short sale before bankruptcy...

[ab33arch]

my question is IF i decide (for reasons i have gotten into in previous threads i have made) to try and do a short sale....how does that work if i want to file for bankruptcy right away? i dont want to save the house so i'm not going to reaffirm the mortgage....does that mean if i file and put the house up for sale at the same time, i'll only have the time from filing to the time of discharge to actually sell??

[nceguyfromne]

I have read your other posts but am still having trouble following your reasoning for wanting to sell this property when you are planning to declare bankruptcy and walk away from it anyway. Are you trying to spare your ex from being stuck with responsibility to the defaulted mortgage once you walk away? If so, I respect that, but at the same time, I don't see it being in I]your[/I] own best interests, for reasons I've stated previously. Further, while I do not work for your lender and can't say for sure how they will handle the matter, I have a hard time picturing them cooperating with you to short sale your property while, at the same time, you have declared your intentions to walk away and made yourself essentially "untouchable" by filing your BK. That would seem to create an obvious conflict of interests.

As for your question, I will try to answer it in the context you are asking, but it's a difficult question to answer because you are looking to utilize your bankruptcy differently than most people. For most people, bankruptcy is used as the last resort when the lender is days away from auctioning off the property and filing BK buys the homeowner a little more time to find a new home by temporarily placing a stay on the foreclosure. The key word is temporarily. With most secured loans, the lender will file a motion with the court to lift the automatic stay. The court will hold a hearing and it is pretty much a given that the motion will be granted unless you are making payments. Once the stay is lifted, they may resume the foreclosure/repossession process. Obviously, it will take some time for the court to schedule this hearing and for the bank to resume the foreclosure process (which will again include ~30 days notice on the auction or whatever your state requires) once their motion has been granted, but it's hard to say how much time that whole process will take. It could very easily take the entire time (from filing to discharge) or it might take less.

I wish you all the best.

[tobee43]

my question is IF i decide (for reasons i have gotten into in previous threads i have made) to try and do a short sale....how does that work if i want to file for bankruptcy right away? i dont want to save the house so i'm not going to reaffirm the mortgage....does that mean if i file and put the house up for sale at the same time, i'll only have the time from filing to the time of discharge to actually sell??

well...i know about this short sell stuff in nj....tried it...doesn't happen that i know of yet. do you even know ONE person that had a successful short sale in nj....actually you're in south jersey...so, if it happens, the banks will most likely open up in that area first because of all the vaca homes vacated.

from what i'm learning short sales...and foreclosures time lines are based more on supply and demand on the housing market in that general area....and let's face it ab33...who the heck wants to be jersey??? ( i can say that because i lived there almost 40 years)....but really...if your place was located on lobard street in san fran the property would most likely be gone in a "nj or ny" minute.

i think you might find it difficult yet NOT impossible to do the short sale.

[ab33arch]

thanks for both of your repsonses....after getting a lot of info and advise from this forum i've decided against doing a short sale now...my mind i thought it would get the house off of my and my exes hands as quickly as possible.....now i feel a much more knowable about the whole thing and i've decided i don't want to go this route...

at nceguyfromne,
i agree with you and like i said, i've now decided i don't want to do one....i want to file Chp 7 asap and let the house go into foreclosure or pursue a deed in lieu....however, my ex isnt as informed about all the options because he's been leaving everything up to me to handle...and then when i tried to explain everything to him yesterday and told him he needs to look into his options because when i file for bk he'll still be responsible for the mortgage and if it goes to foreclosure, he'll have to do something too....he thinks i'm trying to screw him over and force him into filing for bankruptcy also, and while we've been civil about this whole thing, i tried to explain that if i was trying to screw him over, i wouldnt have mentioned anything in the first place and he'd have found out when its too late..... anyways, a lot of ppl keep telling me to just let him deal wit it and do whats best for me...and i do want to do that, however i can't just ignore the fact that he's on the mortgage and deed as well and i'm the one who left him even though he's the one who left me to handle everything with the house....i'm trying to keep a business perspective on this since at the moment he is being civil and is being cooperative, you know?? the last thing i want is for something to backfire....

at tobee43 ,
i totally agree with you!! heck, i'm hoping to move out of jersey after i get done school....i just don't think my ex realizes it though....in his mind, he thinks its going to sell fast....he's planning to move across the country, he's hoping by june....i really doubt, after reading on this forum, that all this mess will be cleared by then.....i suppose he thought he could just leave it up to me to determine the outcome of the house as long as it resulted in him being done with it....but he needs to do his own research too...

