If you are behind on your mortgage, or about to be, this is not the end of the story. It is a fork in the road. And you still get to choose which way you go.
Call 623-282-0014If you are reading this, there is a good chance you are already behind on your mortgage. Or you are about to be. Or someone you love is.
Whatever brought you here, we want you to know one thing up front.
This is not the end of the story. It is a fork in the road. And you still get to choose which way you go.
We are Chad Denke and Brittney McGuire. We are real estate agents in Maricopa County, Arizona. We are also trained short sale specialists. That means we spend a meaningful part of our week helping Arizona homeowners figure out what to do when the mortgage payment is no longer working.
Some of them keep their homes. Some of them sell. Some of them do a short sale and walk away without owing the bank another dollar.
What almost all of them do is stop feeling stuck. Because once you understand your real options, the situation stops running you. You start running it.
That is what this page is for.
People do not end up behind on a mortgage because they are lazy or irresponsible.
They end up here because life happened.
A job ended. A marriage ended. A business slowed. A medical bill landed. An adjustable rate reset. A spouse passed away. Insurance and taxes climbed faster than the paycheck did.
Almost every seller we help started in the same place you are right now. Confused. Embarrassed. Not sure who to talk to. Afraid that if they say the wrong thing to the wrong person, it will make the problem worse.
So before we get into timelines and options and lender rules, we want to name the real thing first.
Now let us walk through yours.
Arizona is a non-judicial foreclosure state.
That means most Arizona foreclosures happen through a process called a trustee's sale, not through the courts. No judge. No trial. The lender does not have to sue you to take the home back. They just have to follow a specific timeline laid out in Arizona law.
Here is the short version of how that timeline usually plays out.
Most loan servicers do not file anything official until you are at least 90 days late. Before that, you will get phone calls, letters, and late notices. These are uncomfortable, but they are not the foreclosure itself.
This is the stage where you have the most options. Almost every solution is still on the table. Almost every negotiation is still possible.
If you are here right now, take a breath. You are not late to anything yet.
Once you are far enough behind, the lender records a document called a Notice of Trustee's Sale with the county recorder's office. In Arizona, that notice must be recorded and posted at least 90 days before the sale date.
Ninety days. That is the window.
During those 90 days, a short sale is still possible. A loan modification is still possible. A cash offer is still possible. Selling the home traditionally is still possible, though the clock starts getting tight.
You also have the right to reinstate the loan up until five business days before the sale. That means you can bring the loan current by paying everything you owe plus fees. Most people in this situation do not have that kind of cash. That is why the other options matter so much.
If nothing is done, the home is sold at auction at the date and time listed on the notice. Arizona does not have a statutory right of redemption after a trustee's sale. Once it is sold, it is gone.
At this point, the homeowner is typically required to leave, and the process of eviction can begin.
That is what we are trying to help you avoid.
People often call us thinking there are only two options: keep paying or lose the home.
That is not true. There are at least six.
A loan modification is when your lender agrees to change the terms of your mortgage so the payment becomes manageable again. This can mean a lower interest rate, a longer term, or in some cases, adding missed payments to the back end of the loan.
Loan modifications can work. But they are not as easy to get as they were ten years ago.
A modification is worth trying if you have a real income now, the hardship was temporary, and the problem was mostly the missed payments piling up. A modification is probably not going to work if your income has permanently dropped below what the home can sustain, you already had one on this loan, or the house is so far underwater that the lender does not see a path to getting back to whole.
We do not process loan modifications ourselves. But we can help you figure out whether it is worth pursuing before you spend three months chasing one.
Forbearance is a pause. The lender agrees to let you skip or reduce payments for a defined period, usually three to six months, in exchange for you catching up later.
This works if the hardship is short-term and you know income is coming back. This does not work if the hardship is permanent. You end up three to six months further behind with no real plan.
A short sale is when you sell the home for less than you owe, with the lender's written approval, and the difference is forgiven or settled.
For most Arizona homeowners who are seriously behind on the mortgage and cannot get current, this is the best option available.
Here is why:
A short sale is not a perfect exit. A short sale is often the best of the available exits.
We handle every piece of the short sale process ourselves. We talk to the lender. We negotiate the payoff. We coordinate with the title company, the HOA, any second lien or HELOC, any PACE or solar lien, any judgment against the property. The seller does not chase paperwork. They do not sit on hold with loss mitigation departments. That is our job.
If speed and certainty matter more than maximum price, a cash offer may be the right tool.
Cash buyers close fast. They do not need an appraisal. They do not need a financing contingency. They often buy homes as-is, which means no repairs, no showings, no back-and-forth over inspection findings.
Cash offers make sense when:
Cash offers usually come in below retail market value. That is the trade. You get speed and certainty. You give up some top-line price.
We can bring cash buyers to the table. We can also compare a cash-offer path against a short sale or a traditional listing, side by side, so you can see the actual numbers in your situation. No pressure. No pitch. Just real math.
A deed in lieu is when you voluntarily hand the deed back to the lender in exchange for not being foreclosed on.
It sounds clean. It often is not. Lenders are cautious about accepting them. Many will only agree after a short sale has been seriously attempted. Some require the home to be listed first. And because the loss to the lender is usually higher in a deed in lieu than a short sale, you often end up with less protection and fewer options.
If a deed in lieu becomes the right call, we can walk you through it. But we almost always look at a short sale first.
This is not really an option, but we are including it because a lot of homeowners default to it by not making a decision.
If you do nothing, the trustee's sale happens on the scheduled date. You lose the home. A foreclosure is reported on your credit for up to seven years. You may still be exposed to deficiency liability depending on the loan. And you may lose access to relocation assistance and other tools that a short sale would have given you.
