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deficiency judgment

short-sale, foreclosure, or bankruptcy… what should I do?

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Question: Looking at short-sale, foreclosure, or bankruptcy… only is Social Security Disability, VA Disability (100%), and disability insurance monthly payment… what should I do? can they come after any of my income in a deficiency judgement? will they even come after me? how will bankruptcy affect me… I currently have NO assets at all except for about 15,000 dollars in savings. thanks Tom from FLORIDA

Answer: -Tom, I have to make the assumption that you’re planning on or you’ve already stopped making payments on your home or you wouldn’t be asking these questions. A short sale in my opinion is by far the best option if you can’t sell your home for what’s owed, rent it out or can’t work out something with the bank like a forbearance or loan modification. A short sale will affect your credit but will eliminate a foreclosure on it. If done properly will also eliminate the possibility of a deficiency judgment. If a short sale is not accepted an ultimately your home ends up at the foreclosure auction, then you will either receive a 1099 or they will file a deficiency judgment against you. If they file a deficiency judgment and you can’t pay, they can garnish wages. Depending on the amount of the judgment, this forces most people to file bankruptcy to eliminate the judgment.

FILING BANKRUPTCY TO PROTECT FROM DEFICIENCY JUDGMENT

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Question: CAN FILING BANKRUPTCY PROTECT YOU FROM A DEFICIENCY JUDGMENT?

Answer: -YES…  for most people who go through a hardship like foreclosure, the main reason they file bankruptcy is because a judgment was filed against them. And since they are not in a position to pay off their mortgage amounts, bankruptcy was their only option unless they wanted their wages garnished. Bankruptcy can protect you from a deficiency judgment and that deficient mortgage amount would be included in the bankruptcy.

On a side note, most people do wait to file bankruptcy until after foreclosure because lenders don’t necessarily have to file a judgment against the homeowner. They can issue a 1099 which means the mortgage amount they forgave is considered as taxable income and they give up their rights to come after you for the deficient amount. I would recommend you seek counsel from a professional bankruptcy attorney so you know all your options. Good Luck

HELOC in Maricopa County

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Question: I foreclosed on a home in Maricopa county Arizona as of September 15th. I have a Heloc loan which i got with the purchase of the house. They are now saying i still owe them and that the Heloc is like a credit card and i will keep owing. What should i do?

Answer: -Well, you can try to settle the debt with them and pay them a fraction (5% -10%) of the original loan amount, you can do nothing and hope they issue you a 1099 in which you will have to pay taxes on that money you received, or they will file a deficiency judgment against you in which they can garnish wages and so forth until that amount is paid. If it goes that far, most people will file bankruptcy and either get it wiped out completely with a Chapter 7 or agree to pay the lender a certain amount (5% – 10%) over a period of time with a Chapter 13.

We have a home in NY that we were unable to sell and will be going into foreclosure after trying to get the loan modified and bad renters.

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Question: We have a home in NY that we were unable to sell and will be going into foreclosure after trying to get the loan modified and bad renters. We currently live in PA and the PA house is paid for…will they come after me for the deficiency, put a tax lien on the PA residence or 1099 us? Thank you for your help.

Answer: -Typically they can’t come after your other assets because the loan was created based on the properties value which was collateral for the loan. So in the event you didn’t follow through with the terms, they could take the property. Now with that said, yes they can file a judgment against you which would affect your “assets” because you would have to pay that back or file bankruptcy. It’s more common that they would 1099 you for the amount they lost but you never know. They best way to counter a deficiency judgment is to do a short sale and get it accepted as full satisfaction for the loan. This means they give up their rights to go after the homeowner for a judgment. All they can do is issue a 1099. So I would definitely try to do a short sale because it also helps your credit.

2 houses in Arizona, unable to modify our loan. If the house sell in short sale or if I give the house back to the bank can they come after our primary residence?

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Question: We don’t know what to do, we have 2 houses in Arizona, 1st house we took out a loan of $60k (leaving us a loan amount of $220k) and used those $60k to build our 2nd home which is now our primary residence we have been living in it for 1yr 4months and we were renting out the 1st house to help us pay the loan, but now we have been unable to get renters in and my husband got fired from work and has been unable to find a job, this month will be our first month not be able to make the mortgage payment, I called the bank and they told me that they were unable to modify our loan since we have 2 houses and 1 is not owner occupied. I spoke to anther department and asked them about a deed in lieu foreclosure, all they told me was that the house would need to be in short sale for 90 days before they could talk to me about that. So my question is if the house sell in short sale or if I give the house back to the bank deed in lieu foreclosure can they come after our primary residence to collect money and if they will can I change the deed of trust to owner primary home (which is free and clear of any loans) before the bank tries to get involved to someone elses name so the bank wont take away our primary residence away? Thank you.

Answer: -This is a very common question…can the bank come after my other assets if I do a short sale, deed in lieu foreclosure or it just goes to auction. The answer is “NO”. When you signed the paperwork with the bank it specifically states that the home would be sufficient collateral for the loan. The only way they could come after other assets is if you pledged them as additional collateral in order to get the loan. So you don’t have anything to worry about. What you do have to worry about is a deficiency judgment where the lender can sue you for the difference that was not collected. Although this procedure is not common at all, it does happen once in a while and is more common in mortgage states. It does not happen very often because homeowners will just file bankruptcy and wipe it out altogether, which means the bank loses even more money. So more often they will issue the homeowner a 1099 for the amount they lost, which could be a significant amount. That is why a short sale is a better alternative because it’s less damaging on your credit, you can eliminate the deficiency judgment altogether if done properly, and in many cases you don’t have to pay as much when they 1099 you.