Selling Your House to Stop Foreclosure in Richmond, VA

Behind on payments? You can still sell right up until the auction. No repairs, no fees, no commissions.

If a substitute trustee has been appointed on your Richmond-area house, the clock is running but it has not run out. In Virginia you keep the right to sell the property yourself at any point before the trustee actually strikes the hammer at the auction. A sale you control almost always ends better than a foreclosure that happens to you.

How foreclosure actually works in Virginia

Virginia is a non-judicial foreclosure state. Your lender does not have to sue you. Because your loan is secured by a deed of trust, the lender can appoint a substitute trustee, and that trustee can sell the house at public auction without ever going in front of a judge. This is why Virginia foreclosures move faster than in many other states.

The rough sequence looks like this:

• You miss payments. Most deeds of trust require the lender to send a notice of default giving you around 30 days to cure before they can accelerate the loan.
• The lender appoints a substitute trustee and the loan is accelerated.
• For an owner-occupied home, you must be sent written notice of the sale at least 60 days before it happens.
• The sale is advertised in a local newspaper, typically weekly for two weeks or on three consecutive days.
• The auction is held, often on the courthouse steps.

Virginia does not give you a statutory right to reinstate the loan. Whether you can catch up by paying the arrears depends on what your specific deed of trust says, so read it or have someone read it for you.

The date on the notice is your real deadline

That 60-day notice is the most useful piece of paper you will get. It tells you exactly how long you have. Sixty days is enough time to close a cash sale comfortably. It is usually not enough time to list a house, wait for a buyer, wait for their lender, and get to settlement.

If you are already inside 30 days, tell us that on the first call. We have closed inside two weeks when the situation demanded it.

Why selling usually beats letting it go to auction

• You keep any equity. At auction the property often sells for just enough to cover the debt and costs. If there is equity in your house, a sale is how you keep it.
• Your credit takes a smaller hit. A completed foreclosure is one of the most damaging entries on a credit report and it lingers for years.
• You choose the timing. After an auction you can be required to leave quickly. In a sale you set the closing date and can often stay a short while after.
• It stays private. Foreclosure auctions are advertised publicly in the newspaper. A sale to us is not.

Your options once the notice arrives

Talk to your lender too. Loan modification, forbearance and short sales are all real options, and if one of those is better for you than selling, take it. We would rather you land somewhere good than sell us a house you should have kept.

What we need from you

• The address and roughly what you owe.
• The sale date, if a notice has already been sent.
• Whether anyone else is on the deed.
• Whether there are other liens, judgments or back taxes against the property.

None of that has to be exact on the first call. We can pull most of it ourselves. Second mortgages, tax liens and judgments do not disqualify you, they just need to be handled at closing.

Get a cash offer before the sale date

Tell us the address and how much time you have. There is no cost and no obligation, and everything you tell us stays between us.

This page is general information about Virginia foreclosure law and is not legal advice. James River Homes is a real estate investment company, not a law firm, a licensed brokerage or a credit counseling agency. If you are facing foreclosure, consider speaking with a Virginia attorney or a HUD-approved housing counselor.