Forclosure in Texas?

[sisterfunkhaus]

Now that I am jobless we have no money to make house payments. If our home has to go into foreclosure, anyone know how long it will take or what the Texas process is? I have tried to Google it but keep coming up with junk. I have no idea where to start. We aren't late yet, but we don't have the $$$ for the Jan. payment. I am curious if Texas has a long or short process, etc.... Sorry if this is a repitition of a question in another section, I thought this was a better place for the specifics of this question.

[SinkingFast]

According to websites I looked at, it could go quick.

http://www.foreclosures.com/www/page...2.asp?state=TX

That website is pretty straightforward on what to expect.

Here's another one that's a little more wordy, but explains in a bit more detail:

http://www.foreclosureuniversity.com...laws/texas.php

Generally, a Lender will send you a notice that you're in default right after you've missed your 2nd payment. We got ours immediately after the grace period for the 2nd missed payment expired.

In Texas, the Lender has to give you 20 days to Cure, or bring your loan current. Then your Lender has to post notice at least 21 days before the Sale.

But, it may not go quick. Depends on how many REO properties your Lender already has on their books.

[sisterfunkhaus]

Thanks for the links!! Very helpful

I just reconnected with a friend who declared bk in June. She said that she is two payments behind and they aren't bothering her yet. She told me that here, according to her lawyer, it takes about 6 months of being behind before they start actual foreclosure proceedings. Then she said it takes about two months after that to forclose. So, I guess it depends on a lot of factors. I can't wait for our meeting with this attny Friday. She used to be a trustee. My friend had a great experience with her guy and is giving me his name too. It takes some paper work, but visiting various attnys can pay off.

[SinkingFast]

I'd suggest you casually look around for places to go to. Look at apts and houses that are for rent. Get a feel for the market. Find out what you can get for how much rent/mo.

If you haven't rented in a while, it's kinda like sticker shock. You know that feeling when you go to buy a car and you haven't shopped for one in several years??!! It may take some getting used to.

[sisterfunkhaus]

We are going to live with my parents. We are going to pay them what we can afford in rent. It's our only option right now This is sad b/c we have some equity in our house that we are going to lose. I just don't know how to stop from crashing and burning. Things went from bad to worse for us like that. Maybe in the end it will be a plus somehow. My parents have said I can work on my master's degree while there. They plan for us to stay for a bit. They are being very positive about it thank goodness. I just wish we could somehow sell our house and get the equity quickly. We are current on our payment for now.

[SinkingFast]

That's way kewl, Sister!! It's always great to have the support of family and those closest to us.

I am glad for you that your folks are there for you. So many times people don't understand that we just got blind sided. Same thing could happen to them, but they just don't understand unless or until it does.

[sisterfunkhaus]

At least we have somewhere to live for the next two months until we may get booted out Trying to find the humor in it all!! My next hurdle after getting out of my outpatient therapy program is debtors anon. Then, when we do get back out on our own, I'll have the tools to at least not rack up credit cards again.
Who knew BK would be such an adventure??

[sisterfunkhaus]

BTW, congrats on your discharge!!! Woooohooooooooo!!!

[Spartan]

On the good side, they may be a bit more reluctant to hurry to foreclose, and are more willing to negotiate a cure, given the housing slump and it takes a lot longer to sell now. When the housing market was on a boom, they wouldn't think much about getting the house back and dump it back on the market. That game is over now. Just a thought...

[sisterfunkhaus]

I met with MY NEW BK ATTY today who is AMAZING and was recommended by parent's old attny. I had done some on-line sleuthing and found out that she is a real go-getter and superstar around here. Anyway, she told us to go ahead and sell our house. After 3 missed payments they MIGHT start foreclosure (but might not if they know that I am trying to sell it already--it will save them some trouble.) After that we have two months before they can really start to get us out. At that point we will file our chapter 7 if our house isn't sold yet and stop the foreclosure. She said we could buy a couple of more months that way. She said we could probably get 7-8 months to sell our house with everything timed right. She said she could protect our equity as well if it wasn't too much. We are going to underprice our house a bit to help with that.

I am hoping for the best. Our city was just named in the top 20 places to live in the US. The housing market is up a bit here. Our house is a smaller house in the neighborhood. There aren't many for sale in our neighborhood either.

So, keep your fingers crossed on that. We will still have to live with my parents, but our equity can give us some $$$ for dental work and to help with living expenses. If not, we will have to walk away from it.

[lrprn]

So happy to hear you like your new attorney, sister! Great idea to ask your parents' lawyer for a referral - she sounds perfect to handle your case!

Best of luck selling your house - we'll all be rooting for you hoping everything works out all right and you get a quick sell that gives you enough left over to take care of your health issues. Keep us posted, ok?

[SinkingFast]

That's a plan, Sister!!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!!

Here's hoping you get a quick sale, full price offer!!

[emoney]

Ideas

Be proactive as its seems that you are. If there is no hope of keeping the home, including a work out plan with the lender then clean it up and contact a good Realtor in your area. You want to sell it and not let it go into foreclosure as the lender can in most cases have a claim aginst you for any shortfall. That is the difference between what you owe and what the net sales proceeds are.
In Texas the process can be very quick, inside of two months if they push, but that is not usually the case.
Best wishes,

[sisterfunkhaus]

emoney-there is no hope of keeping the home. We are selling it for $10,000 less than other houses like it in our neighborhood sell for in hopes of a quick sale and b/c we can only keep $10,000 in equity anway. We got a good deal on the house, did lots of improvements, put a good amount down, so we do have lots of equity. We cannot keep making the payments and do not want it to go into forclosure. I was wondering what is a workout plan? I wonder if it would be a bad idea to contact them to tell them what is going on. and that we are trying to sell. I should have asked my lawyer. She told me to try to sell asap but I forgot to ask her if I should talk to the lender about it. We hope to have the house the house up and running to go in the next week or two. I haven't even missed my first payment YET.

[emoney]

A workout plan is an aggrement between you and your lender that may defer some or all of your monthly payment for a period of time.
You say that you have no hope of keeping the house so it would not help you. They work best when the problem is short lived and you can see light at the end of the tunnel and is is not a train.
If you have lot a equity some persons would be willing lend you the money to make the payments for a while, until you get back on your feet.
regards,
emoney