Sell My House Fast in Tennessee: We Buy Houses for Cash, As-Is, Any Condition

Before Any State Clock Starts: the Federal 120-Day Rule

Every state timeline on this page sits behind a federal one, and it is the single most useful thing to know if you have missed payments. Under Regulation X, 12 CFR 1024.41(f)(1), a mortgage servicer generally “shall not make the first notice or filing” required for a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure unless the borrower's mortgage loan obligation is more than 120 days delinquent.

That is roughly four months of missed payments before the state process is even allowed to begin. It is why a state sequence that looks alarmingly short on paper is usually longer in practice than the statute alone suggests.

The exceptions, because they are real. The rule does not apply where the foreclosure is based on a violation of a due-on-sale clause, or where the servicer is joining the action of a superior or subordinate lienholder. Small servicers are not exempt from this particular prohibition. Loan types and servicing arrangements vary, and some loans are outside Regulation X altogether.

So treat 120 days as the general floor rather than a guarantee, and work from the dates on your own paperwork. If a notice has arrived and you do not believe you are past that point, that is a question worth putting to a HUD-approved housing counselor or an attorney before you do anything else.

Tennessee Gives Two Years To Redeem, And Your Deed Of Trust Probably Signed It Away

This is a long redemption period, and it is also one that most likely does not apply to you. Both halves matter.

Tenn. Code Ann. 66-8-101 opens: “Real estate sold for debt shall be redeemable at any time within two (2) years after such sale”, and that includes property sold under a deed of trust without a court case.

Then comes the clause that decides it:

“Where it is sold under a deed of trust or mortgage without a judicial sentence, unless the right of redemption is expressly waived by the deed or mortgage; and a waiver of the ‘equity of redemption,’ or a waiver using words of similar import, shall be sufficient to waive the right of redemption afforded by this section”

That waiver is standard language in Tennessee deeds of trust, and the statute accepts not only the exact phrase but anything of similar import. So the honest answer to “do I have two years?” is: it depends entirely on a paragraph in your own loan document.

So go and read it. Find your deed of trust, look for the paragraph waiving the equity of redemption, and if you cannot tell, have a Tennessee attorney look at it. We are not going to tell you that you have two years, because most people in your position do not. We are also not going to tell you that you have none, because some people do. The document decides, and it is sitting in your closing papers.

The federal rule above generally sits in front of all of this, so the runway before a sale is usually longer than a homeowner in default assumes. Free HUD-approved housing counseling is available before you commit to anything, including to us.

Official source: Tenn. Code Ann. §66-8-101

Twenty Days Online, Two Runs In The Paper, And A Letter You Have To Sign For

Tennessee forecloses under a power of sale rather than through a court, so there is no case number to follow. What there is instead is an unusually checkable set of notices.

Advertised. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 35-5-101(a), the sale must be advertised at least twice in a newspaper published in the county where the sale is to be made, and posted online by a third-party internet posting company for at least twenty continuous days, in a way that is “publicly viewable to general internet users”. Under subsection (b), the first newspaper publication must be at least twenty days before the sale.

That online posting is worth knowing about. It means you can check whether a sale has been advertised against your property without waiting for anything to arrive in the post.

Mailed, and you have to sign for it. Subsection (d) requires the trustee to send the debtor and any co-debtor a copy of the statutory notice on or before the first date of publication, by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. It goes to the mailing address of the property and to the debtor's last known mailing address, or another address the debtor designated at least thirty days before the first publication, where that differs from the property.

This is more protective than some states. In Missouri, for instance, the statute says in terms that actual receipt is not necessary for a notice to count. Tennessee requires certified mail with a return receipt, to two addresses. If you have moved, that improves your odds, but we would still say go and look rather than wait.

One small-debt exception, in subsection (c)(1): where the indebtedness does not exceed two hundred dollars, the owner may order advertisement by posted written notices plus the online posting instead of newspaper publication.

What we are not telling you. We have not read the section that sets out what the notice must contain, or the ones covering where notices are posted and what happens if the rules are not followed. And we make no claim about whether Tennessee gives you a right to reinstate or cure before the sale, because we did not read a section that addresses it. Some states do give one. We do not know Tennessee's position and are not going to guess at something that important.

Official source: Tenn. Code Ann. §35-5-101

The Transfer Tax Is Charged On What The House Is Worth, Not What You Sold It For

Tennessee charges a state transfer tax when a deed is recorded, and the way it is calculated catches people out.

Tenn. Code Ann. 67-4-409(a)(1) imposes, “for the privilege of having the same recorded”, a tax “for state purposes only, of thirty-seven cents (37¢) per one hundred dollars ($100)”. That is 0.37%, which on the Tennessee median sale price of $378,325 comes to roughly $1,400.

Now the part that matters:

“On the transfer of a freehold estate, the tax shall be based on the consideration for the transfer, or the value of the property, whichever is greater. ‘Value of the property’ ... means the amount that the property transferred would command at a fair and voluntary sale, and no other value”

So selling cheaply does not reduce this tax. If you transfer a house worth $400,000 to a relative for a dollar, the tax is still calculated on what it would fetch in a fair and voluntary sale. People try this quite often and are surprised at the recording desk.

Some transfers are exempt, and the statute lists them. Several matter to people reading this page: creating or dissolving a tenancy by the entirety between spouses; deeds of division in kind where property was held by tenants in common; release of a life estate to the remainder beneficiaries; deeds by an executor to implement a testamentary devise; deeds adjusting property rights between divorcing parties; and transfers to and from a revocable living trust set up by you or your spouse. No transfer tax is due on a leasehold estate.

Who bears it is a contract term. The section describes the tax as payable for the privilege of recording. It does not allocate it between buyer and seller, so we are not going to tell you the seller pays it. Customarily one side does, it is negotiable, and the written agreement controls.

What else this page does not tell you. We have not read the rest of that long section, we make no claim about deficiency judgments after a Tennessee sale, and we have not summarized Tennessee's seller disclosure obligations. What holds generally is that selling as-is describes who pays for repairs, not what you are allowed to leave unsaid, and that a surplus is not simply yours to collect: junior liens, second mortgages and the costs of the sale are ordinarily paid ahead of the former owner.

Official source: Tenn. Code Ann. §67-4-409