Cash for Keys

After your home is sold at foreclosure auction, the lender is ready for you to move out.

Often they will pay you to move, rather than evict: Cash for keys. After defaulting on your mortgage, you’ve probably been living in your home rent free for a number of months. How great is that! Now its time to get money to move.

Prior to eviction, the lender will often offer to pay you to move out–this is known as “cash for keys.” (The lender is often represented by a local real estate agent.)

In exchange for your promise to leave the house in clean, undamaged condition, a lender will pay you cash. Not all banks offer this–but it’s preferable to receive cash to move than to have the sheriff move you (also free–but the move only takes you to the sidewalk.)

A client stopped paying on her mortgage in November 2010. She simply couldn’t afford the monthly payments. She received a Notice of Sale in late August 2011, notifying her that the sale would take place in about a month.

The client sent me a note describing her negotiation with the lender.

“On a different note – I think the foreclosure, the move, and everything else is just about over…only several more weeks…I can’t THANK YOU enough for walking me through everything (several times!) – Everything is working out EXACTLY as you said it would….The Realtor came last week of September (2 days before my B-Day!) and said the bank wanted to offer me $3500 if I was out in 2 weeks – Well that was impossible…the packing hadn’t begun, I had a Gal out on vacation etc etc, so I countered with $4,000 and out by Oct 31 and they went for it!! Yeah!!! – It’s taken a lot of pressure off although it is still very stressful packing etc…my daughter & I are still packing as we can, but it’s definitely looking like we’ll be “good to go” by the move out date….

It’s all about negotiating. Be careful though, if you try to drive a “hard” bargain (or exhibit an “attitude”), you’ll simply be evicted. The lender will calculate it’s cheaper and less hassle to evict than to pay you to leave.