt and absolves you of the responsibility to pay it. It will temporarily delay foreclosure while the U.S. Bankruptcy Court works out the details. Usually it will buy 45 to 75 days.
2. Chapter 13 bankruptcy – This bankruptcy reorganizes your debt and creates a payment plan. Recent law changes mean that more people will be forced to file this type of bankruptcy. If you were to simply file this bankruptcy but never make the payments it still may buy you as much as 45 to 75 days. If you make payments according to the plan and properly include your mortgage debt in the bankruptcy you should be able to permanently stop foreclosure. * Warning *- If you want to use this method to permanently stay out of foreclosure, make sure you do not make your chapter 13 payment even one day late. In my experience, banks restart the foreclosure process and refuse to accept any kind of catch up money or anything to stop the foreclosure process when borrowers defaulted on a chapter 13 plan.
3. File a written answer in the court system asking for time as soon as you get your notice of legal action. This could easily buy 30 days or more.
4. Challenge the sheriff’s appraisal and ask it to be removed from sheriff sale to be reappraised. This could buy 30 to 60 days if successful.
5. Forbearances and loan modifications- Banks will delay or stop the foreclosure when you do a loan work out plan to start making payments. A loan modification is harder to get and will usually completely stop the foreclosure. It will actually add the back payments onto the end of the loan. A forbearance plan is easier but only pauses the foreclosure until you are completely caught up. Usually with this type of plan you will end up making a payment and a half or two payments each month. These agreements can be done spuriously just to buy an extra 30 days. However, using plans like these as a delay tactic is not recommended because generally there is a significant upfront payment required to start making payments again. You should not enter a plan like this with out good counsel from a financial advisor because if you default on a work out agreement lenders will not allow you to make another one for the same hardship. Sometimes government guaranteed loans have special zero interest loan programs for assisting your with your back payments.
6. If you are selling the house and have an offer, the bank will often times pull it from sheriff sale and delay the foreclosure process. My associates and I have seen banks stop sheriff sales and delay the foreclosure process numerous times.
7. Shortsales- This is a way of selling the home. A bank will accept less than what owed as payment in full if they are convinced that it is in their best interest to do so by a trained negotiator. This can delay the process 30 to 90 days while the bank evaluates the offer.
BONUS 1. A.- Find local attorney with atleast 5 years experience that will review procedure with which your were sued and file answers to delay the foreclosure.
BONUS 1 B. – Find an attorney that specializes sueing creditors for violations of TILA and other lending regulations and try to get your debt completely forgiven and foreclosure stopped.
Anybody else have any thing they did to delay the sale?