As a Sacramento area Short Sale Specialist and Certified Pre-Foreclosure Specialist I spend a large prtion of my day visiting with area homeowners with questions. I love being a source of inforation and also enjoy the opportunity to meet great pwople and help them understand thir options, understand the process and systems they find themselves in and also understand what decisions they may need to make and the ramifications of those decisions.
One of the most frequent questions I get s about the foreclosure proces, as in “could you explain foreclosure“?
Foreclosure: a process and an event…
The word Foreclosure means one of a couple of things; most of the time, a process; as in “my Brother is in foreclosure”, or it can be an actual event, “that 4600 square foot home went for $243,000 at the Trustee foreclore sale the other day…”
You see, Foreclosure as a process means the three steps a bank or investor goes through to take a home or piece of property back;
The legal Foreclosure Time-Lines in California:
After you are 60 days past due on your mortgage payment, (or 90 days since your last payment), the bank can file a notice of default:
Then, 90 days after that, the Notice of Trustee Sale can be filed. No earlier than 20 days later, the Trustee Sale can be held-
So;
60 days late = Notice of default
90 days = Notice of Trustee Sale
21 days= Trustee sale
The fastest your bank can take a home back in California is 171 days late on payments or 211 days since the last payment. Most banks and servicers are being very slow to file the initial Notice of Default- almost all wait over six months. The Notice of Trustee Sale may take up to a year after the Notice of Default is filed. Even after the Notice of Trustee Sale is filed, the banks/sevicers are now re-scheduling over 3/4 of the Trustee Sales, many for an additional 30, 60,or 90 days initially and then rescheduling again if they have made contact with the homeowner and there is any hope of a loan modification or short sale. They don’t want any more foreclosures unless it is clear there is no foreclosure solution. The writing is on the wall: Less foreclosures and more short sales for 2010 and beyond!