Services
Foreclosure, Short Sale, & Mortgage Modification
Legal & Honorable Solutions to Sell or Maintain Your Home
At James Brown Law in West Palm Beach, we offer a wealth of knowledge in real estate law, including short sales and foreclosures in Florida. We offer complimentary legal advice to homeowners who are looking for a legal and honorable solution to sell or maintain their homes. Many options can include conducting foreclosure defense, short sales, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, and mortgage loan modification. We also represent borrowers in the negation of post-judgment and short sale deficiency liability against institutional lenders and third-party debt collectors.
In these uncertain times for homeowners, your legal team at James Brown Law will be a constant advocate and help in the midst of your foreclosure, halting the process and rallying and guiding you through it all. Short sales in West Palm Beach have become an effective option. Initially, you will need a Realtor (or we can provide one to you) well-educated in the short sale process and will obtain the fair market value of your home and list it accordingly.
What is a short sale?
A short sale is when the home is sold for less than the mortgage amount owed to the lender. Short sales can be categorized in two ways; sales with deficiency balances and sales without. Deficiency is the dollar value difference between the mortgage (or judgment amount) and the short sale price. So, for example, if you had a $200,000 short sale on a $300,000 mortgage, the deficiency amount (collectible for 20 years or more with interest) would be $100,000. A properly conducted short sale leaves no deficiency and an improperly conducted short sale leaves deficiency. For a few years, lenders were not attempting to collect deficiency balances. Today, however, deficiency balances are regularly sold to debt collectors who are aggressively pursuing these amounts. Realtors frequently negotiate short sales. Unfortunately, the relator’s only tool to avoid deficiency and their only goal is to sell the home. Sometimes realtor’s short sales occur with deficiency, we get calls from sellers in this position frequently.
Lawyers have many tools to avoid a deficiency, and most importantly, their only goal is to eliminate the deficiency. The process is a lengthy one for negotiating with banks to accept the short sale price. It typically takes 40 to 50 hours to negotiate and close a short sale. Having the right advocate is important and at James Brown Law we are the experienced choice in Florida Real Estate law. In the case of a short sale, finality is the benefit for the homeowner. Once the sale is complete and the bank accepts the terms, it’s over. We also represent borrowers in the negation of post-judgment and short sale deficiency liability against institutional lenders and third-party debt collectors.
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