WHY DO HOMEOWNERS WAIT UNTIL ITS TOO LATE?

I ask myself this question at least 10 times a day. I know denial is a powerful remedy to a lot of our daily struggles but somethings can't be denied. I talk to Homeowners everyday and I always ask this very question "why did you wait so long to call"? Most of the times their answer is, "I thought we would be able to get caught up". The rest of the time its " I don't know, I wish we would have called sooner". I think the biggest misconception about foreclosure, which I will affectionately call "the F word" from now on, is that homeowners think the bank would like to take their home from them. That is the LAST thing the bank wants to do. I costs banks an average of 40K to go through the full "F word" process on every home. For every non-performing asset the federal government requires banks to keep between 3 to 7 times the amount of that particular loan in reserve. So if they have one non-performing loan for 100K they would have anywhere between 300K to 700K in a reserve just for this one property. Not to mention the thousands its costing them to pay attorney fees, court costs, real estate broker fees and all the holding costs involved in taking back a property. Now imagine that scenario times 100,000 because that is about how many homes some banks are stuck holding. Banks are in business to make money not spend it, so it would behoove them to do everything in their power to assist the homeowner with bringing their mortgage current. Last month I encouraged a lady to contact her lender since she was about to miss her first payment due to her ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) adjusting and her payments went up significantly. She is a do-it yourself and if I can't I will call you type person, so I gave her a few tips to use when calling her lender. I saw her the other day and asked her about her home and she told me " Ryan, I called my lender and told them I wasn't going to be able to make this month's payment or any future payments because I just cant afford to". Her lender told her, "well Ms. Moore, I'm glad you called because what we can do is refinance you to a lower fixed interest rate, wrap your late payment into it and your next payment wont be due until July 1st". Had I not let her know of her options and how flexible lenders are getting nowadays she was ready to give up on a home that she had been in for over twenty years and move into an apartment when her redemption period was up. All to often I see homeowners get frustrated and give up when all they had to do is seek help. I do my best to make it as comfortable a situation as possible, its not always as bad as it may seen and there is always a bright side to any situation. The trick is finding someone who is actually going to provide real help and who is not out to make money off of someones else's misery. I hope that this article will inspire someone to seek assistance or encourage someone to contact their lender and see if they can work something out. Even if you have to sell your property, short sales are great options. If for some reason your home does not sell then your lender can allow you to deed the home back to them in-lieu of "the F word". What this means is you avoid the heavy damage to your credit, you avoid having your wages garnished because of having a deficiency judgment brought against you for the difference in what the property eventually sells for plus all the cost the bank accrued and in most cases with a little credit repair you'll be ready to buy another home in a year or two. St. Luke 1:37 says "For with God nothing shall be impossible". I truly believe that and I pray you do to. Don't ever give up, go all the way!!!!!

DOES YOUR REALTOR REALLY PROVIDE "FORECLOSURE HELP"???

More and more Realtors and Real Estate Companies are advertising "Foreclosure help" and the truth is all most of them are doing is sticking their sign in the yard and treating the home like a normal listing. What if the homeowner doesn't want to sell their property? Will the Realtor negotiate a workout with the lender? If a property is facing foreclosure and in most cases the mortgage is more than the actual property value then a short sale will be required to get the property sold. What if a short sale offer is made and accepted by the lender but the lender wont pay any commission to the Realtor, will your Realtor present the offer to you or wait to see if a better offer is made? They should present all offers to you since they are legally bound by their fiduciary duty. And what if no offer is brought to the table at all before the redemption period is up? Will the Realtor negotiate with your lender for you to deed in-lieu of foreclosure? Realtors get paid a commission for either helping to sell a home or helping someone to purchase a home, that's it. They do not get paid for negotiating any workout or a deed in-lieu with lenders, so most of them don't! It goes back to the old saying "if it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense".

I have had several homeowners contact me and ask me to work with their Realtor to get their home sold. While a few Realtor agree to allow me to assist them, most of them get offended. I have had Realtors tell me that they have been doing this for 20+ years and they know exactly what they are doing. When this happens I make sure I track the property to see what the outcome is. All too often the property is foreclosed on and no offer is accepted by the lender. Most of the time no offer has been made and a short sale package was never filled out by the homeowner and submitted to the lender. More and more lenders are allowing homeowners to submit their short sale packages even before an offer is made. That is the most important step next to bringing in an offer. Submitting a short sale package right away will get the ball rolling so you will know exactly how much the lender will need to net. This means that when an offer is made the buyers will not have to wait months to have their offer accepted, they should have a acceptance letter in 3-7 business days.