Are you an Orlando homeowner in foreclosure? Are you trying to short sale your home? Then you should hire an attorney to help you defend the foreclosure. Here are the reasons why:
REASON 1: You are more likely to get a better short sale deal if you are defending the foreclosure with an attorney. This is negotiation 101. You want something and the bank wants something. You want to get rid of your underwater house without a deficiency debt obligation. The bank wants to avoid a lengthy and costly mortgage foreclosure law suit.
While many homeowmers become frustrated with how long a short sale can take to get approved at the bank, it takes much longer for the bank to complete foreclosure. If an attorney is defending the foreclosure, that time increases, significantly. So do the legal fees the bank has to pay to defend. Do you think the bank is more likely to make a deal if it can just as easily foreclose?
REASON 2: The bank will foreclose on your house if the short sale doesn’t go through. I don’t want to scare you, but it’s a fact that the bank can get a judgment against you even while negotiations are taking place. Sometimes they will cancel or post-pone events in the lawsuit to accommodate the homeowner and buyer. But this is not a guarantee. The bank will act in its self-interest.
If no one is helping you defend the foreclosure, then the bank has an easy alternative. If your short sale negotiations get complicated or go bad, there is nothing to stop the bank from foreclosing on the house while you and your real estate professional try to put the deal back together. Having an attorney to help you means plenty of time to ensure that the short sale goes through, and access to the court if you need legal help to protect the short sale negotiations.
REASON 3: Only an attorney can competently help you defend the foreclosure and advise you regarding your legal rights. Competent real estate professionals know the boundaries of their expertise. They will tell you that any advice regarding the legal ramifications of the short sale must come from an attorney. There are significant legal issues involved in any short sale transaction in Orlando. The most significant of these are how the deficiency (difference between the sale price and what you owe on the the mortgage debt) will be handled.
There are also legal issues relating to joint and marital ownership of the property, debt forgiveness, bankruptcy and debt relief, issues relating to tenants, etc. Real estate professionals do an excellent job with negotiating and assisting the homeowner with the transaction. But they are simply not trained to advise you regarding the complex legal issues that will arise in most short sale transactions. And they can not help you defend the foreclosure in court.
If you are a homeowner in the Orlando or Central Florida area who has received a notice of default on your mortgage, or if you have been served with a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit, you owe it to yourself to have an attorney defend the foreclosure while your real estate professional helps you sell the property.
I work with qualified real estate professionals to help their clients exit from their underwater homes. The team work between an attorney and a real estate professional will increase the chance that you are able to negotiate the best short sale deal. I offer a free consultation in my Orlando office to any homeowner who wants to learn more about defending foreclosure.