With two plucky and lovely kids rotating wildly around us, I sat down and spoke with a Spanish speaking couple who had lost their home to the foreclosure process. Feeling comfortable they asked me whether (in my opinion) it was possible to keep their home since they could manage to make their scheduled mortgage payments.
I was perplexed. "If you can afford to make the payments, why did you loose the house?"
I was told that a confidant of theirs had told them that they should discontinue making payments of any type no-matter-what and that this would force the bank to re-evaluate their loan, the value of the home and thus modify their commitment. So based on this advice, coupled with a language barrier they discontinued making their payments and ignored all notices of default.
After several months they were finally informed (in Spanish) that the house now belonged to the bank and that they should vacate the premises at a certain date and time.
The wife, in near tears, shook her head in disbelief. 'How could this have happened, we were just following what we thought was good advice.'
This is an example of one of the challenges we face in this challenged market. It seems that in times of struggle, the predators and/or the uneducated but well-intentioned come out to confuse and mislead. In their wake, they leave a mess for others to clean up that exasperates the big waves we are facing.
So.....be weary of advice and consult professionals who have experience with the particular hurdle you are facing. Ask questions and do your homework. BTW...the answer was "No. You do not get to keep the house." And for my Real Estate and Loan Industry colleagues, remember the fallacy of providing any legal and/or tax advice. We have people's lives in our hands.
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