Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

Odds are that your construction mortgage also encumbers the land upon which your home was built. At least this has been true of all standard bank mortgages which I have ever seen over my 32 years of practicing law (unless the mortgage was secured by a completely separate parcel property). Your idea is therefore is not one which is likely to help you in fighting your foreclosure case. However, if you do wish to either fight your foreclosure of maximize the time during which you can continue to live in your house without making payments, you owe it to yourself to retain an experienced real estate lawyer with extensive bankruptcy law experience. This would ideally be someone with a background as a former bankruptcy trustee. Lawyers with this background are likely to be the most knowledgeable available in terms of knowing best how to either redeem a mortgage which is in foreclosure or maximize the homeowners' right to remain in their home. Since Wisconsin homeowners are normally given only given 20 days to dispute and postpone the bank's judgment of foreclosure after they are served with the foreclosure summons, it is critical that you seek legal help as soon as possible. However, even after the 20 day answer period has expired, you can still greatly benefit from hiring a lawyer to appear in the foreclosure case solely for the purpose of monitoring it. Unless someone appears in a foreclosure action, the bank's attorneys are not even obligated to notify the homeowner of what is going on in the foreclosure until the final state of eviction (known as a "writ of assistance" in foreclosure language). Luckily, once you have hired a lawyer to at least appear the case, an ethical obligation is created which requires the bank's lawyer to notify your attorney of any activity whatsoever in the case. The lawyer should therefore be able to give you at least a few months notice before you actually need to leave, which can potentially even be years after the foreclosure has started if any procedural hurdles which have come up for the bank. Additionally, either mortgage modifications or chapter 13 bankruptcies can reinstate mortgage and allow you to remain in your home indefinitely, provided that you are able to resume payments in chapter 13 or at least able to resume some fraction of your previous payment in a modification. Either of these activities are best undertaken only under the supervision of an experienced attorney. For the record, I need to remind you that my answering this question on Law Guru does not constitute legal representation for purposes or court or any other further activities unless you make additional arrangements to retain me. You therefore must make arrangements to meet your legal needs since I will not be taking any action on your case.