Let’s face it – selling a house is usually a stressful process. Depending on its location, condition, and several other factors, you might struggle to find some potential buyers, or it might be the opposite, and they could come in droves. Your house might be well-taken care of, cleaned, and ready. However, the process of selling your home might suddenly come to a stop if the interested party discovers that there is a lien on your house.
Now, you might not even know that there are any liens against your property; however, solving this issue might be relatively easy if it turns out that the liens are either not up-to-date or fraudulent. On the other hand, if you discover that there are indeed some legitimate liens against your house, you might have trouble selling it. It might be problematic and time-consuming even if you have all the necessary funds to repay the debts.
But is selling a house with a lien impossible? No, and in a moment, we’ll explain what liens are and how best to go about selling a home with a lien on it.
What Is a Lien?
Lien is a legal right against a property that makes it possible for creditors to collect what they are owed if a borrower doesn’t pay back the money in time. At the same time, the information about liens can be found in public records, which means that potential buyers can easily find out if there are any liens on the property.
Let’s say that you want to buy a house, but you can’t pay the total price upfront; instead, you need to rely on a home loan. However, the amount of money you’ll borrow will be high enough that the lender will need some additional assurance that you’ll somehow manage to pay back the money. That’s why you’ll have to sign an agreement that would allow the bank to foreclose on your home if you don’t make the payments later on. Now, that’s only one scenario that could result in a lien being placed against your property.
Reasons Why a Lien Might Be Placed on Your House
There could be a lien on your real estate if you hire workers to renovate your house and don’t pay them for their services. The easiest way to solve such a situation would be simply to pay back the money you owe them. Unfortunately, this situation could be caused by your financial troubles, in which case you wouldn’t be able to take the easiest route. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t alternative options – the funds could be, for example, added to closing costs.
Another situation that could lead to a lien being placed on your house is if you fail to pay state, or even worse – federal taxes. Although each case is different, dealing with such a situation would be especially difficult, stressful, and time-consuming, which is why it would be best to let the attorneys handle it for you.
It also happens that the situation could be caused by a simple mistake. If, when you want to sell your property, you discover that there is a lien on it, verifying whether the lien is valid could quickly save you the worry. If you had a debt in the past that you’ve managed to repay, a mix-up could occur, and as a consequence, the public records wouldn’t contain the up-to-date information. Now, to prove that the debts have been, in fact, paid off in full, you’ll need to deal with quite a bit of paperwork, which is why contacting lawyers would be the best course of action in this situation as well.
Can You Sell a House With a Lien on It?
Now, if you discover that there is a lien on your house, and you want to sell it, you should consider first whether your financial situation allows you to pay off the remaining debt, which would remove the lien.
If you are unable to pay back your debts, the ownership of the house might be transferred to your lender, who would then try to sell the real estate. However, depending on the type of lien and your location, you might be safe if the home is your primary residence. In some states, collectors won’t be able to sell your house even if you are missing payments if it’s the place where you live. Still, we would recommend checking the local laws, as, in some states, the protection only applies if the debts don’t reach a high-enough level.
On the other hand, if it’s not your primary residence that you are trying to sell, there is another option available. If you can’t make the payments on time, then the collectors will try to find alternative ways of getting the money back. However, sometimes recovering the entire sum is simply impossible, and as a result, they might agree to settle the debt. Though they might not receive the full amount that they’ve lent, they will most probably still prefer to recover a significant portion of it rather than have to deal with this problematic situation throughout the years.
However, if you want to choose this route, you should hire lawyers to reach a debt settlement. The negotiation process is time-consuming, stressful, and you might not even reach an agreement at all, which is why it’s best to rely on professionals to take care of the job.
If you think that you’ll be unable to reach a debt settlement and pay-off a huge portion of the debts to remove the lien from your property, you are not out of options just yet. If you find willing buyers who are interested in your property, you might negotiate an agreement with your creditors to pay off the debts you owe, or some part of it. Now, it’s a similar situation to the one that we’ve mentioned previously, but this time you wouldn’t have to save up money to pay off a significant portion of the debt before you could sell your real estate. Instead, you could pay it off when you manage to sell the house during closing. Not every collector will agree to that, but it certainly can be done.
Unfortunately, there is something else that we must mention – you might have trouble finding buyers if your house has a lien on it. In most cases, those interested in your property will have to pay in full, which will effectively scare off a huge portion of potential buyers. At the same time, remember that if you owe money, then a bank or other institution might only agree to those terms if you find buyers fast.
That’s why, although it is an option that you should consider, assuming that the creditor is fine with this option of repaying debts, people who are struggling with debts are not always willing to take this route. However, if you think that you could have difficulty finding buyers for your house, we’ve got excellent news.
Sell a House on a Lien With the Help of Highest Cash Offer
If you worry that you might be unable to find customers willing to buy your house, then we’ve got a solution – you could let us, Highest Cash Offer, help you. If you want to solve this unpleasant situation with a lien, you are probably already stressed and severely lacking in time. We understand that completely, which is why if you contact us, you’ll discover that the process is lightning fast.
After you get in touch with us, we’ll send you an offer within 24 to 48 hours! When trying to sell real estate with a lien on it, you are in a hurry, which is why we won’t make you wait until the lengthy evaluation process is finished, which is often the case with other cash providers.
If you were to sell the house to any of the potential buyers, you would have to spend some time cleaning the house first. It might not sound like an exceptionally demanding task, but if your property is huge, then it could take up to several days. However, we know what matters in this situation – time. That’s why you don’t need to worry about cleaning your house or even making repairs – we’ll send you a cash offer, and if you agree, we’ll buy it as it is.
Is selling a house with a lien on it with the help of fast cash providers, such as Highest Cash Offer, the only option available? Not really – depending on your situation, showing proof that you’ve already paid all your debts in full and updating the public records could be all that needs to be done. Alternatively, you might have to pay the contractors who worked on your property recently.
However, other types of liens could lead to a little more complications, and hiring a good lawyer is the first step that you should take. Is it possible to sell a property with a lien on it? Yes, but usually, it will require lengthy negotiations with the collectors. If they agree either to a partial release, or to temporarily remove a lien, it might be possible to sell a house and deduct the debts (or their part) from the proceeds from the sale. However, you might discover that there is yet another hard-to-solve problem – there are no clients willing to pay for your real estate in full. In this situation, the best course of action would be to contact Highest Cash Offer.
We know that selling real estate a lien is stressful, which is why you’ll receive our offer shortly after getting in touch with us. We have experience working with clients who couldn’t find individual buyers who would buy their property, so if you have lost hope to sell your real estate with a property lien, don’t worry – we might be able to help!
To Sum Up…
Oftentimes people discover that there are liens placed against their property when they are already inviting clients to visit their real estate. As a result, the entire process becomes even more stressful than it otherwise would. However, the existence of property liens doesn’t necessarily have to be troublesome – it could be a result of a clerical mistake or failure to provide proof that your debts have been paid off in full.
However, if it turns out that a lien placed on your real estate is valid, you’ll probably need to contact lawyers. The hardest types of liens are a consequence of not paying the state or federal taxes, in which case the entire process is going to be particularly painful. However, in most cases, there are ways to solve the issue at hand and proceed with the sale of the house. Though it really depends on the type of a lien and your debts, you might discover that finding buyers willing to pay in cash would help you solve your issues. If that’s the case, then don’t wait – and contact Highest Cash Offer – we’ll be glad to help!
To receive a FREE, NO OBLIGATION cash offer on your home, call (888) 387-5750 or click the button below!
