Avoiding Foreclosure in San Antonio: Your Options Explained

(instrumental music plays)

Hey there. Welcome to the Danny Buys Houses
podcast.

I'm your host, Danny Johnson, coming to you from
beautiful San Antonio, Texas.

I love it here. Uh, (laughs) and hopefully you do
too.

I mean, it's gets really hot during the summertime
but, uh, it's just a, a great city. I love it a
lot.

Anyway, don't know why I got into that. All right.

If you're behind on house payments and foreclosure
is looming, this episode is for

you.

Today we're talking about how to avoid losing your
home and your equity by selling to a cash home
buyer like

Danny Buys Houses.

We're gonna cover your options, how fast we can
move, and some listener questions as well, so
let's just

jump right in. (bell dings) First things first,
I'm not an attorney, and this isn't legal

advice. I'm a guy who's been buying houses in San
Antonio for over 20 years, helping folks like you

through tough spots. If you need legal help, talk
to a pro, talk to an attorney.

Okay?

Good. Let's move on. Foreclosure is rough.

There's no, there's no denying that.

You know, you're behind on payments

situation, you know,

bad things happen to good people all the time, and
people end up in situations, you know, where, you
know,

life just gets difficult and it really causes
these, these issues, and you end up behind

on... The house ends up behind on the house
payments and

the, the mortgage lender sends a notice of
default, and suddenly you're staring at an
accelerated

mortgage and foreclosure auction is looming. So
it, it's stressful.

I mean, I don't,

I don't think that there could be many other
things as more stressful than that, especially,
you know, it's

the home that you live in. So sleepless nights,
phone calls from the bank, you know, some,

some shame in there. You know, I've seen it hit
hard and, and you might lose your home and all the

equity that you've built. So,

uh, that's money that you've poured in that would
just be gone. But it doesn't have to end that way.

Now let's talk about the options, okay?

Uh, one is that you could try a loan modification.

You can ask the bank to, to change your payments a
little bit to make it possible to try

to get back into getting things going in the right
direction. So it's slow.

They don't we- don't always say yes, but it's
something that you can definitely try.

All right, two, a short sale. So if you owe a lot
o- uh, for the house,

and, uh, you don't think you could sell it quickly
for, for what's owed on it, you can

talk to them. You can ask them. You can ask the
lender if you can s- if they would be willing to

take less than what is owed on your balance for
the property. All right?

So this could take months.

Uh, we've been through this before. Uh, there's a
lot of hoops to jump through, and your credit
still

is gonna take a hit. It's not gonna necessarily
show that foreclosure, but it's still gonna take a
hit.

It's not gonna salvage your credit completely.

Um, and then after, even if the short sale is
approved, uh, they could

file a judgment against you for the amount of
money they reduced your payoff by.

So if your,

you know, if your, if your mortgage was, you know,
$200,000, they agreed

to,

uh, sh- allow you to short sale it so just take a
payoff of $150,000 instead of

$200,000, they could file a judgment for that
$50,000 difference saying that that's...

that there's a judgment against you for that
amount of money, okay?

And, and nobody wants to have that happen.

Um, I can't say that that happens all the time in
our experience, but it, it could happen and you

gotta know about it.

Uh, three, a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

You could just hand, hand the house back to the
bank. All right?

You walk away, but you get nothing. And, uh, that
is an option, right?

You know, a lot of, uh, lenders will consider
that.

You just, uh,

hand the house over and, and say you're just done
with it.

So,

uh, four, let it go to auction. Now, that's the
worst, right?

Zero control, zero cash,

you know, credit's messed up, and, uh, all kinds
of issues there.

So,

there is a better way though. And you know that
(laughs) I'm gonna tell you this option because
you're

listening to the Danny Buys Houses podcast. But
you can sell to a cash buyer.

Uh, you can sell to a cash home buyer and, you
know,

you're probably asking, "Why?" Well, you get to
keep some of your equity, right? Or what's left of
it.

You can skip the auction nightmare.

Uh, and pre-foreclosure, you still have time to a-
to act.

You know, we buy your house as is, pay cash, and
close fast. That's the key thing is closing fast.

And you get money in your pocket instead of losing
everything, right?

Um,

you know, sometimes there's not a whole lot of
time and you gotta be careful about who you're
selling to,

right? You could decide, hey, yeah, I will sell to
a cash home buyer because I wanna move fast, sell
it as is,

and have it all done. Well, you gotta make sure
that

the home buyer that you choose is a legitimate
home buyer.

So whether you go with Danny Buys Houses or
someone else, please do your homework on them.

Uh, do a search for their business name on Google,
uh, look for reviews on Facebook, on

Google, and, uh, you know, are they Better
Business Bureau accredited?

Uh, find out if there's reviews there. Um, just
check 'em out, right?

Uh, you know, you can even go as far as acting,
asking each

cash home buyer that you talk to

who closes their deals, which title company, which
closer, get their contact information, talk to
them.

Have they actually been closing deals there, you
know?

Or have they had to walk away from deals where
they didn't close?

You know, you wanna get that information because,
you know, the situation requires you

to do a little bit of homework to make sure things
are gonna go well.

