How Long Before A House Goes To Foreclosure?

To understand how long it takes a home to enter into foreclosure, a person must understand the stages and process of foreclosure. A foreclosure transpires when a property’s owner fails to make their loan payments to the lien holder of the property. Depending on the state, after three to six months of missed payments and failure to act on the debt, foreclosure proceeding begin.

The foreclosure process itself is straightforward. Once a property owner misses three to six payments the lien holder orders something called a Notice of Default at the County Recorder’s Office. This Notice of Default is the formal notice to the borrower that they have defaulted on the loan and that legal action is being taken. The notice is really the notification to the borrower that foreclosure is in process and the proceedings to a Foreclosure Sales Date have begun.
Depending on the state and Warranty Deed, the borrower will have a set amount of time to vacate the property. Depending on the state, borrowers have set deadline to pay the miss payments on the loan, this includes penalties, and attorney fees. If they do not pay, the County Sheriff will remove them from the home prior to the Foreclosure Sales Date.
If the borrower does not bring the loan current then the Foreclosure Sales Date is set and the borrower will receive documents called a Notice of Sale, which is also posted on the property. This notice is also recorded at the County Recorder’s Office and published in the local newspaper.

The time and location of the sales of Foreclosed property are listed on the Notice of Sale documents. At the sale, the property is auctioned off to the public to the highest bidder. If the sales bid is not met in 24 hours or there is no bid for the property then the property is deemed Real Estate Owned. Once a home is Real Estate Owned, the home is put up for sale through a realtor.

Homeowners in foreclosure only have few options to stop proceeding once in motion. That is why it is essential for borrowers to contact their mortgage companies immediately after missing a payment and to get help from other agencies. Foreclosure is a legal process and there are steps that the loan holder must follow prior to removing the borrower from the property and selling the deed.