Lehighton & Carbon County Foreclosure Avoidance
Save Your Home with the Help of a Dedicated and Successful Lehighton Foreclosure Attorney
Owning a home is a quintessential part of the American dream. Unfortunately, some home buyers later find they were pushed into buying a home they couldn’t afford or a mortgage they didn’t understand. Others simply suffer financial setbacks that render them unable to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments. Losing your home to foreclosure can be catastrophic, but it doesn’t have to happen. A Lehighton & Carbon County foreclosure avoidance attorney from the Law Office of Adam R. Weaver, Esq. can explore your options with you to avoid foreclosure and take the right steps to help you save your home or exit gracefully with your credit intact. From our office in Lehighton, we help homeowners throughout Lehigh, Carbon and Schuylkill counties facing foreclosure or default. Learn about some of your options below, and call us today for immediate assistance in saving your home from foreclosure.
Loan Modification
Banks want to get paid, and they’ll foreclose on your home if you aren’t paying your mortgage. They’ll sell your house, apply the proceeds to your mortgage balance, and sue you for the rest. But banks would rather not have to foreclose. They don’t want to pay to take the case through the judicial foreclosure process, only to be stuck with a property that they may not even be able to sell or get a good return on. For these reasons, your bank may be open to reducing your monthly mortgage payment through what is known as a loan modification or workout. Your lender may be amenable to lowering your interest rate, extending the number of payments or reducing the principal, especially if you are paying more than 40% of our monthly income on mortgage payments or if you are upside-down on your loan, owing more on the mortgage than the house is worth.
Negotiating a lasting, effective loan modification is not easy. The lender is not required to agree to a modification, and frustrated homeowners find themselves constantly having to submit and resubmit paystubs, bank statements and applications, never knowing if the process will ever end. They may be given a temporary modification that is supposed to last three months but drags on from month to month without the homeowner having any idea if the modification will be made permanent or not. Meanwhile, late fees and penalties continue to accrue. Some homeowners are even told to stop paying their mortgage so they can qualify for a modification. What the consumer doesn’t know is that a bank’s loan modification department is separate from the foreclosure department, and negotiating a loan modification doesn’t stop the bank from pursuing a foreclosure at the same time.
The Law Office of Adam R. Weaver, Esq. can help. If you’re in Lehigh or Schuylkill counties, we’ll utilize the Foreclosure Diversion Program to stop any foreclosure while the modification process is underway. We’ll also make sure that any modification is permanent and actually meets your needs. If you’re eligible, we’ll shepherd your modification through the Mortgage Modification Mediation Program (MMMP) to help you get a permanent modification. Call us to learn more.
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Filing for bankruptcy should not be overlooked as one way to avoid foreclosure. Even if you are in default on your mortgage and have already received a notice of default or notice of foreclosure, filing bankruptcy puts an “automatic stay” in place which can put the brakes on any pending foreclosure. The automatic stay also puts a halt to any attempts to repossess your car, furniture, appliances or other property serving as security for a debt. The automatic stay even protects family members or friends who co-signed a loan or credit application and keeps the creditors from going after them too.
While the automatic stay is in place, you have time to develop a payment plan to pay off your secured debts, including your home mortgage. You can catch up missed payments as part of the plan, bringing you current on your mortgage and no longer in default. The threat of foreclosure has now gone away and will stay away for as long as you keep your payments up-to-date.
Chapter 13 can do much more than help you out of default by allowing you to make up missed payments. If you owe more on your home than it is worth on the market, the bankruptcy court can cramdown your mortgage balance to more closely align with the home’s fair market value. If you have a second mortgage but owe more on the first mortgage than the house is worth, the court can strip away that second lien and discharge it in bankruptcy. Chapter 13 can not only help you avoid an imminent foreclosure; it can reduce your monthly mortgage bill to an amount you can afford, so you can stay in your home and build equity with security and peace of mind.
Short Sales, Deeds in Lieu, Cash for Keys
Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to keep the house, and walking away from it is actually your best option. Nevertheless, letting the bank foreclose on your home is not a good way to walk away. Let us negotiate with your lender and find a way for you to give up the home on your own terms, without having to pay off your mortgage balance, without being liable for a deficiency judgment, and perhaps with some money in your pocket to cover moving expenses. Negotiating with the bank on your own is harder than you think, and you can wind up making serious mistakes that cost you money or leave you just as bad off as if the bank had foreclosed. Our experienced home mortgage and foreclosure attorney will explore all your options and pursue the best course in your particular circumstances.
Talk to Lehighton Attorney Adam R. Weaver about Avoiding Foreclosure of Your Home
For smart, effective ways to deal with a mortgage default and avoid foreclosure in Lehigh, Schuylkill or Carbon County, call the Law Offices of Adam R. Weaver, Esq. in Lehighton to explore your options with an experienced and successful foreclosure avoidance lawyer.
