A sudden financial hit like a big medical bill or the loss of a job can make your once-affordable house now unaffordable. But even if you are facing foreclosure you still have options if you know how to sell a foreclosed home in Orange County.
By law, if you go 120 consecutive days (4 months) without making a mortgage payment, the bank may begin the foreclosure process on your home and sell it at auction regardless of how long you have lived there or how many payments you have made in the past. If at all possible, foreclosure should be avoided. Not only do you lose the home, but you also surrender your right to recover any equity you may have built up. The foreclosure stays on your credit report for seven years and harms your ability to buy another home.
If you have already received a notice of default, that means the foreclosure process has begun. Your bank assumes you are giving up your home. It is up to you to show them otherwise. Despite the gravity of the situation, it is not all doom & gloom. You might still have an opportunity to sell your home before it goes to auction–but time is definitely not on your side. This is where it becomes critical to have a professional real estate agent in your corner. Click here to connect with a real estate agent who specializes in selling a foreclosed home in Orange County. Whether you sell it at a profit or a loss, either scenario is better than losing your house to foreclosure. The key to making this work is knowing how to sell your house fast in Orange County.
SELLING AT A PROFIT
Although you may no longer be able to afford the mortgage payments, there is still an incentive for selling a house before foreclosure is completed: You might have already built up some equity (your home is worth more than you owe on the mortgage). In this situation, you could sell your home, pocket the profit, and be free from your mortgage payment. Best of all, you are not losing your home, you are selling it. Psychologically, this feels better. It will not harm your credit score or your ability to buy another home. And you get to walk away with cash to put toward your next home.
SELLING AT A LOSS
If you find yourself “underwater” on a home (you owe more money than it is worth), selling the home will not fix all your problems. For example, suppose you owe $400,000 on your mortgage, but your home is only worth $350,000. You still have to come up with $50,000 to satisfy the rest of the mortgage. If that is not possible, you might consider asking your bank if you can do a short sale. This is when you sell the home for less than it is worth, and the bank agrees to accept less than the full amount you owe them. The upside is that you get to walk away from the problem. The downside is that you leave without any profits. Your credit also takes a hit (although it is not as bad as a foreclosure). Click here to connect with a real estate agent who can help guide you through a short sale in Orange County.
Real estate agents in Orange County can help you create a pricing strategy to get your home sold quickly. They can also negotiate with the bank on your behalf to postpone the foreclosure auction and buy you more time to sell your home. Remember the more time you have, the more options you have. It would be heartbreaking to run out of time and lose your home to foreclosure when you could have sold it and walked away with thousands of dollars in your pocket.
If both time and options are about to run out, another possibility would be to sell your house fast for cash. When a buyer pays cash, it speeds up the process considerably. You will shave weeks or even months off the time it takes for the transaction to close. In fact, cash offers can be completed in as little as seven days. This is a great strategy for preserving your credit rating while you sell your house quickly. To receive a cash offer for your home in Orange County, click here.
John Medina specializes in helping homeowners in Orange County sell their homes fast at the highest price with no realtor fees.
