What Happens After Foreclosure

Your sheriffs sale date is approaching quickly. You are now convinced you cannot save your home! You are also now wondering how long you can stay after the foreclosure sale date, before the sheriff evicts you? I live in California. There is no one answer. It depends on your states laws and how quickly the lender decides to evict you.

The new owner could be either an investor or your lender. In general, you will have more time before you have to leave if the new owner is your previous lender. From your perspective, your lender may seem to move more slowly, because they are likely to have their hands full these day–dealing with many other homeowners–whereas an investor may have you only.

Several months could possibly pass before your lender handles your file again. You never know! Some lenders are dealing with as many as 500 calls or more a week.

However, assuming a worst case scenario where your lender is not overloaded and attempts to evict you immediately, in California, the eviction process starts with a 3 day notice to quit.

This 3 day notice to quit is the very same notice to quit you get when you are late with your rent. The only difference in this case is that they mean quit: they do not want your money.

You may next receive a Summons and Complaint from the court to which you will probably want to respond quickly or, theoretically–if you fail to answer the summons–the process should move quickly through the courts. But don’t take my word for it. I am not an attorney. Speak to your attorney. But this information should bear itself out as true.

Absent blockage in the courts–even the long route should extend your stay an additional month or two only. Then you may receive an eviction notice from the court. It would now be time for you to prepare to move in earnest. The sheriff will not be interested in your story.

Why you want to avoid an eviction.

In times passed, you might have been able to skip town and not pay the owners, and no one else would have been the wiser. But now the information is centralized. It goes on your credit report. And when you try to rent or buy your next house or apartment that information is there for all to view.  Many people will not sale or rent to you, if you have an eviction.  And I think it stays on your credit report for 5 years?

So what should you do?

Here are eight ways to extend the time before you must go:

* Speak to your attorney

* Keep all communications from your lender. Carefully review all documents for errors and omissions. Report them to your attorney’s lender. Follow-up to make sure they stop your sale date.

* Tell your story to your lender and ask for more time; the more drama, the better.

* Tell your lender you need more time; promise not to ‘trash the place’. Tell them how badly some of your neighbors might have been. Be careful here.

* Tell your lender vandalism stories that may have occurred in the neighborhood in houses that were vacant. Weave this into your request for more time.

* Request that your lender give you more time, because you may have an apartment or other home coming up, in say, two or three months after the sale date.

* Speak to your attorney about filing bankruptcy. Really try to avoid the big B. This trump card (which is only a temporary solution to save your home ) may be much more useful later.

* Package two or more of these ideas into a single presentation to your lender.

People not in your position may not fully understand how frightening and nerve-racking the foreclosure experience can be. But you don’t have time to explain. Make sure you have a plan, and concentrate and focus on that plan to get your best results.

You will land on your feet. You will be okay in time. Make this a bump in lifes road only. Make it a positive life building experience

Develop a plan A and a plan B and a plan C while you are trying to work through this. What do I mean by that? I mean talk to your family and friends, be searching for a new home or apartment and request an extension from your lender–all at the same time. Your goal is to stay in your home as long as possible, but what if that plan fails?

In summary, there are 8 ways to extend the time before you must leave your home. All are temporary, none are guarenteed–but when you are talking about days and weeks before you MAY be homeless, then, every extra day you get to remain in your house, gives you more time to think of that winning plan. Embrace the adventure. You will overcome your challenges. Be happy and give thanks for all that you have.

Tags: california foreclosure, foreclosure in california, Foreclosure Information, foreclosure notice sale, foreclosure questions, what happens after foreclosure