What options are available under Florida real estate and bankruptcy laws to avoid foreclosure of real property

I have many clients in Florida with the same issue. I have advised most of them to walk away and take the hit on thier credit rating. Those that did not agree came back a year later. a lot poorer and ready to do it. First of all, their are no programs to assist an investor. Second, because this is not your primary residence the tax consequences of a short sale are prohibitiive. You should, however, check with your tax advsior as maybe you have enough expenses or offsets to the income that would be reported on the loan deficiency. In 30 years of practice I have not seen a lender go for a deficiency judgment on a residential property. The only hit you will take is to your credit rating and 1) that will come back over time and 2) I believe the rules regarding credit ratings will change over the next couple of years as over 50% of the population cannot buy cars.

My firm represents people in foreclosure to either delay the process while they consider thier options or to just follow it along to protect your rights and "hold your hand". Our fee is usually $1500.00.

Note that I am not licensed to practice in your state.

The reality is that most people are predicting this economic slump will last through 2009 and possibly 2010. Your first priority is your primary residence. Without that home, you will simply have no place to live and with ruined credit you'd be hard press to find a landlord that will rent to you.

Since you can hardly pay on the piece of land in FL and no one is buying, the first thing you want to do is talk to the bank. Tell them your situation that if you can't get rid of this property NOW, then they will have to foreclose. You then offer to give them a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. This process is appropriately called, a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. YOu're going to have to do some convincing. Tell the bank that if they don't accept the deed-in-lieu then they'll have to foreclose and that's just going to waste everyone's time and money. It's much better for the bank just to accept the deed now instead of going through the whole process of foreclosure.

Now, if you do convince the bank to take the deed-in-lieu, you want to get in writing that they will not come after you for the deficiency. If you don't get this promise from the bank, they can come after you, after they turn around the sell the property for a low price, for the difference that you owe them and the price they sold it for.