How To Get Money From Your House After You’ve Lost Your Home To Foreclosure

Published 12 January, 2012 |

How To Get Money From Your House After You’ve Lost Your Home To Foreclosure

Article by Nick Adama

Many people don’t comprehend this, but there are several laws in place that keep your lender from taking advantage of you, while they are foreclosing on your home. Every day, I hear: My mortgage company just wants my house because it’s worth more than the payoff. In a few cases, this may be true, but legally, your mortgage company must sell the home for its fair market value and you are entitled to the difference between the payoff and the amount sold. Mortgage servicers may try and take advantage of the fact that most consumers don’t know their rights when it comes to foreclosure, but we’ll help you understand your rights and hopefully get some money back if you’ve lost your home.

The main discrepancy we’ve seen is when the home is sold as quickly as possible, just to pay off the mortgage. They never seem to care about the previous homeowner and the money they are owed. For example, lets assume your home is worth 0,000, but your total payoff is only 5,000. Your mortgage company has a legal obligation to sell the home for it’s fair market value, which is 0,000. This would leave ,000 for you. What is more common is the bank accepts the first offer they receive of, lets say, 0,000, then they sue the home owner for a ,000 deficiency judgment.

In a case where the mortgage company should be paying ,000 to the homeowner, instead they end up stealing the home and suing the homeowner for an additional ,000. There is absolutely no reason the homeowner should have to pay for the the mortgage company’s neglect to sell the home at a fair price.

If you are in the process of having your home foreclosed on, or if you have already lost your home because of foreclosure, then it’s urgent that you know the exact value of your home. You may be owed thousands of dollars, in the event your home is, or was, sold for less than it was worth. There are many cases where previous homeowners have gotten settlements in excess of ,000! Understanding your rights and the laws when it comes to losing your home is likely one of the best ways of circumventing foreclosure altogether. If you didn’t understand your rights and you were taken advantage of, there is a chance you can get your home back, or at least sue the lender for their misconduct.

A great way to get the value of your home is to is to get a full appraisal from a local, qualified appraiser. Although, this can be somewhat expensive, since you probably just got out of foreclosure. It’s also hard, after a hardship, to justify throwing good money after bad. My best advice is to get a Broker Price Opinion (BPO) or Property Valuation from another qualified source. Our website can provide you with a good local referral if you need one. I do not recommend using an online service that have free appraisals, because they are rarely accurate and do not take the condition of the home, or improvements into consideration.

Ultimately, if your lender acted illegally when went through the foreclosure process, or sold the home afterwards for too low of a price, then you need to do something about it! We can not just sit back and let the lenders get away with ignoring the rules and taking advantage of helpless homeowners. Take action now and we’ll help you force your lender to answer for their wrongdoings!

About the Author

Nick publishes articles on the ForeclosureFish website to provide foreclosure help and information to homeowners in need of assistance. The site describes various methods to save a home, including deed in lieu of foreclosure, filing bankruptcy, short sales, defending foreclosure in court, and others. Visit the site for an e-book explaining the basics of foreclosure and how to stop the process: http://www.foreclosurefish.com/

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