Cost of nonjudicial foreclosure in NC?

[Cindy McHugh]

I sold/financed a home in 2011. Buyers filed ch 13 in 2012 and I received payments through the bk trustee. Their plan ended in June 2017, when I stopped receiving payments, but the bk was was not finalized until Feb 2018. I can now foreclose.

The couple divorced and remarried, neither live in the home I sold them. The husband is renting it to someone. The original attorney who prepared the Deed of Trust no longer handles foreclosures, so he referred me to someone. I called him 2/27/18 and asked their cost to foreclose. He said $1200-$1500. I repeated this back and he confirmed. I told him that was fine. 

I just received a letter today from the attorney at this firm asking for a retainer of $500 and stating the average cost for their foreclosure services is $5000. It said I'd also need to pay the original attorney (listed as Trustee) a minimum of $750 to a maximum of 5% of the sale price (which would be approximately $3000). So I'd be looking at $5750 to $8000 to foreclose on a $60k sale.

I responded with a cc to the person who quoted $1200-$1500. He said it was a misunderstanding because he didn't include the fees through the sale process (I don't know why he thought I'd ask for the cost of a partial service).

I contacted the original attorney (Trustee) and he said he'd reduce his Trustee fee because I've given him a lot of business over the years. But in addition to his reduced fee, I'm still looking at an average of $5k for the foreclosure attorney.

I've never done this (and never will again), so I'm wondering if this is typical for a nonjudicial foreclosure. The original attorney had told me it would cost ~ $4k total if I had to foreclose, so I'm thinking $5k+ may not be too far off base. 

I'd also welcome recommendations if anyone knows of firms that handle nonjudicial foreclosures in Surry County NC. So far, I'm not impressed with the firm I contacted.

Thanks in advance.

[Account Closed]

@Cindy McHugh

Go to the Forsyth county clerk of court's (CoC) office and look for recently completed foreclosure files (special proceedings). The CoC office should be able to help you with finding a few files that have been foreclosed in the past 6 months. In the files you will see a "Final Report" filed by the Trustee of the sale accounting for the money received at the FC sale which includes the sales commission (5%), attorney fees and other charges. This should give you a rough idea about the costs.