Sell Your House Before Foreclosure in Philadelphia

Philadelphia is one of the few cities in the country that runs a Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program. Before an owner-occupied home can head to sheriff's sale, the court brings you and the lender into a conciliation conference with a housing counselor to look for a way to resolve the default. It has kept a lot of families in their homes, and if that path fits yours, take it. For plenty of owners, though, the numbers no longer add up, and the conference only confirms that selling is the cleaner exit. Either way, knowing the program exists means you are rarely as cornered as the paperwork implies.

State law also required your lender to send an Act 91 notice pointing you toward help before it could file, so the process seldom arrives without warning. We buy the kind of homes that fill these neighborhoods, the South Philly and Kensington row houses with a tired roof or an old heater, and the long-owned properties in Fairmount and West Philadelphia that have quietly gained value for decades. Condition does not scare us off and it does not lower the offer. Because there is no lender on our side of the table, nothing hangs on an appraisal coming in or a loan clearing underwriting, which is what lets us close well ahead of a scheduled sale.

We keep the costs a normal sale piles on out of the picture, no agent commission and no closing fees, so more of that built-up equity stays with you rather than getting shaved off the top. And there is no pressure from us in either direction. If the diversion conference or a modification keeps you in the house, that is a good outcome and we will say so plainly. If it does not, a cash sale on a date you choose is a clean way to close the chapter before a foreclosure lands on your credit and lingers there for years.