7 Ways To Avoid Foreclosure And Keep Your Home

The fear of foreclosure. If you’ve ever been in this possible situation, you understand why there is fear. Having your home seized legally and then sold right before your eyes can be devastating. If you fear you might soon have to face this predicament, fear not! There is hope for you. Here are 7 ways how to avoid foreclosure and keep your beloved home.

1. Have Your Loan Reinstated

State laws are in place to help you, so be smart and take advantage of them. These laws give you the right to, within a certain amount of days, pay back the missed payments, fees, expenses, and interest. If you were simply behind a rock and a hard place for a few months, but you are now able to pay back all the money owed on the loan, you can get that loan reinstated. If your state does not have laws in place, you should be able to speak to your loan officer or bank. Typically, there are protections built into your original loan agreement that may help you get your loan reinstated.

2. Refinance Your Loan

Depending on your credit rating, you might be able to refinance your loan to a lower percentage rate and start the whole process anew. If you think you might be headed into a foreclosure, see if you can get a brand new loan started, which will pay off your previous loan, including your late payments. If you are too far behind, though, and if the foreclosure process has already begun, you might not be able to take advantage of a refinance. Again, speak with your bank or lender or a financial professional who can guide you through the refinancing process.

3. Start A Repayment Program

This is one of the least painful ways to hold on to your property and current loan product. By working with your lender, you might be able to make continuing mortgage payments, then add an additional amount per month to pay off the previous missed payments.

Consider it to be like an additional loan payment or credit card payment.

Say your mortgage is $2000 per month and you’ve missed three payments, totaling $6000. You would simply pay your $2000 mortgage along with an extra $500 per month toward the $6000 in missed payments. If you can swing these amounts, you could be caught up in one year.

4. Enter Into A Forbearance Agreement

Wouldn’t it be nice to not have any kind of mortgage payment for anywhere from 3 to 6 months? If you are heading for a foreclosure, your loan company might be willing to work with you in this way. It’s called a forbearance where you make no mortgage payment for a set amount of time. See, if you’ve generally been a good borrower but only recently came upon hard times, the lender would rather not lose you. They know that having a person make 30 years worth of payments on a home is very valuable–and better than going through the legal hoops a foreclosure takes. So, by deferring your payments for a while to help you catch up looks attractive to them, and to you.

5. Get Help From The Government

You should consider some of the programs offered by HUD, which is the federal government’s Housing and Urban Development department. These programs take your home value and contrast it to what you own on your loan, and many times, they can help you find a solution to your situation.

6. Become A Rental Property

Here’s an out of the box solution: Rent your home. If you can set the rent to be at or slightly above your current mortgage payment, you’ll basically have someone else paying your mortgage. Of course, you’ll need somewhere else to live over the course of the renter lease and until you can afford to make the payments yourself again.

7. Last Resort: Sell Your Home

The good news is, your bank really doesn’t want to own your home. They would rather help you out with a short sale, which could take care of the remaining balance and any back payments you owe. And let’s face it, it would be better to sell, make some profit if you have equity. and move on instead of losing everything.

Regardless of the solution you choose to take advantage of, any one would be better than losing your house to a foreclosure. Many people view their home as an investment, therefore, losing that entire investment without any kind of profit just isn’t the decision. With these 7 ways to avoid foreclosure, you can rest assured that your house can still be your home or a profitable investment.

Who needs a real estate agent? A lot of homeowners often prefer to sell their house themselves to avoid the high costs of real estate commissions and dealing with realtors. While this helps increase the homeowner’s margins, it’s not always the easiest route to undertake.

For Sale By Owner (abbreviated as FSBO) is when the seller choose to sell their property by listing it on the market and selling it without using a realtor. Additionally, homeowners could choose to sell their house as is because repairs may cost too much money or time. In this article we are going to talk about how to sell a house as is by owner for cash with the least amount of stress.

Selling Your House ‘as is’

You’ll need to indicate on the listing that you’re selling your house ‘as is’ if you don’t have the time or resources to make any repairs. This communicates to the buyer that what they see is what they get.

Remember that the buyer may still ask for your house to be inspected; however, you could still inform them that they shouldn’t expect any major repairs. Ultimately, you should expect your house to fetch a lower price than it would have if you did the repairs.

