For BOTH Homeowners AND Investors There is a very common misconception out there about the tax consequences after foreclosure. It goes something like this: tax liabilities are inevitable for a property owner (either a Homeowner or an Investor) and that if a property goes through foreclosure, there may be less potential tax consequences to deal with as opposed to the property being sold through a Short Sale. This misconception is causing many property owners to make decisions (for instance – not proceeding with a Short Sale that actually would be in their best interest) that could literally cost them thousands of dollars or throw them into bankruptcy. While there is no question that any type of debt forgiveness can trigger a 1099, the 1099 after a Short Sale and the 1099 after a foreclosure can be handled in such ways as to effectively minimize the actual tax paid on the debt cancellation amount and in many cases handled correctly there will be no tax payments necessary.

I will first start off by saying that I am not a tax attorney or an accountant. So for a complete understanding of the following concepts, I would recommend seeking professional advice. What I am writing is based upon my reading, understanding and discussion of the legislation and of the IRS publications that are commonly available. I will include links to those documents for those of you that are interested in understanding this topic better.

In the early part of the foreclosure crisis, Congress enacted legislation called ‘The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007′. The main part of this legislation was directed at the primary residence homeowner. Following this legislation, it became widely believed that only the primary residence homeowner received tax relief from a 1099 received after foreclosure or after Short Sale. What this misconception overlooked is that the tax liability following the receipt of a 1099 could still be effectively reduced by other provisions in the tax code that deal with issues of insolvency. Many Investors felt dismay and became quite forlorn when they felt that their underwater single family house purchases were ‘going down’ and dragging them with them. Not only that, when all was said and done they feared that they would be hit with big 1099′s and resulting big Income Tax payments in the following years that would throw them into bankruptcy. Why wouldn’t they? After all many of these small portfolio investors were usually good people who never missed a payment on anything in their life and had no prior reason to consider or understand anything about the meaning of insolvency.

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Homeowners should keep in mind that the bank or mortgage servicer they are dealing with is 100% able to stop the foreclosure whenever they want. Especially if the borrowers are in a judicial foreclosure state, where it is required the bank begin a lawsuit to take the home back, if the lender/individual drops the case, the foreclosure will stop immediately.

Before doing anything at all, though, homeowners need to decide if the home is worth keeping. Many people today are fighting to save houses they can not afford in the long run. If borrowers are fighting for such a home, they are ultimately going to lose anyway. It may be better to cut their losses and move on. This is the same for those homeowners who are fighting to save a home that is worth less than the mortgage. Just negotiate a short sale or deed in lieu and move on with life. If you have decided to keep your home, then keep reading. Since you are dealing with an individual, you need to to come to an agreement with him or her that will allow you to repay the arrears and get caught up on your payments. If you were with a traditional lender, a loan modification would be your best option to save the home. But there are no rules/laws forcing anyone to grant you a modification.

Your very first option should be to try and come up with the amount you are behind. In many cases, you can raise this money with odd jobs, personal loans from relatives, and by selling unused items. I would start by getting donations from relatives, church, and social groups and having a garage sale to sell as much stuff as possible. Don’t worry about your personal belongings, as you can replace them once you are back on your feet again. You should also be cutting your expenses to a minimum. Get rid of cable TV and stop shopping for anything. Wear old clothes if necessary and eat the food in your house, rather than going out to eat or buying new stuff at the grocery store. Just keep the necessities that are required to keep your family healthy and don’t do anything that would cost you your job.

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Stopping your home from being foreclosed is not an easy process. The following are some of the steps and costs involved in doing so. You will need to file a motion if you really want to keep your home. Also, you have to see to it that you make this motion to stop foreclosure well before the mortgage firm you borrowed from in the first place files at court for the right to foreclose. Once that is in place, it’s kind of hard to turn the wheels back, except you suddenly came into some substantial money. If this and all else fails, you might consider refinancing. I have got to warn you, for all the merits of a mortgage refinance, there are a few details you want to pay attention to, especially because they do not seem like a big deal. There is quite an amount of closing costs incurred in any refinancing deal, and you are going to have to shoulder them. For instance, there is the appraisal cost; there are credit report costs; and there are the points which individually equal one percent of the amount of your mortgage, which you typically have to take care of as prepaid interest.

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Because of the historically high number of evictions that has thoroughly wrecked our financial system, several local and federal government programs were started to help provide relief to property owners. Most of these programs have since come and gone, but a few still exist. One many people thing of is what many call “The Obama Plan” or the “Home Affordable Mortgage Plan”. This was a government plan that was supposed to be able to aid foreclosure victims across the nation. It was indented for the servicers to help the property owners to modify their loan, even if they were upside down in equity. Typically when being asked to re-write a loan, a banker will usually decline applications when the loan has become up side down. This is a major point that the government was able to impact. It was an major component, because property values have decreased through out the nation.

So, even if you have tried and failed to obtain refinancing from a traditional lender in the past, you may not be rejected for a new loan modification. The Obama Plan would basically provide a guarantee to lenders that they would get paid. But lenders were never actually required to take part. Some half a million mortgages were submitted for consideration, but figures of approval are reported as low as 2000 cases. Only 0.4% approvals of the total 500,000 applications is pretty discouraging if those numbers are accurate. In order to qualify for The Obama Plan, your original loan must have originated on or before January 1st, 2009. Two recent pay stubs and the most recent tax return are required and you must sign an affidavit of financial hardship. In addition to the loan modification, accessible until December 2012 unless changes to the current program are made, there is a refinance program that ends in June 2010. There are other choices for you that can help you avoid foreclosure as well.

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So many people believe that once they receive the letter from their mortgage company that the home has entered the foreclosure process, they have to leave. This is the absolute last thing you want to do. Even though the foreclosure process has begun, you are still the legal owner of the home and it will remain that way until you sell it or it becomes sold through a foreclosure auction. Why leave the house unless you have to, especially if you would like to keep it.

If you do want to keep the house, you want to make sure that you are looking through all of the options that are available to you out there. The more you research, the more you will find that there are so many ways you can get the funding you need to save your home. Even your mortgage company may have a few options for you to look into. Many mortgage companies can offer their borrowers repayment plans, loan modifications or maybe even a refinance. Speaking of refinance, you can still go out to other lenders to seek financial assistance from them. You can refinance your home with another lender, which will automatically stop the foreclosure proceedings. Some people are told that they do not have this option while the home is in foreclosure but you do. You can even sell the home if you like.

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You might be a home owner who is trying to stop foreclosure. If this is the case then this article is for you. In this article I am going to present some of the very good foreclosure solutions which will certainly be a great help to all the home owners who are being affected by the foreclosure. The main reason behind the foreclosure is that you are not able to pay back the loan in time and you can now not pay it back at any cost. You might have been declared bankrupt. If you are a bankrupt then nothing will happen to your house. But is the bankruptcy the only solution. Certainly not, this is the last alternative which you can choose. There are plenty of techniques which you can choose in order to avoid foreclosure. There might be many reasons for you to loose your money and all of them might be genuine as well. Some of them are:

You might meet an accident and loose your whole money in the hospital. This is a very genuine reason and you can let your lender know about it.
There might be family medical emergency as well. Suppose someone in your house fell ill and you loose all the money in the treatment process. It is quite sure that you will not be able to pay the installments.
Suppose somebody in your house dies. It is quite sure that your family will be in state of bother. How can you pay the installments in such situation? It is virtually impossible for you.
Suppose, you are demoted, then as well you might feel the money crisis. There are many more reasons as well. However you can always let the lender know about it and it is quite sure that he will listen to you. They are also the human beings and hence they will certainly have the sympathy with you.

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