Foreclosures Help Information

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Foreclosed Condos In Chicago Il

Question: How can a lien for back associations fees be obtained on a foreclosed condominium unit?

The unit across from ours has gone into foreclosure. The owner is in arrears on his association fees. Can we (the condo assocation) get a lien on the property for back association fees? Property located in Chicago, IL

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Answer: Yes you can. However, the mortgage will take precedence over your lien, so if the house is worth less than the mortgage, you won't get anything. You will only get something if the bank sells the condo for more than the mortgage, which may not be likely if foreclosure is necessary.

There are companies that will do this for the HOA. One that I have used is Sunrise Assessments. www.sunriseassessment.com

You can go to the office of the county "Recorder" (or whatever it is called for your county) and find out what mortgages and other liens are already on the property, as this is public information. Then you can compare the total of all of those with your estimate of the condo's worth to see if there is any hope that the HOA would get anything. Note that if there are IRS liens against the property, they also come before your HOA lien.

Note, however, that my experience has only been in California. Suggest you contact Sunrise Assessments and see if they can recommend someone in Illinois.

One small silver lining: Once the bank actually forecloses and becomes the legal owner, they will become responsible for the HOA fees from that point forward (but not for anything before that point). You should not have any trouble collecting from them going forward, at least we didn't in our case, we just contacted the bank's repo department and let them know, and there was no problem. If they don't pay for some reason, you could always file another lien, which any buyer would then have to satisfy.

Bottom line, you are probably not going to get back what you have lost so far, but once the bank takes over you should be able to start collecting again.

823 S. Western #4, Chicago, IL 60612

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Foreclosed Condos In Chicago

The recent Housing Stimulus Bill, also known as the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was signed into law on July 30, 2008. Many homeowners may be confused as to what this bill means for them and how it can help. With the major downturn in the housing market, dramatic increase in foreclosures and failure of some mortgage banks, the federal government felt something needed to be done. With the passage of this bill some new options and recourses for homeowners have become available and will hopefully aid in the recovery of the housing market and prevent many homeowners from losing their properties.

Across the U.S. there are an estimated 400,000 homes in danger of foreclosure. By mid year in the month of June, Illinois held the 13th spot out of 50 states by number of residential foreclosure suits, according to data from RealtyTrac. The new housing bill will allow homeowners in distress to refinance their high rate loans to government backed low interest mortgages as long as lenders will work with a loss.

One of the main tenants of the bill that lenders would agree to basically write down loans that are in trouble to 85 percent of the appraised value. Then the homeowner who qualified would be able to get a 30 year fixed rate mortgage from FHA at 90 percent of the appraised value of the home. Anyone taking out one of these FHA loans would be obligated to split all future profit or appreciation from the home with FHA. There is a cap of $550,440 and the program starts on October 1, 2008.

Perhaps the provision that first time home buyers will notice is the Homebuyer Tax Credit. This is a $7,500 tax credit that is offered to any person who qualifies and purchases a home between the dates of April 9, 2008 and June 30, 2009. It is basically an interest free loan and can be repaid over a 15 year period. This could be especially helpful to anyone who is interested in buying Chicago new construction homes like those listed here http://www.bestchicagocondos.com/new-construction-condos/index.html and has to come up with a down payment.

Another key element of the reform is the creation of a new department to regulate mortgage companies such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. It would also set the high end loan limit that would be guaranteed at $625,500. The bill would also prohibit any lender or other company or developer who stands to profit from the sale of a condo or home from financing or helping the borrower with a down payment. Many first time condo or home buyers fell victim to lenders who qualified them for loans that they were financially unable to repay. Other buyers obtained down payment financing from developers who were trying to sell out their building in order to gain construction financing. Those practices led to record numbers of borrowers who soon found themselves under the threat of foreclosure. Hopefully these new laws will help to prevent that from happening again on such a large scale at least.

The formation of the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund is another product of this legislation. This trust fund would be established to cover the cost of FHA loans that were subject to foreclosure. Later on, the funds would be earmarked to create affordable housing for those who qualify under income requirements. Also, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program is being updated to make the process more streamlined for those applying. And along the same vein, the bill also allows for $4 billion in funds for neighborhoods to buy foreclosed properties and move forward with revitalization programs for the benefit of the community.

This is just a brief, nutshell highlight of the new legislation that passed. There are many other points and details of the bill that you can research in depth. Your accountant, lawyer or real estate agent should be able to help you, as well as employees of FHA. For those who purchased a new condo or home, which is the dream of most people, and now find themselves in financial trouble this bill could be a huge help. If you need help, don't hesitate to get the ball rolling and see if you qualify for assistance under any of the new provisions and programs. Don't let your dream of owning a condo or home turn into a nightmare.

About the Author:

Paula Cherrist writes articles about
Chicago real estate
, Chicago condos for sale, housing-related topics and home trends.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - 2008 Housing Stimulus Bill Highlights

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