Even if you’ve lost your Ann Arbor home in foreclosure – you don’t have to move out of your home right away. You still have time to work things out! In July, a new Michigan real estate law took effect requiring lenders to specify a redemption period in their notices.  You are allowed six months to pay your lender what you owe while remaining in your home. This time is allotted for homeowners to try to work out payment arrangements with their lender or save up to move elsewhere.

Things you need to know if you’re facing foreclosure, according to the Washtenaw Foreclosure-Prevention Program:

• MISSED MORTGAGE PAYMENTS: After the third month you miss your mortgage payment, you will receive a demand letter or notice of acceleration. This demands the total you owe within 30 days. A new state law allows an additional 90 days to work with your lender.
• SHERRIFF’S SALE: If your lender still has not received payment, a sheriff’s sale will be scheduled and that becomes the date of foreclosure. You will be notified and the date will be advertised for four weeks in a legal newspaper. In the sheriff’s sale, your home is sold to the highest bidder or the title goes to your lender. You do not have to move out of your home at this time.
• REDEMPTION PERIOD: This usually lasts six months after the sheriff’s sale.  And if your home is on more than three acres… the redemption period is one year. NOTE: You must stay in the home during the redemption period. If the bank deems the house abandoned then the home can be immediately seized.
• EVICTION PERIOD: If you have not vacated the home when the redemption period ends, the new owner will probably start eviction proceedings.  An eviction hearing is held within two weeks, followed by a 10-day grace period for you to leave.

Some lenders are offering a cash-for-keys program – paying homeowners to move out before their redemption period ends. By giving the homeowners’ money to vacate their property… lenders help the homeowner make a fresh start elsewhere , avoid the eviction process and usually this insures that the properties are returned with less damage.

For more information visit  Washtenaw Foreclosure-Prevention Program or call 734-222-4357

If you are facing  a possible foreclosure and have questions for an Ann Arbor Realtor who is also a C.D.P.E.(Certified Distressed Property Expert), please feel free to contact me. There are ways to avoid a foreclosure and remember, professional assistance is always just a click or phone call away.