Practice Areas
Practice Areas: Foreclosure Defense
Loan Modification
Loan modifications are a type of loss mitigation. The modification reduces your monthly payment to an amount you can afford. Unfortunately, getting a modification on your own can be difficult because the Servicer and Bank often give homeowners the run around. Having a guide can help in getting your modification approved.
Foreclosure Defense
Defending your foreclosure case starts with filing an Answer by the 35-day Deadline and then asserting all the defenses and counterclaims you have against the lender. Banks and Servicers often violate the law and deprive you of your rights. Fighting back helps to get a good outcome.
Short
Sale
A short sale is a way to gain time and maintain control. It is ideal for those whose loans are underwater or who have other debts, such as 2nd mortgages, tax liens, tax judgments, and/or business debts. It is possible to satisfy multiple debts and pay the bank less than you owe in a short sale.
Sheriff's
Sale
When a sheriff’s sale is pending and you are in danger of losing your family home or losing your equity, it can be a nerve wracking experience to say the least. But, did you know you are entitled to an automatic 60-day extension? And there are other ways to win even at the 11th hour.
01.
Loan Modification
The loan modification process is frustrating and confusing. It helps to have an experienced attorney and experienced paralegals working with the bank and servicers to get you a loan modification you can afford.
02.
Foreclosure Defense
Foreclosure Defense is all about fighting the bank’s bid to sell your house out from under you in a sheriff’s sale. First, you must Answer the Foreclosure Complaint and assert your rights. Second, you need to bring to light any bad bank behavior. Third, you need to develop evidence against the bank while giving them a reasonable settlement alternative. Finally, you use any litigation advantage obtained to save your home or preserve your equity, and put the entire foreclosure nightmare behind you through a dismissal of any pending cases and cancellation of the applicable lis pendens, clearing your title.
03.
Short Sale
A short sale is “calling the bank’s bluff.” You engage in an “arm’s length sale” through a realtor in order to get full value for your property and the bank writes off the remaining loan balance. In a typical sheriff’s sale and REO where a homeowner actually loses their home, the bank is paid-in-full, but the homeowner is often left holding the bag. Homes can go for 60% of value in a sheriff’s sale, and a home worth $500,000 that is being sold to pay a $400,000 loan balance may leave a deficiency of over $100,000 after sheriff’s fees and other costs of sale. Fortunately, the bank cannot pursue a deficiency on a residential mortgage loan that has gone to Sherif Sale in the foreclosure forum. N.J.S.A. 2A:50-1. Rather, the bank must pursue a separate action for the deficiency which they must initiate within 3 months; however, this rarely happens. Conversely, even in a “quick sale” through a realtor, the house would likely go for over $400,000, leaving a very small underpayment after costs are accounted for, which would leave the bank nearly paid-in-full.
04.
Sheriff's Sale
Nothing is more terrifying than receiving a notice that the bank intends to sell your property to the highest bidder down at the courthouse. But, you have a number of tools to prevent this worst-case scenario from actually coming to pass. First, you have two (2) statutory stays of sale. Second, you can still modify your loan, sell your home to pay the bank in full, initiate a short sale, or offer a short pay to the bank, even with a sheriff’s sale pending. Certainly, it is a lot of work and is not for the faint of heart, but all is not lost — and even a pending sheriff’s sale is not a “no win scenario.” If you have gotten to this point, despite your best efforts to avoid a sheriff’s sale, your problem is also the bank’s problem, and if you can demonstrate why the bank is better off with your suggested foreclosure alternative, they may be willing to cancel or postpone any scheduled sale for a significant amount of time. Lastly, you can always file an Order to Show Cause to receive judicial assistance in carrying out your proposed foreclosure alternative.
