THIS ARTICLE IS VERY DENSE AND WOULD BENEFIT FROM BEING DIVIDED INTO SMALLER PARAGRAPHS. At one time or another, we all go through difficult times. A difficult period in a homeowner’s life could result in the loss of the most important investment of a lifetime: a home in Montreal.
If you’re a homeowner who’s fallen on hard times and can’t keep up with your mortgage and insurance payments, you could quickly find yourself facing an imminent financial recovery.
Financial recovery happens even to the best of us.
Normally, the financial recovery process should begin after a few months of non-payment. This varies from one contract to another, but is generally 3 to 6 months. First and foremost, it’s important to understand the financial recovery process. In the event of non-payment on a property, the lending bank will decide whether or not to take over the financing. The owner sometimes has the opportunity to sell at a good price and pay off his debt, but his options are sometimes limited to a short sale. A short sale occurs when a property is sold for less than the value of its debt to the bank. Banks are free to accept or refuse a short sale. To preserve his credit rating, a homeowner should always try to sell, even short, rather than undergo a financial recovery. If the house is not sold by the
owner, the bank will seize it and auction it off. The bank hopes to obtain a good sum of money quickly. If no buyer is interested at the time of the auction, the bank, now the owner, will advertise the house for sale on the traditional market.
Basically, a finance repossession in Montreal is the process by which a bank repossesses a property. If a financial recovery happens to you, your credit rating will be seriously affected, and this information will be accessible to all homeowners wishing to check your file. A financial repossession will affect your credit rating for the next 7 years or so. Before the finance repossession is executed, you will be entitled to a redemption period (from 30 days to 2 years, depending on the case) during which you can stay in your home. You’ll then have until a specific date to pay off your mortgage or resume missed payments, failing which you’ll have to move out quickly.
Selling short: Is this the solution?
As described above, there’s a good chance you’ll have the opportunity to sell your Montreal home short during the financial recovery process. The best time to sell short is when you realize you won’t be able to stick to the contract and make all the payments on time. At this point, while your lender has not yet taken any action against you, you can advertise your home for sale on the traditional market and, with a little luck, raise enough money to pay off your loan completely, or almost. Selling short isn’t easy. You must constantly communicate the offers you receive with your lender, then wait to receive their approval or counter-proposal. However, if you manage to land an offer that appeals to your lender, selling your Montreal home short is an excellent solution to your budget problems. Although such a sale will slightly dent your credit rating, it will help you avoid the much more devastating damage that a finance repossession could have caused to your credit file.
The ideal solution: Avoid the financial recovery process altogether by selling your property at a good price before you default on your payments.
