How long is the foreclosure process taking in Palm Beach County these days? (Christmas: short sale, apartment)

[mrtgman]

I spoke with a person the other day who told me they had not made a mortgage payment in over a year. Still the lender really did not do anything. Besides trashing thier credit I would guess. After about 14 months of not making any payments the lender finally reduced the principal amount of thier loan by over $120,000! I guess they figured this was better than another foreclosure on thier books.

Is this possible? Are the courts so backed up that the lenders don't even bother filing foreclosures actions until a year or so after people stop making payments? Just curious.

[heydade]

Yes..the same thing is happening in Broward. A friend of mine stopped paying for his coral springs condo back in February......still living there mortgage and HOA free with little if any contact from the lender.

[jbravo]

Originally Posted by mrtgman

... Are the courts so backed up that the lenders don't even bother filing foreclosures actions until a year or so after people stop making payments? Just curious.

The courts are not overwhelmed, the companies that manage the mortgages that were sliced and diced into tranches are totally overwhelmed.
Moreover, they are in a catch 22. If they foreclose and then sell the property they have now comped the neighborhood where they may own other properties further down.
They can't win.

[heydade]

Originally Posted by jbravo

The courts are not overwhelmed, the companies that manage the mortgages that were sliced and diced into tranches are totally overwhelmed.
Moreover, they are in a catch 22. If they foreclose and then sell the property they have now comped the neighborhood where they may own other properties further down.
They can't win.

No...the courts ARE overwhelmed. It takes forever to get a foreclosure filing and counties like St.Lucie county have hired lots of extra help and working late hours to process all the paperwork in the courts.

[jbravo]

Originally Posted by heydade

No...the courts ARE overwhelmed. It takes forever to get a foreclosure filing and counties like St.Lucie county have hired lots of extra help and working late hours to process all the paperwork in the courts.

Now, St Lucie.... THAT'S another story!

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Palm Beach, I go to foreclosure sales in the county courthouse, the delays here are not caused by the courthouse.
(on edit, I decided to hedge: as of two-three months ago no one was complaining about delays due to the courthouse. I'm sure that can change)
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Now, St Lucie...........
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As to the OPs observation of people living for months without a NOD being filed, yeap, that's well known to happen.
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[bale002]

Originally Posted by heydade

Yes..the same thing is happening in Broward. A friend of mine stopped paying for his coral springs condo back in February......still living there mortgage and HOA free with little if any contact from the lender.

I can understand the lenders' not taking action, and as far as taxes, my understanding is that municipalities/counties put liens on the property, but otherwise do not normally take physical action against the owner.

But what about HOA fees? What action, if any, can an HOA take? Seizure, liens?

I suppose they can file a lien at any time, but if the covenants prescribe seizure/foreclosure, what is the processing like in comparison to a lender foreclosure?

[Sharkey514]

Has anyone here actually closed on a short-sale or bought a foreclosed home? Is it even worth it? I have talked to realtors who won't even show their listings billed as pre-forclosure.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by Sharkey514

Has anyone here actually closed on a short-sale or bought a foreclosed home?

I'm a buyer waiting to close on a short sale at the moment. The seller bought as an investment property a few years ago when it was brand new, but now he just needs to dump some of those properties to get out of hot water. It will definitely be worth it if it closes at the price we offered. The owner agreed to the price within 24 hours, but it needs bank approval. Supposedly they have 45 days to get back to us, but who knows how soon or not soon that we'll actually hear something. The agent believes there's a good chance it will go through . . . and I believe that he believes that, otherwise it would be difficult to explain all the work he's done for us without getting a dime from us yet.

[Sharkey514]

How long would you hold on? Are you locked into that price? Can the bank accept another offer on that property while you are waiting this out? Thanks for the info...

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by Sharkey514

How long would you hold on? Are you locked into that price? Can the bank accept another offer on that property while you are waiting this out? Thanks for the info...

The contract stipulates that the property can not be shown and no other offers can be accepted after the owner accepted the offer, which he did. So it's just a matter of waiting for the bank to actually get around to looking at the contract and saying that it's acceptable to them or not (apparently they have to say give the official nod that the amount is okay to them to not foreclose on the property instead--there's a possibility that they'll suggest a slightly higher amount instead, but the agent doubts that, given what he knows about the property, what the banks have been doing, etc.). We don't have a time limit, fortunately (and I've got a month-to-month lease at my current apartment), so we don't mind waiting awhile as long as the market doesn't start suddenly recovering (in which case we'd want to push it or drop it because just in case it doesn't go through, we wouldn't get as good of a deal with another property if the market starts recovering and prices start going back up; we can opt out of the contract after 45 days of waiting for the bank's approval if we so choose. We'd rather not do that though, as we like the property a lot). The closing date we put on the contract was for February, so that might amount to the bank taking a bit longer to give word. We could move sooner, but I don't expect to hear anything this week, being Thanksgiving week, and then next month is Christmas, etc.