General
Guidelines – DISCLAIMER
The explanations discussed below are general explanations of foreclosure
procedures and are by no means to be deemed legal advice or the
law of the states of Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia.
Each trustee, jurisdiction and court may operate differently. When
in doubt, you should always defer to the local custom, rule or common
practice of each trustee, jurisdiction and court. This firm does
not represent you or your interests in any way and therefore, any
questions or concerns that you may have should be discussed directly
with your attorney.
Deposits
Deposits must be in the form of certified funds or cash. If you
have a bank check for more than the amount of the deposit, the trustee
should be willing to refund the difference to you in about a week.
The trustees will accept a greater deposit, which will reduce your
daily interest rate accruing, to be collected at settlement. If
your deposit is short, or is not in certified funds, you cannot
bid.
Estimating
Bid through Deposits
The deposit is approximately 10% of the total debt. For a potential
purchaser to calculate the opening bid for sale, multiplying the
deposit by ten will give you an estimated opening bid. This calculation
is not an exact figure. Depending on the holder of the Note, the
bank may look at the appraised value to determine the opening bid.
If the appraised value is lower than the debt, the bank may reduce
the bid at the time of the sale. If the bank advances funds in the
interim, the bid may be greater. For the exact opening bid, attend
the sale.
Access
to Property, Condition of Property
The trustees do not have access to the property and therefore, you
are not entitled to inspect the property prior to sale. The trustees
cannot guarantee the number of bedrooms, baths or condition of the
property. The trustees do not know if the property is occupied or
not. As successful purchaser, you purchase the property AS IS and
no warranties of any kind are made as to the condition of property.
Trustees
Do Not have Title Prior to Foreclosure Sale
The individual(s) in default own the property and are the only parties
that may negotiate with you to purchase the property. The trustees
and the banks/mortgage companies do not have title and therefore,
have no rights to sell the property until the actual foreclosure
sale. The Trustees cannot disclose any information to you regarding
the current owners.
IRS
Right of Redemption
When an IRS lien is secured against the property, the IRS has a
120 day right to redeem the property from sale. The trustee or auctioneer
will announce at sale if an IRS right of redemption exists. After
sale, the IRS has 120 days from the date of sale to redeem the property,
or, in other words, purchase the property for the price that the
successful purchaser purchased it for. The IRS may waive their right
of redemption. As the successful purchaser, you can apply for the
waiver, but you should realize that waivers are rare. If you settle
in a timely manner and the IRS redeems the property thereafter,
you will receive a refund of the purchase price plus the IRS’
rate of interest. Any improvements that you expend will be your
loss.
Possession
of Property
Once the sale is ratified and/or you settle on the property, you
have the right to gain possession of the subject property and should
do so according to your jurisdiction’s laws. Settlement will
not wait for you to gain possession, as this is not a term of the
contract.
Risk
of Loss
Upon the hammer falling at the foreclosure sale, the risk of loss
passes to the successful purchaser. Therefore, the successful purchaser
should take your contract of sale and contact your insurance company
immediately so that you have proper coverage on the property due
to any unforeseen loss.
Settlement:
The successful purchaser may choose our firm to conduct your settlement
or choose a different title company to do so. It will be the purchaser’s
responsibility to have their settlement company contact us and coordinate
the settlement. The Trustees do not attend settlement, but approve
in writing all HUD-1s and deeds prior to the actual settlement occurring.
The trustees should not incur any costs of settlement or costs of
transferring the title to the property. These terms will be disclosed
at the time of sale and become a part of the successful bidder’s
contract thereafter.
The
general savings in having our firm conduct your settlement will
usually be title search charges and document review fees from the
foreclosure. If we possess a full title search, you will only pay
for the update. We will not charge you to review our foreclosure
process, although we will have another representative of our firm
review the foreclosure on your behalf. We encourage the buyer to
purchase owner’s title insurance at settlement after foreclosure
sales and may cancel our settlement if the buyer refuses to do so.
If you are not interested in obtaining title insurance at settlement,
you should notify us immediately. As always, we will coordinate
settlement with the purchaser’s title company even if the
purchaser refuses owner’s title insurance.
SPECIFIC
JURISDICTIONS
Maryland:
Maryland is a judicial state. This means that the circuit court
must approve, or ratify the foreclosure sale. The contract of sale
states that settlement is to occur within 10 days of ratification.
The sale will usually ratify within 35 – 60 days of sale.
The purchaser should be ready, willing and able to settle promptly.
Our office will send the purchaser a letter advising of ratification
by the court and notifying you that settlement must occur within
10 days. We will file a motion to resell the property at the purchaser’s
risk and expense if settlement does not occur timely and the defaulting
purchaser shall be responsible for additional attorney fees and
costs for resale. In the event that the Trustees cannot give good
and marketable title, your sole remedy in law or equity is the refund
of your deposit, which the Trustees will return promptly. Our office
charges $245.00 at settlement to the purchaser for seller’s
attorney’s fees. All terms of sale will be announced prior
to the actual sale and will become part of the sale’s contract.
Virginia:
Virginia is non-judicial. Settlement may occur immediately after
the sale. Our contracts of sale state that the purchaser shall settle
within fifteen days. Failure to timely settle will result in the
resale of the property at the purchaser’s risk and expense.
In the event that the Trustees cannot give good and marketable title,
your sole remedy in law or equity is the refund of your deposit,
which the Trustees will return promptly. Our office charges $250.00
to the purchaser at settlement for seller's attorney's fees. All
terms of sale will be announced prior to the actual sale and will
become part of the sale’s contract.
District
of Columbia:
DC is non-judicial. Settlement may occur immediately after the sale.
Our contracts of sale state that the purchaser shall settle within
thirty days. Failure to timely settle will result in the resale
of the property at the purchaser’s risk and expense. Our office
charges $245.00 to the purchaser at settlement for seller’s
attorney’s fees. The seller shall pay up to $500.00 for prorated
taxes, water, sewer and/or any other liens and encumbrances. In
the event that the Trustees cannot give good and marketable title,
your sole remedy in law or equity is the refund of your deposit,
which the Trustees will return promptly. All terms of sale will
be announced prior to the actual sale and will become part of the
sale’s contract.
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