You could also do a pre-inspection before listing your house. Disclose everything you find in the inspection and let the buyer decide for themselves. You could get a lower price for the home, but you’ll also be able to convince buyers looking to flip properties or those looking for a chance to buy a fixer-upper house.

Thomas Myers, with Sell My House Fast In Denver, CO says that “If you want to know exactly how to sell your house as-is fast by owner and for top dollar, your best option is to sell it to an experienced local cash home buyer in your area.”

What can you do to increase the odds? Tackle high priority repairs and upgrades.

The chances are that you’ll need to do some necessary repairs on more important parts of your home if you want to get a better deal. Some of these repairs may include leaks, mold, foundation damage, furnace replacement, etc.

Tackle Minor Cosmetic Fixes

You can also spend some time and money fixing minor renovations that can help spruce up the home to create a better impact. Such renovations will help improve curb appeal and help your home sell for more.

Simple upgrades that can help your home sell include:

* A fresh coat of paint

* Additional or new lighting fixtures

* Caulking in kitchens and bathrooms

* Professionally cleaning the carpets

How To Market a Fixer-Upper

Here are some great tips on how to sell your house as is by owner and also some recommendations on how you can get a better deal for your fixer-upper:

Price Your Home Appropriately

Pricing your house is an art. You’ll need to set the best price that attracts buyers, but it shouldn’t be too low that it hurts your pockets. Compare prices for similar homes that have been recently sold in your area.

Focus on The Positives

It would help if you focused on your house’s positive aspects regardless of whether it needs some improvements. It would help if you mentioned the lot size, location, and floor plan to make the best selling points.

Use Proper Keywords

It would be best to use proper keywords with features that buyers are likely to be interested in. Use eye-catching words that add value to the listing like upgraded, spotless, landscaped, etc. Ensure that they are accurate.

In Conclusion

Selling a house as is yourself without a realtor can be a potentially challenging task and time-consuming; however, it’s entirely impossible. As the idea of selling a house by owner online becomes more normalized for homeowners with the help of real estate and social media websites and having access to more information. Selling your property by owner without a realtor has become easier than it has been in the past and worth considering.

That’s not to say that you should take sometime and invest your resources to ensure the home is marketable and saleable.

Landlords selling homes should be aware of the tenant’s right to enhance a decent living. The rights ensure that the selling o the house is done through the legal channels without any rights violations. However, both the landlord and the tenant must be conversant with the rights regarding the property. With this, both parties can now agree to the sale of the home. The following are tenants’ rights in the selling of a home.

Tenant rights about the sale of a home

Right to a well-maintained property. Every tenant is entitled to live in a property with proper working utilities e.g., electricity. The property must be in a conducive environment to ensure a safe living for the tenant. The landlord has to facilitate repairs of the property and upgrade the home condition when selling a property. If the landlord fails to do so, a tenant can file a case in a housing court for proper action. With this, a tenant can then move into the house without any worries.

The right to leave the property in any condition. When moving out of a home, it’s not a must for the tenants to tidy up things before the buyer comes in. Therefore it’s the work of the landlord to clean up before bringing the buyer. However, in some cases, tenants can help landlords tidy up and maybe get a bonus for the job well-done.

The right to occupy the home after it changes ownership. Sometimes a property may sell when it already has tenants hence changing ownership from one landlord to another. In such a case, the tenant has a right to continue living in the home since the lease period is not over. It happens so because the tenant’s agreement lies to the property and not the landlord. It is a property right for tenants, and landlords selling homes should respect it at all costs. With this, the tenant can continue living in the property, awaiting the lease period to be over and may renew.

Right to original lease agreements. A tenant has a right to the terms and conditions set when signing the property. If ownership changes to another landlord, the terms set previously should be respected and permitted. It means nothing should go against the terms set earlier. However, the tenant can still renegotiate with the landlord on whether the new conditions are favorable. Some of these terms include payment methods and having pets on the property. Therefore, the tenant gets to live peacefully as before without disagreeing with the landlord. For the buyers who might find it difficult to accept these terms, then they have the option of finding better policies for other properties.

The right to occupy the property during showings. Tenants should not leave the property during showings to other buyers. However, they are not obliged to keeping the premises clean to the seller’s standards. Since the tenants have some attachments to the property, they might get emotional and try to retain the house. Landlords selling homes should go slow to make the selling process easier for the tenants. Therefore, the landlord can hire cleaners to clean the property before the showings.

