judgment

Question: If the bank sells my house for less than what was owed on it can they come after me for the balance…

Answer: Yes…The bank has 3 options at this point. Either they will do nothing or they will 1099 the homeowner or they will file a deficiency judgment for the amount they lost. In most cases they will 1099 the homeowner and count the loss as income to the homeowner. If you talk to your accountant, sometimes IRS form 982 will counteract the 1099 and you won’t have to pay a huge amount of taxes. They could also file a deficiency judgment against the homeowner and require the debt be paid off. Since most homeowners in this situation can’t pay it off, they file bankruptcy which will get rid of the judgment. There are some things you can do to ensure that a judgment is not filed and that is by doing a short sale. If you have someone who knows what they are doing, they can ask for a satisfaction or to satisfy the loan which means the bank can no longer come after the borrower for the deficient amount. The loan is considered paid in full. Plus with a short sale, the home is sold and foreclosure stays off your credit.