Using your home as collateral for bail is a very risky game. You have to be absolutely certain that the person for whom you are posting bail is innocent or that the bail will be exonerated. In all other instances, the home will be sold, the bail collected and dispersed, and you will be out on the street. If you posted your home for bail and the relative jumped bail, it means your home is not yours anymore. It becomes the property of the bail bond agent and the courts. There is only one way you can get your home back, and it may not be an option with which you can work. 

Wait for the Home to Be Posted for Sale

The bail bondsman has to put your house up for sale. Since you could only use your house for bail if it was mortgage-free, the bond agent is able to sell the house with little legal difficulty. The title/deed is signed over to the bond agent at the time you chose to use the house for bail, and that becomes permanent when someone jumps bail or is found guilty. The house remains for sale until it is sold and the money satisfies the bond amount and court fees. 

Buy the Home Back With a Mortgage

In states where it is not forbidden to purchase the home back from the bond agent and the courts, you can purchase your home back from them. This is hard to do, since it means that you will have to place yourself in a position of borrowing a mortgage to buy back the home that was yours to begin with. The one upshot is that the courts and bail bond agent may try to sell the home at auction for the starting price of the bond and court fees, which means you could get the house back for a song, if you are lucky. If you are not so lucky, make sure you have mortgage pre-approval from a lender to buy the home back for full market value. 

In the Meantime

Between that moment that you decide to use your home as bail collateral and that moment that you are able to buy the home back when it is auctioned or sold on the open real estate market, you will have between thirty and ninety days to remove all of your belongings from the house. Either move them into self-storage or move them into an apartment. If and when you are able to buy the house back from the bond agent and the courts, then you can move all of your stuff back into the house. 

For more information on posting bail, visit websites like https://www.bradsbailbonds.com.