This is one of the most misunderstood pieces of Arizona real estate law. So let us be clear.
Arizona has anti-deficiency protections under A.R.S. § 33-814. These protections apply to certain residential loans, typically purchase-money loans on a single-family or two-family property of 2.5 acres or less, and they generally prevent the lender from coming after the borrower personally for any shortfall after a trustee's sale.
In plain English: if the home goes to a trustee's sale, and the loan and property qualify, the lender usually cannot sue you for the difference.
But here is the catch that trips people up.
Anti-deficiency statutes apply to foreclosure. They do not automatically apply to a short sale.
A short sale is a voluntary negotiation. It is a contract. And in that contract, the lender can reserve the right to pursue the balance unless the approval letter explicitly waives the deficiency in writing.
This is where having the right agent matters more than almost anywhere else in a short sale. Every approval letter we receive gets reviewed line by line. If the deficiency waiver language is not there, we do not close. We go back. We push. We get it in writing.
We also recommend that every seller have the approval letter reviewed by a real estate attorney before signing. We are not attorneys. We will not give you legal advice. But we will make sure the waiver language is present before anything gets to the closing table.
This is almost always the first question someone asks us.
Here is the truth.
Any of these options will hurt your credit. There is no path through a serious mortgage crisis that leaves your credit untouched. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
But the damage is not the same across options:
So the question is not "will this hurt my credit." The question is "which choice leaves me in the best position to rebuild?"
For most people in serious mortgage distress, that is a short sale or a fast cash sale.
A lot of sellers assume they walk away from a short sale empty-handed.
That is often not the case.
Relocation assistance is money the lender pays the seller at closing to help cover moving costs. It is paid out of the sale proceeds, shown on the closing disclosure, and delivered at the signing table.
General ranges to be aware of:
The catch: if there are junior liens on the home (HOA dues, second mortgages, municipal fines, unpaid utilities), the lender may require that relocation money be used to clear those first. So the amount a seller actually receives at closing can be smaller than the headline number.
We will tell you up front what you can realistically expect based on your specific loan, your specific liens, and your specific situation. No promises we cannot keep.
We know this conversation can feel impossible to start. So here is what the first call actually looks like.
No credit pull. No paperwork. No commitment. Just a conversation.
You tell us what is going on. We listen. We ask a few questions about the loan, the timeline, any notices you have received, and what you are hoping to protect — your credit, your family's stability, your ability to buy again, your peace of mind. All of those are valid answers.
Then we give you an honest read on the options that actually fit your situation. Sometimes that is a short sale. Sometimes that is a cash offer. Sometimes it is a referral to a loan mod specialist or an attorney. Sometimes it is a plan to sell the home traditionally and keep the equity you did not realize you still had.
There is no judgment here. There is no pressure.
We have sat at kitchen tables with people who were terrified, embarrassed, and convinced there was no way out. Every single one of them felt different by the time the conversation ended. Not because we fixed the problem in an hour. Because they finally understood the problem, and they finally had a real plan.
We work foreclosure and short sale files across the entire Maricopa County market. West Valley is our home base. East Valley, Central Phoenix, and North Valley are fully covered.
Goodyear, Avondale, Buckeye, Surprise, Peoria, Litchfield Park, El Mirage, Glendale, Tolleson, Youngtown
Phoenix, Laveen, Ahwatukee
Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills, Paradise Valley, Queen Creek
Cave Creek, Carefree, Anthem, Wittmann, Wickenburg
Sun City, Sun City West, Sun Lakes, PebbleCreek (Goodyear), Estrella Mountain Ranch (Goodyear), Vistancia (Peoria), Marley Park (Surprise), Westbrook Village (Peoria)
If your city is not listed, call us anyway. If we are not the right fit, we will help you find someone who is.
We have written in-depth articles on almost every piece of the Arizona short sale and foreclosure process. Links will be added here as each article is published to our blog.
Once a Notice of Trustee's Sale is recorded in Arizona, the sale cannot happen for at least 90 days. During that window, a short sale, loan modification, or cash sale is still possible. The earlier in those 90 days we start, the more options we have.
Usually yes. We can also request a postponement of the trustee's sale from the lender once a short sale is in process, and most lenders will grant it if the file is moving in good faith. Every day matters at this stage, so reach out as soon as possible.
Not if the approval letter contains the right deficiency waiver language. We review every approval letter for that language before any closing. Arizona's anti-deficiency law provides additional protection in many cases, but we never rely on the statute alone. We always get the waiver in writing.
Nothing out of pocket in a standard Arizona short sale. Commissions, title fees, and other closing costs are paid out of the sale proceeds, which means they come out of the lender's payoff, not your wallet.
It depends on the loan type, your credit recovery, and how the short sale was reported. Many sellers qualify for an FHA loan in two years and a conventional loan in two to four years. We have helped past short sale clients buy again, and we will gladly connect you with lenders who know how to work with a post-short-sale file.
Eventually yes, and we will coordinate that communication with you. But you do not have to make that call alone. In fact, we strongly recommend you do not. What you say to loss mitigation in that first call matters, and we want to make sure it is said correctly.
Yes. Completely. Nothing you tell us leaves our office unless you ask us to act on it. No credit pull, no paperwork, no commitment just to have a conversation.
If you have read this far, you already know you need to do something. The hardest part is starting the conversation.
We have had hundreds of these conversations. None of them turned out worse than silence would have.
Call or text us 623-282-0014Or email [email protected]
No judgment. No pressure. Just options.