Could Someone Explain How Court-ordered Sale Works
I live in Pinellas county Florida. I'm foreclosing on a property that I hold the 1st mortgage on. The next step in the process is the court-ordered sale. Could someone please explain to me how the court-ordered sale works? Specifically, how does the bidding process work? What happens if the high bid is less than I'm owed? My lawyer is very unforthcoming. Any help is greatly appreciated.
You would want to bid on the property as well, just like the banks do on properties the foreclose on. If no one bids what you want to take for cash, just make sure and out bid them. I you want to resell and owner finance it again, then out bid the other bidders. I am not sure what happens to the overage if the bids go higher than what is needed to pay of the mortgage. At a tax sale, any extra money goes to the actual owner of the property (the people you are foreclosing on). You may want to check with you local sheriff's office, they usually handle the tax sales and will be able to give you some help.
Thanks for the great advice!
If third party bids on the property are less than the judgment amount (which usually represents the mortgage balance, attorneys fees, court costs, and other expenses associatd with the suit) you are entitled to seek a deficiency judgment against the mortgator. Usually this is a waste of time as the mortgagor will have little if any means of satisfying a subsequent money judgment.
Any proceeds received in excess of the judgment amount will be deposited in the court registry for later disbursement to subsequent lienors (if any). If none, the excess goes to the mortgagor as equity ($).
Your attorney couldn't answer this?
[ Edited by jorge121 on Date 09/23/2003 ]
In California - if the mortgage is a purchase money mortgage - there is no default judgement, the buck stops here. If it is a hard money mortgage then depending on how you foreclose you do or dont get a deficiency judgement. Overage goes to the owner.
Simply put, PL, you bid against the other bidders.
If the bidding gets high enough that you want to take the money, stop bidding and let them buy it. If it doesn't go high enough, then you "bought" your property back. Clean it up, raise the selling price to today's prices and resell it.
Hopefully you took in more money in down payment and payments than it cost you to foreclose.
Ronnie
p.s. Get a new lawyer!!
[addsig]
I want to thank everyone for their great comments and advice. To answer jorge121, my lawyer is difficult to get ahold of and when I do he exhibits a sort of "just get me out of his hair" mentality. To respond to Mussetter, I do plan on changing lawyers if I have to foreclose on anyone again. It's too late for this case as I already paid the lawyer a $1500.00 retainer.