Help For Foreclosure In the Bay Area – 3 Ways To Avoid Foreclosure

Few things are more devastating to families than the prospect of foreclosure. You own your home and you love it — it serves you well. Yet, due to unfortunate circumstances, foreclosure may seem imminent.

 

For local California families facing foreclosure, the stress can be almost unbearable. Worse yet, the foreclosure process can take months or even years, stretching out the pain for longer than anyone wants.

 

Fortunately, you have options available to you here in California — perhaps more options than you realize. There are many strategies that help for foreclosure in the Bay Area; these are legal foreclosure avoidance strategies you can implement to help you resolve your foreclosure issue so you can get on with your life.

 

In this blog post, you’ll read about 3 ways that you can avoid foreclosure (there are other ways to avoid foreclosure as well). The goal of these strategies is to help you legally and ethically avoid foreclosure and reducing the pain and frustration that you’re facing, while minimizing any long-term financial commitment or burden to you. Not all of these strategies will apply in every situation but you’ll probably be able to find at least one of the three ways that will work for you.

 

Strategy #1: Work out a deal with your lender

The first strategy is called a “foreclosure workout”. In a foreclosure workout, you’ll sit down with your lender and tell them that you don’t think you can pay your current mortgage obligation but you’d like to figure something out so you can stay in your house and continue to pay your mortgage.

 

Contrary to popular belief, lenders don’t want to foreclose! They want happy customers who pay their mortgages, so lenders are often willing to work with homeowners to figure out a deal. This might include a temporary reprieve on your mortgage payments, or it might include a catch-up strategy where your outstanding mortgage payments are spread out so you can catch-up and pay them off, or it might include a restructuring of the outstanding amounts that you owe.

 

Strategy #2. Bankruptcy

Filing for bankruptcy may seem like an extreme measure but it is one of the “tools” in your foreclosure avoidance toolbelt. When you file for bankruptcy, you indicate to all of your creditors that you are no longer able to pay your bills. Filing for bankruptcy will put a stop to the foreclosure process because all creditors must stop the collection process.

 

Filing for bankruptcy, though, is a little extreme: it may require you to sell off some of your assets in order to pay off your creditors. And, a bankruptcy will remain on your credit score for many years, which could impact everything from getting a loan to getting a car… even getting a job. So this shouldn’t be your first line of defense!

 

Strategy #3. Short sale help for a foreclosure in the Bay Area

 

A short sale is the third strategy — this is where you sell your home and put the proceeds of the sale toward the amount owing on your mortgage loan. A short sale is a preferred method for people facing foreclosure because it is proactive, fast, and very effective.

 

 

  • It’s proactive, which means that you take matters into your own hands (that’s a major stress eliminator because so much of the stress of foreclosure comes from the process being completely out of your control).
  • It’s fast — in some cases, you can sell your home in as little as a week! That’s also because it’s local: You can get help for foreclosure in the Bay Area since organizations like Skye Homes help people going through short sales.
  • It’s very effective because a short sale can completely wipe out (or almost wipe out) the amount owing on your mortgage. If there is any amount left over that is not covered by the sale of the property, you’ll be responsible for it (although you can sometimes work out a deal with your lender).

 

With a short sale, you still end up with the reality of having to leave your home but there is a bright side: The impact to your credit is much less (compared to a bankruptcy or a foreclosure) so this is a smart long-term play to give yourself some options.

 

If you find that you’d love to sell your house to get out from under your California foreclosure…

Give us a call today at or click here to fill out the form and we’d like to make you a fair all-cash offer on your house.

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Jake Knight

Jake Knight has been a residential real estate investor since 2016. He specializes in acquiring and renovating houses in the Bay Area, Sacramento, eventually expanding to over 15+ states. Jake’s prior experience in lending, going back to 2003, laid the foundation for solving complex real estate issues.

Drawing upon his background in assisting sellers with the task of transitioning from a home they have lived in for decades, Jake launched a “senior move management” business in 2021. This company provides valuable support to seniors during the process of packing, coordinating their moves, and downsizing as they transition into senior living communities.

In 2022, Jake expanded his services by becoming a licensed real estate agent in California, providing comprehensive solutions to his seller clients.

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On the other hand, there are some sellers who need a custom solution due to either the property’s condition or the seller’s personal situation, or a combination of the two.

When the property is in really bad shape, they’re likely going to sell to an investor, so it may make sense to save money on commissions and find their own investor.

Some examples of personal situations that we can help with are: hoarding, pre-foreclosure or other financial issues that require a fast home sale, house with non-paying tenants or squatters, severely delinquent property taxes, homeowners who want to rent back the home longer than normal, or sellers who value privacy and/or are embarrassed by their home.

If your seller lead meets these criteria, you should propose the idea of making an introduction to me. You can simply suggest to them that your partner or colleague buys houses and ask if they are interested in speaking with me. Remember, you are not performing real estate agent duties. See our disclaimer below. The main thing to keep in mind at this point is to qualify them as a good fit or not. I can help you with the documentation and process things.