And, you know, you just, you don't wanna end up in
a situation where they don't close and then
auction is in

two days and then, you know, what are you gonna
do, right? Like, that's, that's not cool, so.

All right, how does it work? Well, you call us,

210-881-7707, or you hit us up at

dannybuyshouses.com.

Uh, fill out that CashFast, uh, Fast Cash Offer
Form, CashFast, FastCash

Offer Form and, uh, we'll schedule an appointment,
check out your house.

Uh, and regardless of whether there's any problems
with the house like foundation problems, you got
old

roof, AC problems, plumbing issues, doesn't
matter, we make a fair cash offer based

on its value, what repairs are gonna be required.

And no repairs, no waiting, you can have that
house sold.

So speed is key here, right? Foreclosure moves
quick in Texas.

Uh, sometimes just 21 days after the notice of
default.

We can close in a week or even several days if we
have to, right?

Uh, you know, we've done it before.

I worked with a guy a couple years ago. His house
was set for auction the next week.

We met, made an offer, he agreed, we got the, uh,
the, the, uh, purchase

agreement signed

and got it to the title company right away, rushed
that title search, and, uh, we closed in,

in, I think it was like three days. Paid off the
bank, pocketed a little cash, and avoided all the

mess. And so, uh, that's what we do. We step in
when the time bomb is

ticking and help to, uh,

to alleviate that, put that thing out.

So

selling to us isn't about getting rich, it's about
saving what you can.

You know, if you've got no equity or you owe more
than it's worth, we can still help.

We, we negotiate with the lender to take it off
your hands, uh, so that you're free.

Either way, you are not stuck, okay?

Uh, there's things that can be tried and we talked
about some of those earlier in the podcast
episode.

All right, let's jump into some of the listener
questions that we've got, uh, from listeners to
the Danny

Buys Houses podcast. The first one here, "I got a
foreclosure notice.

How fast can you buy?" This is from Maria in San
Antonio.

Maria,

we can move in days like we just mentioned, three
if it's an emergency or s- you know, sometimes
maybe even

two. It g- it gets real tough. Uh, tell us your
auction date.

We're gonna, we can beat it and, uh, you can keep
some equity and skip the stress. Just reach out to
us.

All right, next one. "My house needs repairs. Does
that kill my equity?" That's Mike in Leon Valley.

Hey, Mike. Nope. You know, we buy as is, leaky
roof, foundation issues, whatever.

Your equity is tied to the value,

uh, not the shape. W- you know, obviously we
gotta, you know, buy it less 'cause we gotta take
care of those,

those repairs. But, um, you know, we still figure
it out and make it work.

So, you know, the best thing to do is just reach
out to us, let us take a look at it, take a look
at the situation,

get some more information. And then, you know,
figure out what we can offer you and see if that
works out with

what, uh,

uh, how much equity, you know, you've got and, and
what the payoff is for, for the loan and all that

stuff. So just reach out to us. We can, we can
see.All right, Mike.

All right, last one here. We got, "Can I sell it

if I owe more than it's worth?" This is from Linda
in Alamo Heights.

Hey, Linda,

uh, s- no, sorry. You know, you might be able to
do a short sale with your lender that we talked
about

earlier in the episode or find a way to settle it.

Uh, you're not gonna get cash though,

uh, but you'll dodge the foreclosure if you can
make that work.

So, um, you can reach out to us. We can point you
in the right direction of, of who to talk

to and, and, uh, how to work out with that though
if, if you, uh, find that that's the

case for you.

All right, if anybody else has any more questions,
send 'em over. I'm here for you.

Now, let's see here. Ready... You know, if you're
ready to avoid foreclosure,

like I said, here, here's a start. Go to
dannybuyshouse.com, find that fast cas- uh, cash
offer

form. Takes about two minutes to fill out.

Tell us about your house, how much you owe, where
you're at with the payments, um, submit it.

We'll give you a call,

schedule an appointment to come see the house and
make you an offer, and then we can go from there.

Um, we visit your house.

You know, if we come to an agreement, we get that
to the title company.

Title company does all the paperwork, so there's
nothing you have to worry about with that.

And, uh, there's no cost to you. There's no fee
for us going out there making an offer and no
obligation

for you to, uh,

uh, to,

to take the offer. So you can always say no if you
don't want to, all right?

And I know foreclosure feels like a freight train
coming at you. I've seen folks cry thinking it's
over.

It's not. I started Danny Buys Hou- Houses to help
people out with problems like this.

So if you're behind on payments, facing the worst,

you know, imagine no auction, no eviction, just
cash and a fresh start.

Um, that's what we're, what we're about here. We
can help you do that most times.

All right, head over to dannybuyshouse.com. Fill
out that cas- fast cash offer form and let's talk.

I'm Danny Johnson. I've got your back, San
Antonio.

All right, thanks for tuning in, everyone. Share
this with someone facing foreclosure.

Uh, they need it. Next time, we're gonna tackle,

uh, let me see. What is next time? What are we
gonna tackle here?

Just give me one second.

Next time we're gonna tackle, you know, current
San Antonio real estate trends. So tune in.

Don't miss that. This is Danny Johnson saying take
care. Let's stop that foreclosure.

See you soon.