Postpone Your Foreclosure Auction

Besides missing the first mortgage payment that leads to the foreclosure process, the most important event during foreclosure is the sheriff sale of the property. This is the event that will effectively transfer ownership of the house from the current owners to whomever wins the auction (usually the foreclosing bank). Many homeowners are able to postpone a sheriff sale if they are working on an option to save the home, but stopping the auction numerous times may be more difficult. The homeowners, though, should take every opportunity to gain more time, even if they have realistic chance to prevent the foreclosure from taking their homes.

When a bank postpones a sheriff sale, they typically have to begin the entire process over again of publicizing the auction in local newspapers and in public places throughout the county. Although this will cost them more in the long run, since they hire local attorneys to do this, they would rather have the loan paid back in full by the homeowners instead of losing tens of thousands of dollars at auction. But this is one reason why homeowners may ask for an additional week or two and end up with a month or more of time that they can work on a method to avoid foreclosure. Depending on how much publication of the sale needs to take place, and this depends on state foreclosure laws, they may have more than a month to keep working on saving their homes.

The decision to stop a foreclosure auction lies almost entirely with the foreclosing lender. They can postpone the sale as many times as they want, with the same house being published in the newspaper week after week, until the bank simply grows tired of the homeowners and goes through with the county auction. Lenders typically decide to postpone only if they believe the homeowners are putting together a viable solution to the foreclosure, such as refinancing or selling, and the homeowners are able to prove they are working on such a plan. Of course, the workers at banks are also human beings (sometimes), and they may be willing to postpone the sheriff sale just because a client calls them crying and begging for more time. This tactic should be used sparingly, although it can be even more effective than any other way to ask for more time.

If the house is quickly approaching a sheriff sale, homeowners should immediately make contact with the mortgage company and find out what they need to do to get more time. A plan to stop foreclosure can be offered to the lender, and many of the representatives will be sympathetic to foreclosure victims. Especially in larger banks, the homeowners may call and speak with a different person every time who is willing to try to postpone the sale. This can result in a great amount of additional time being given to homeowners to work on their plan to save the home.

Although it may seem as though the bank would actively want to pursue the foreclosure and get it off the books, so to speak, many large lenders are working on hundreds or thousands of foreclosed properties. Many of the owners will simply give up on the home or be too frightened to ask for more time. The ones that are seriously looking into ways to stop foreclosure, though, will be able to convince the bank that they deserve more time. The bank would willingly offer more time to solve the problem, and it is easy enough to postpone the foreclosure auction. The extra fees and interest will just be added to the balance in the end, anyway, and be counted as an even larger tax deduction for the lender.

Foreclosure victims who are actively pursuing an option to save their home, even if it is the tenth option in as many months, often find that their lender is still willing to work with them to give them as much time as is reasonable. Of course, the patience of any company will wear thin after a length of time, but homeowners should take advantage of their options and examine every option possible, if they are seriously interested in stopping foreclosure. Most banks would rather have their money instead of the home, and clients would like to keep the home and pay back their mortgage obligation. This creates a situation where it is in both parties' best interests to continue working together for as long as there is a reasonable solution to work on.