Short Sale Deficiency Judgements

Will I be liable for the deficiency balance on my defaulted mortgage balance?

Caller: My property was foreclosed 6 months ago and I am still getting a bill for the mortgage balance of my property. What can I do about the debt? The bank already sold the house to another buyer.

Ken Go: That is what happens if you let your property go to foreclosure, you did not request for debt forgiveness and the lender is after you for the deficiency judgment. Meaning, if you owe $500K on your property and the lender after paying all the fees, interest, legal and agent fees net about $400K only, you will owe them $100K. I am advising my readers to consider a short sale after failing to modify their loans and rates, and letting the property go into foreclosure as a last resort. Think about it, if you let go of the property just like that, the bank will have to wait for the legal process to kick in before taking over the property, that means you would have incurred legal fees, let alone the wait time that is wasted due to the process of bank take over. Then, the bank will also hire an agent and pay their commission to sell the house, all those cost of the bank selling will also go on your bill. So, you basically just increased your debt balance and hopefully your property is not damaged or vandalized where there will be again incurred cost, because again you will have to pick up those cost. Therefore, do I make sense when I say lets short sell it and ask the bank to accept a smaller payoff? What to do then, maybe talk to the lender to discount the balance if you have money to settle, or talk to a lawyer as far as how to avoid the debt.

Caller: I wrote about this caller a few weeks ago, who wanted me to help her request for a loan modification, she is $18K behind and have no way to pay the debt off to be current. I assisted in calling and providing the lender with the necessary documents to have her loan modified. Just recently the lender approved her modification package. What they did was they put the loan balance of 18K on top of her loan and kept her rate and increased her payments by about $100.00. I her case, she wanted to keep the house and has the ability to pay her mortgage but not to bring the loan current, so this will work out for her and now she wont have to worry about the 18K debt.
She got an advice from someone saying that don’t pay your mortgage for 2 months before calling the lender and asking for a loan modification. Problem is the 2 months quickly became 6 months and now she can’t keep up. So, before you get an advice make sure that person is qualified to make comments.

Caller: I was defrauded by a countryman, I was behind on my home that I owned for 18 years and was lead to believe that this person was going to use a straw buyer (fake buyer) to buy that property back for the caller. The Agent requested for $10K as an escrow deposit for the supposedly straw buyer. After a few months of communication with the agent, he suddenly stops calling. When chased after, the office has no record of the escrow ever being opened. What should I do? My home was foreclosed because I have a notice to move already and the bank won’t talk to me any more.

Ken Go: At this point, you have to report that agent to Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov or call 1-877-ftc-help. I can’t even tell you if you will ever get your money back. I would report them to the local authorities too. Unfortunately, as far as your house, since the Trustee sale occurred you are out of options. Best is to report this person to avoid other people to fall for their scams. This is by the way a Federal offense for those who are getting ideas about scamming other homeowners.

Caller: I was approach by a lawyer’s office to who wanted to help me do a loan modification with my houses that I have. I own a vacation that is still ok but due to my interest rates being high, I might not be able to afford it anymore. I refinanced my home to be able to buy the vacation home and my current residence also has a high interest rate that I am paying.

Ken Go: Before paying someone $2-4K to help you do loan modification, take note of these things. There are non profit agencies out there that will help you negotiate with your lender for free. You can also do that yourself, of course when you have to do it yourself you have to be patient and much disciplined to follow up on those calls and documents the lender might require. But for you that could save you $5K, don’t you think it’s worth it, having a Law Office behind you doesn’t always mean success? My suggestion is for you to try to sell the home and at the same time request for a loan modification, vacation home you can’t afford is not a vacation home. If you sell see how much money you will have saved not having to pay the mortgage on that property, truthfully how often to visit your vacation home? Be frugal, now is not the time to spend carelessly. There was an article about a Law firm that targeted Filipino homeowners in distress and they were soliciting for Loan Modifications. I believe they are knee deep in trouble with the Law and I am curious to see how they get out of this mess.

If you have a Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae loan there is a Making Home Affordable program that you might qualify for, please inquire with us. I have seen rates as low as 2% approved for 5 years from this program.

Please call me for your inquiries; I am waiting to write more success stories than distressed once. So, if you are able to do a work out plan with your lender thru an agent, office or lawyer that you are happy about, send me a message this way we can refer them more people in need of good citizens. Call me at (562) 697-7028 or write to kennethgo@verizon.net