Tips on Postponing the Foreclosure Auction

 The foreclosure auction or sheriff sale is one of the most important events in the course of the foreclosure process. This event will effectively transfer ownership of the house from the current owners to the highest bidder at the auction or during the 10-day upset bid period that follows. Many homeowners are able to postpone a sheriff sale by working to with their lender to save their home, but postponing the auction more than once is difficult to do.  Homeowners should take every opportunity to buy more time, even if they think they have a realistic chance to stop the foreclosure prior to the scheduled auction.

When a lender agrees to postpone a foreclosure sale, they incur additional expenses - publicizing the auction, additional attorney fees, and other holding costs. In the long run, most lenders recognize that these minimal additional expenses are far outweighed by the potential to recover more of their loss by working with a homeowner to sell their home via a short sale or some other type of modification.  It is a simple matter of economics: pay a few hundred dollars now, save several thousand dollars in losses later. This is why the bank will often grant homeowners an additional week or two to work on avoiding foreclosure. Depending on notification requirements that vary from state to state, the bank may postpone the sale several weeks or over a month.

The decision to stop a foreclosure auction lies almost entirely with the foreclosing lender. Lenders typically decide to postpone only if they see that the homeowners are working on a viable solution to the foreclosure, such as refinancing or selling. Remember that the workers at banks are also human beings, and they may be willing to postpone the sheriff sale just because a client calls them and makes an emotional plea for more time, however, this is not a very effective approach. An alternative approach is to attend the foreclosure hearing weeks prior to the foreclosure sale date with a detailed plan for how you are working with the lender to avoid foreclosure. If you have your home listed for sale and have an offer on the property, even if it won’t result in a full payoff to the lender, use this to your advantage. Take the offer to the hearing so that the representative from the Clerk of Superior Courts and the Trustee can see that you need time for the bank to review the offer.

If a home is quickly approaching a sheriff sale, homeowners should immediately make contact with the mortgage company and discuss their options. Once you choose to pursue an option such as a loan modification, the bank will send you the required documentation to complete and then review the information that you send in to determine whether you qualify, or what terms they can offer you. Most lenders are taking from 8-12 weeks to review files and either deny or approve homeowners for these type of workout options. That is additional time that you can stay in your home and put off a foreclosure sale, even if you are not approved for the loan modification, forebearance, etc.

Many large lenders are working on hundreds or thousands of foreclosed properties, which means that they are not only worried about your home. Many homeowners simply give up or are too frightened to ask for more time. But, if you make an effort to stop foreclosure, you should be able to convince the bank to grant you more time.  If they see you making an effort, banks will be more inclined to work with you to resolve the problem and many times that means postponing the foreclosure auction.

Foreclosure victims who are actively pursuing an option to save their home often find that their lender is still willing to work with them even if they have pursued several courses of action. Remember though, that the patience of any company will wear thin after a length of time. Homeowners should aggressively pursue all options and examine every available possibility, but do so in a timely fashion to buy as much time as possible.