As long as you follow the 5 Tenant rights about the sale of a home covered in this article you will be okay. And honestly, selling your rental property will be quick and easy selling it to a sell my house fast Atlanta – cash house buyers. They have a lot of experience buying rental properties with tenants in place so they will insure a smooth transition for you and the tenants.

A slow housing market is known to bring a stalemate in property sales. This affects both the seller and the buyer. But how? While it may be difficult for a seller to sell his house, a buyer is reluctant to invest because he fears that the price will plunge further once he buys. However, with some smart tips, you can quickly find a buyer and sell your house even in a slow market. Find out how to sell a house fast in a slow market with the tips below

1. Home staging

Depending on your region and city, it may take time to sell a home. To put the odds in your favor, you could invest in home staging, which consists of making small renovations to give a face-lift to the house for sale. A properly renovated and decorated home will attract more potential buyers. It may be worth investing a small amount in:

• New paintings.

• New coatings.

• Small interior decorations.

The principle of home staging is to give a modern and neutral side to your decoration so that buyers can project themselves there.

2. Sell at a realistic price

The price is the most important part of any sales process. Establish a realistic price, which is not in contrast with the market average. The advice is not to devalue your property. You simply have to stick to current prices. Also note that as days go without selling, your property continues to devalue.

3. Don’t decline offers

For the same reason, you cannot afford to refuse offers. Learn to distinguish who is really interested in buying your home from those who play downward because they are looking for the bargain. In any case, even a very low offer below the market value of the property must be assessed and requires the due counter-offer.

4. Do not rush

If you want to sell a house fast in a slow market, you don’t have to hurry. If you’ve done everything right, requests to view the apartment will come, and also offers. However, this rule applies when you show your home to potential buyers. Let them go around the property several times, give them all the time to settle in, to “breathe” the atmosphere of the house, respond politely to any questions, and always be available. In short, do everything to be a good host.

5. Contact a professional

Many believe that turning to a real estate professional to sell a house is an unnecessary waste of time and money. But this is far from the truth. A real estate agency offers you professional advice that is essential for selling a house quickly. The real estate agent will help you calculate the most appropriate price for the sale of the property, will take care of setting appointments with any buyers, and will facilitate the entire process of selling. However, you need to choose a real estate agency:

• That it is present on the same territory as the property

• Who knows how to prepare the most effective ads.

• Who knows the target market very well.

• That will guarantee you an excellent selection of customers that will allow you to sell your property at the best price.

Conclusion

During visits, the house must be pleasant to discover. If it looks its best, it will not take long to sell your house quickly on the market. You now know everything you need to know to sell a house quickly in a slow real estate market. You only need to prepare everything so that the sale takes place in the best conditions. An often over look alternative solution by a lot of homeowners is selling directly to a company that buys houses for cash in their area. These types of companies are actively purchasing properties from sellers in as is condition without requiring a home inspection or any repair contingencies.

The current market is very tricky, COVID-19 has decimated a lot of people’s wealth so there are fewer buyers on the housing market. The reality is that the buyers left are going to want the best possible deal at the lowest possible price.

How to Price Your House to sell fast

It goes without saying, that before you call in the real estate agent your house has to be ready to be seen by the public. To get the right price fast everything, at least visually, has to be in order. So get your house in order.

• Don’t sell in Winter.
• A fresh coat of paint right through is a good start, always use neutral colors so that nothing stands out too much.
• The kitchen and bathrooms have to be very clean ( get the contract cleaner through). 
• Remove all excess clutter, into storage if necessary.
• Lawns and garden beds trimmed and neat, and maybe even the front fence painted. Then you are ready for first your appraisal.

Establishing Value, these tips will help you to price your house to sell fast 

In order to establish a value, it will be necessary to have about 5 different agents through your property. These will be chosen from the agents who have made the top house sales in your area. In turn, they will present you with a written appraisal and a list of their top-selling houses near you in the last year. This is an extremely useful tool to base your choice of a real estate agent on. Many agents have lists of people who want to buy in the area and may have a buyer, but they probably won’t tell you that. Areas with top schools that are near the beach and shops are often the most popular, which is probably why you moved there originally. 

The Realtor will have a pricing structure for selling your property usually based on % of the value. When times are tough you can sometimes negotiate a flat fee, which is better as you know where you stand.

You are now ready to choose your agent and have decided on the price you want to achieve you want to go to Auction in order to sell your house faster.

