30 Days Late on Your Mortgage Payment
This is when you miss a payment and you are notified by your lender that you have 30 days to pay your past due amount in full. This will most likely include late fees. Depending on your lender you may receive calls, letters and even a letter of intent to foreclosure. Typically if you only fall one month behind, you will not be at risk for foreclosure. Once you fall 90 days behind on your mortgage, your mortgage lender can legally instigate the foreclosure process.
It is right after this time in which it is the best time to rework your finances, make an effort to work out a compromise with your lender, or put your home on the market.
60 Days Late on Mortgage: Notice to Accelerate
Once you are sixty days past due, you will get what is called a notice to accelerate. At this point, you will need to bring the loan current and nothing else will do, usually, to stop the foreclosure process. You will need to pay the past amount plus any late fees they assess you.
90 Days Late on Mortgage: Notice of Default
After you become 90 days late on your mortgage the bank, an attorney, or local sheriff issues a Notice of Default (NOD) to the homeowner as a certified letter.The NOD outlines homeowner debt and last-ditch remedies for reinstating the mortgage. The NOD will be recorded with a local government agency and a date is selected for a foreclosure auction.
Your Property is Put Up for Auction
The final step is a Sheriff’s or Public Trustee’s Sale. The lender’s attorney will schedule a sale of your property. The auction takes place either in the trustee’s office or on the steps of the county courthouse. The opening bid is set by the foreclosing lender and typically is equal to the loan balance, the interest accumulated, and any additional associated fees. The highest bidder on the property must pay in cash and generally has 24 hours to pay the complete sum. Although some states will allow you to come up with the cash needed and stop the foreclosure process, not all states will allow this to occur. During the auction or sale if no bids are received higher than the opening bid, the lender purchases the property and puts it back on the market.
This is obviously something the lender wants to avoid.
The Post-Foreclosure Stage
In the event that a third-party did not purchase the property at the Trustee Sale, the foreclosure process enters a post-foreclosure stage. The lender now has ownership of the property and it officially becomes a bank-owned property, or a Real Estate Owned (REO) property. This often occurs when many of the properties up for sale at the auctions are worth less than the amount owed to the lender. The REOs are then listed with local real estate agents to be sold at liquidation auctions held at either an auction house or at the property.
Is Your Home About To Be Foreclosed On In Virginia, Maryland or Washington D.C.?
If you are concerned that you will lose your home you need to speak with an experienced foreclosure defense lawyer as soon as possible. Please contact us online or call our Vienna, Virgnia office directly at 703.991.7978 or our Rockville, Maryland office at 301.637.5392 to schedule your case consultation.