[nceguyfromne]

I totally respect your efforts to be decent to your ex. If he is being civil then you are right to do the same. I am glad you are not going to pursue the short sale, though. I probably should have gotten the hint on my short sale plans 2-1/2 years ago when the real estate attorney I hired to do the closing told me I should refuse the lender's terms, let them foreclose and file bk, even though he wouldn't get paid (I had a previous business relationship with him so he was always straight with me).

I know your ex's type very well because my ex was the same way. She believed everything I did was to inconvenience her. It was always up to me to do all the leg work when it came to settling our outstanding marital matters. In the end, though, you have to do what's right for you, because your ex will let you do all the work and take all the falls until you leave him with no other choice.

You should have plenty of time to get your affairs in order once you start the bk process. When my former home went into foreclosure and I got a superior court order to delay it (that's a whole different story ), it ended up being 3-1/2 months until the next scheduled auction date, and I short saled it before that happened. And, the lender's attorney was quite nice to me. It's all business to them. They don't take it personally at all.

[ab33arch]

I totally respect your efforts to be decent to your ex. If he is being civil then you are right to do the same. I am glad you are not going to pursue the short sale, though.

I don't want to....but i'm not sure if he still wants to pursue it....thats where the issue comes into play. when i do the bk, i'll get discharged for my responsibility to pay....he still is responsible tho...then what if he wants to try and sell? he can't list it without me, and i've already figured out it doesnt benefit me to do it after filing bk so i'm not gonna wanna sign and then what's he left with to do? file also? ....i mean, i'm trying to be civil but i could see this very easily getting into an agruement....meanwhile, its going thru foreclosure anyways....he's gonna blame me but at this point i'm ready to just do the bk, let it foreclose, and move on with my life....

In the end, though, you have to do what's right for you, because your ex will let you do all the work and take all the falls until you leave him with no other choice.

this is exactly what i feel its gonna come down to...and tho i hate to be painted as the bad guy who screwed him yet again...he should've stepped up and looked into his options from the get go...but like i said, i'm just trying to stay civil since he is....we'll see how it goes...

[tcreegan]

Hello ab33arch, just wanted to say I am really glad to see you coming around on this one....

i'm ready to just do the bk, let it foreclose, and move on with my life....


BKs are business decisions, not personal. Tell your ex that this is strictly business, and you are giving him a heads up so he can pursue his options. As tempting as it is, don't tell him that he is a grown man and to deal with it.......

Tom in Colo

[tobee43]

BKs are business decisions, not personal. Tell your ex that this is strictly business, and you are giving him a heads up so he can pursue his options. As tempting as it is, don't tell him that he is a grown man and to deal with it.......

Tom in Colo

exactly, it's the best thing you can do.

[nceguyfromne]

this is exactly what i feel its gonna come down to...and tho i hate to be painted as the bad guy who screwed him yet again...he should've stepped up and looked into his options from the get go...but like i said, i'm just trying to stay civil since he is....we'll see how it goes...

He snoozed on this for months taking for granted that you would fix it. Unfortunately he must live with the result. It might actually be fortunate for him that you're filing bk because it may give him more time to put his own affairs in order than if the bank simply stuck to their foreclosure schedule without your upcoming bk filing to slow it down. It's probably too late now, but it is still also within his power to call the lender or the lender's attorney and see what, if anything, they might do to work with him. My former lender's attorneys were nice to me. They didn't always tell me what I wanted to hear but they were accommodating when they could be. If I were in your position, though, I would just continue with your bk without further delay and leave the property matter up to him, limiting your role to being available to sign papers as might relate to a potential (but unlikely) property transfer. He must own his own problems and like you he may have a Chapter 7 filing in his near future.

[nceguyfromne]

He snoozed on this for months taking for granted that you would fix it. Unfortunately he must live with the result. It might actually be fortunate for him that you're filing bk because it may give him more time to put his own affairs in order than if the bank simply stuck to their foreclosure schedule without your upcoming bk filing to slow it down. It's probably too late now, but it is still also within his power to call the lender or the lender's attorney and see what, if anything, they might do to work with him. My former lender's attorneys were nice to me. They didn't always tell me what I wanted to hear but they were accommodating when they could be. If I were in your position, though, I would just continue with your bk without further delay and leave the property matter up to him, limiting your role to being available to sign papers as might relate to a potential (but unlikely) property transfer. He must own his own problems and like you he may have a Chapter 7 filing in his near future.

I should elaborate here. When I say make yourself available for signing papers, I mean only those papers that are amenable to you. Obviously, don't compromise your own position just to bail him out of having to file his own Chapter 7 case. He has already done his part to limit his options, so I see no need for you to feel badly for him.

I see VERY little chance of the lender having any interest in working with him at this point in the game, especially if they've never spoken to him prior to now, so I don't think you'll ever have to worry about this scenario playing out.