How long would bankruptcy stay off foreclosure?

Pay an experienced BK lawyer to review your BK file with you, and answer your questions. I have two dozen questions I need answered before I can give you an answer. Do not be "penny wise and pound foolish." Good luck!

A short sale is a voluntary agreement to sell the house for less than the mortgage between you and the bank. A bankruptcy will generally not delay a short sale. A foreclosure is stopped by filing bankruptcy but unless you're going to pay the mortgage, the lender ask the bankruptcy court for permission to proceed with the foreclosure. ?This generally slows down the foreclosure by a couple of months or more.

The timing of the short sale depends on you and your mortgage lender, primarily. Your bankruptcy will stop the foreclosure and then your lender will need to file a motion for relief from the bankruptcy stay in order to be able to proceed with the short sale. It is in everyone's best interest to make the short sale happen, if you are going to give up the property anyway.

Assuming you are filing under Chapter 7, the discharge is granted about 90 days after filing, or just a bit more. At the time of the discharge, the Automatic Stay ends and the mortgage-creditor is entitled to pursue its state law remedies but only against the real estate, not against you personally. Some creditors, or their lawyers, are hot to trot, and may move the Court for Relief from the Automatic Stay, even though if they waited a short while they would be allowed to foreclose without the expense of filing the Motion. There is a section of the bankruptcy code which seems to extend to 60 days after filing the time for curing any default. This may or may not be applicable in your case. Your best bet is to consult an experienced bankruptcy lawyer. Good Luck.

It is impossible to predict with any certainty how long filing a chapter bankruptcy will delay a foreclosure. Unfortunately, if you want to short sell your residence while in bankruptcy, you will need court permission for the sale to go through. While you may be able to wait until after your bankruptcy ends to close escrow and complete a short sale, a better strategy would be to persuade the lender to delay the foreclosure to allow payment through the short sale and deal with any bankruptcy afterwards. Your realtor ought to be able to talk to your lender about delaying the foreclosure.