Auction

You want the house to sell quickly so you decide that seeing there is some interest in it that you will go to auction.

 You will have about 3 weeks of open house inspections twice a week. After the 3 weeks, the auction will take place, providing there are a few bidders Once again the house has to be spotless for every inspection, ( some families actually move out to keep it that way). Auction day comes and your house sells to the highest bidder. Most settlement contracts are 6 weeks and then you vacate the property by the due date and get the payment.

More information on how to sell faster: https://www.trulia.com/guides/how-to-price-your-home/

Private Treaty Sale

Should you decide not to go to Auction the agent continues to hold open for inspections to get a sale. This may take a bit longer as you may have a pending buyer who has to sell his house first if you agree to this offer you may find that he asks for a long settlement say 3 months. This is quite normal in a tougher market but slows things down and you don’t want that.

If you want a quick sale in a good market consider an Auction approach, this will allow the market to determine the right price to sell your house fast. The absolutely quickest way to sell your home is to sell it to a local company like; sell my home fast San Antonio. The benefit of accepting a cash offer allows you to close faster and sell without doing any repairs to the property.

Selling your home is never an easy decision, but, when the time is right, all options should be weighed. Most homeowners, 93% in fact, follow the traditional real estate agent path, while only 7% sell the home themselves. Prior to embarking on a For Sale by Owner (FSBO) adventure, it is important to research all aspects of real estate sales.

For Sale by Owner (FSBO)

Owners that sell their own homes are generally looking to save money. These are the costs usually paid by the seller

Buyer’s and seller’s agent’s commission, 3% each property Transfer Tax, Recording fees, Repairs identified in Home Inspection, and Title insurance.

FSBO sellers will only be exempt from the seller’s agents commission, and the buyer’s agent if they prefer to only sell directly to a buyer. It is important to note, that a seller that doesn’t research the market well enough can easily price the home too high so that it doesn’t sell or too low so that they lose more profit than they saved by not using an agent.

Market Research

Prior to placing a house on the market, an owner should do proper research on real estate sales in the area. Things to know:

Selling price for similar homes

How long houses sit on the market best season for sales what home improvements add value which home improvements decrease value legal terminology in regards to real estate necessary papers to file at close

If a home seller decides not to use a real estate agent, it is recommended to use a lawyer to ensure that the transaction is legal and legitimate.

Staging

Proper home staging and photography can help sell a home quicker. Potential buyers should be able to view the home in person or online and picture their lives in it.

Clean

Give the house a deep clean, Clear cabinets, drawers, and closets of all but essentials and wipe them down. Remove gunk and buildup around plumbing, water heater, and furnace. Have a heating/AC system professionally cleaned and maintained

Declutter

• Remove excess furniture.
• Store knick-knacks
• Minimize pet and children’s toys and accessories.
• Remove all but essential items

Depersonalize

• Remove family photos
• Remove unique and unusual art.
• Remove souvenirs from vacations.

Buyers should be able to project their personalities onto the house.

• Curb Appeal
• Weed and trim hedges
• Plant flowers
• Sweep walkways
• Clean concrete and decking
• Remove debris

Showing

If the owner is selling the house, it is necessary to be available to show the house on the buyer’s timetable. Open houses should be well advertised and visitors should be able to give feedback, formally or informally.

Remove barriers to showing the home. The more open your schedule, the more potential buyers will visit. Don’t hover or rush. Keep a comfortable temperature, with heat, AC, or open windows. Turn all lights on. A light, crisp smell like linen or fresh rain is preferable to a heavy, identifiable smell like pine or vanilla

Closing

Closing the final stage where a property title is exchanged for money. This is the most important part of selling a home by owner, and everything must be in order before sitting at the table with the title company.

Hire an attorney that specializes in real estate or learn the laws.

• Order title and arrange for escrow
• Pass appraisal and inspection
• Prepare paperwork
• Title
• Property tax
• Loan information
• Property survey
• Homeowners insurance

With proper research and little extra work, it is possible for a homeowner to sell their house without a real estate agent. As with any financial or legal endeavor, it is important to weigh all the options and potential outcomes in a detached, just-business manner.

Selling your home for sale by owner (FSBO) can be accomplished without the stress by selling it directly to sell house fast companies actively buying real estate in your area. If you follow the FSBO steps outline to sell your house fast you will get it sold faster than if you were to list it with a Realtor.