Carl Gustafson's blog

A lot of clients come in worrying about their house being in danger of immediate foreclosure. By filing for bankruptcy at any time during the foreclosure process, you automatically pause this procedure and protect your home for a limited time. Here is a basic breakdown of the timeline of a typical foreclosure:

For many borrowers, the choice of whether to file bankruptcy depends on a determination of whether a home-owner will be liable for debt on his home following foreclosure.

California has enacted a very strong law protecting home-owners from deficiency judgments following a foreclosure.  This is called the anti-deficiency statute or non-recourse statute.  It says, in sum, that borrowers who take:

   1. purchase money loans
   2. on an owner-occupied residence

In my office I increasingly see clients come in for consultations after having completed a mortgage modification. I wish that I saw it much more frequently. With its singular ability to entirely remove a second mortgage, bankruptcy is an excellent follow-up to mortgage modification.

One of the most exciting areas of bankruptcy law is the ability to discharge or remove a second mortgage.  For years the ability to remove a second mortgage was largely irrelevant as property values rose year after year.  Now the power of the bankruptcy court has become one of the most powerful consumer protection laws on the books.  It is important for every home-owner to know his right to adjust his home mortgage through the bankruptcy law

Frequently the best way to get out of an upside-down mortgage without bankruptcy is to short sale a house. The basics of a short sale are that the lender allows the borrower to sell his real estate for less than is owed. In exchange for saving the lender the cost of foreclosure, the borrower typically expects to be forgiven of the remaining balance. The borrower must always look at the terms of the short sale contract.