Timeframe if one "walks away" from home

[basketsbears]

Hi,

Will be filing in the next couple of weeks. We are not reaffirming our house, but will probably be reaffirming our vehicles (attorney feels they will be repo'd if we do not sign - so we are going to try and renegotiate).

Next year after I graduate from school if I get a job a further distance from our home and we decide to find a new home, how long does the actual foreclosure process take in Indiana? I read online approximate 150 days for the foreclosure process. (My husband's rental (the reason we are filing in the first place) hasn't been paid on since Oct. 2010, and in February 2012 we rec'd notice from BOA that they were "changing locks" and a letter from attorney, but we haven't heard anything else.) So it is a little confusing to me.

We have never missed a payment or been late on our primary residence, mortgage is with a local/regional bank, so I would assume the process would be faster. I guess my question is, if we decided to walk away, do they start proceedings at the 3 month past due mark, making it about 8 months before the house is foreclosed on? I am just trying to plan ahead if this would happen. I had made a comment to my attorney that we could be living in the rental home "free" and she said something like that doesn't happen in the "real world", so I will ask her when we meet in a couple of weeks how long to expect we could live here without paying, but was curious what others' experiences have been.

Thanks for all the help!

Lynn

[tobee43]

indiana is a judicial state meaning this: (to quote me )

judicial foreclosures are processed through the courts, beginning with the lender filing a complaint and recording a notice of Lis Pendens. the complaint will state what the debt is, and why the default should allow the lender to foreclose and take the property given as security for the loan. the homeowner will be served notice of the complaint, either by mailing, direct service, or publication of the notice, and will have the opportunity to be heard before the court. If the court finds the debt valid, and in default, it will issue a judgment for the total amount owed, including the costs of the foreclosure process. after the judgment has been entered, a writ will be issued by the court authorizing a sheriff's sale. the sheriff's sale is an auction, open to anyone, and is held in a public place, which can range from in front of the courthouse steps, to in front of the property being auctioned. sheriff's sales will require either cash to be paid at the time of sale, or a substantial deposit, with the balance paid from later that same day up to 30 days after the sale. check your local procedures carefully. At the end of the auction, the highest bidder will be the owner of the property, subject to the court's confirmation of the sale. after the court has confirmed the sale, a sheriff's deed will be prepared and delivered to the highest bidder, when that deed is recorded, the highest bidder is the owner of the property. all this takes time. you can also go into court and fight it. many judges nowadays don't want to throw people out. i know someone that went to court over and over and ended up staying YEARS without paying, if that's what you need to do. also check your local county sheriff's site in your county to see how quickly they are moving them out. i know our old county lists them for i think it is at least 3 months in advance.

also, check your states statue of limitation for deed transfers. i know in our case it's 20 years and it's been over 4 that have passed and nothing, no foreclosure, no attempt to sell, nothing. could we have lived there this past 4.5 years. maybe, but we left approx. 6 months after we decided not to keep the house.

[basketsbears]

Thanks for the info. I have read many of your posts, and have thought maybe down the road we could find a house on contract. Now that we are getting close to filing, just want to make sure we make smart decisions.

Thanks!

[Drazil65]

Hi, we stopped payments in January (before discharge) as we knew we would be moving this summer once hubby graduated. They have not started the process yet. They contacted us in March (at 90 days) and asked what our intention was now that the discharge had gone through and we told them that we were putting the house on the market because hubby was still in school at that time and he still had no income. They said they would check back in with us at the end of June. As they seem to give us that extra 90 days to see if the house would sell just bought us some extra time.

They will probably start the foreclosure process at the beginning of July for us and they are telling us it will take about 4 months (small local bank) to complete. They also mentioned a possible DIL when we last spoke so maybe we can avoid the foreclosure timeline and complete everything sooner. Hubby does have a full time position in a city (much bigger city yeah!!!) about 1.5 hrs from here and started in the beginning of June. As he is working overnite shifts ( 3 12 hr shifts a week) they let him stay in on oncall suite so it saves in commuting costs for now but we will be moving sometime in August and we are looking for a townhouse now.

[tobee43]

Thanks for the info. I have read many of your posts, and have thought maybe down the road we could find a house on contract. Now that we are getting close to filing, just want to make sure we make smart decisions.

Thanks!

i'm certain it will all turn out well. we were lucky to find a house with owner financing and everything is now fine. NOT perfect, but at the very least we know this is a place that we can afford to always live with no worries.

i hear you on the smart decisions. we all make mistakes and in the case of trying to make certain everything is covered like a good game of chess, sometimes we just don't see it all. i'm sure you will do fine!!

[btbeme]

i'm certain it will all turn out well. we were lucky to find a house with owner financing and everything is now fine. NOT perfect, but at the very least we know this is a place that we can afford to always live with no worries.

Now that we are approaching 18 months out of Ch 7 discharge we are starting to talk to banks as well as homebuilders about financing. I am also seeing an increase in owner-financing offers being listed here. I think the toughest part was making the decision to walk away. The next hardest decision will be to buy or not to buy. I promise that decision, when made, will be the right one.

[tobee43]

Now that we are approaching 18 months out of Ch 7 discharge we are starting to talk to banks as well as homebuilders about financing. I am also seeing an increase in owner-financing offers being listed here. I think the toughest part was making the decision to walk away. The next hardest decision will be to buy or not to buy. I promise that decision, when made, will be the right one.

well, i'll tell you, my daughter sold her house in one state on a land contract and now she's in another state. she has been a home owner since she was 21 and has an extremely successful job, however she says NEVER EVER will she buy again. she said she can live in a castle and when the roof goes so does she! i just raised her to always own your own home and raise your kids and give them security blah and blah. she says if her kids are raised correctly it doesn't matter. what can i say. so apparently, at this point she and her husband do not prefer to ever own, at least for now and she has a perfect credit score so that's not even the issue. she just doesn't want the headaches associated with homeownership. i guess i'll get use to it?