We have included with this story a copy of the YouTube Video of our investigation. If you are viewing a re-post of this blog and the video doesn't show up go to http://www.phillyshortsale411.com/video-blog/ and check out Mar 31, 2010.
In 2 separate instances, Philadelphia residents committed suicide this month after their homes had been sold at Philadelphia County Sheriff's Mortgage Foreclosure Sale. The first case occured March 5th when Lynda Clark, a resident at 1833 S. Newkirk Street, in South Philadelphia, was found by Sheriff's Deputies while posting notice that ejectment proceedings where underway. The second case occured on March 22nd when Gregory Bellows of 4320 Mitchell shot himself when Sheriff's Deputies arrived enforce a Writ of Possession.
PhillyShortSale411.com has investigated both cases. We started this investigation today with the hope that we would be able to find some great inspirational lesson that would be helpful to other people facing foreclosure or maybe to agents who do short sales everyday. When that wasn't working out we thought maybe we could figure out what we could have done to help these people. Unfortunately, all we found is 2 examples of people who lost hope and didn't see a way out.
It is easy to see why these people might feel hopeless. The woman, living alone, with no family, can't find a job. she could sell and walk away with a few thousand bucks but then where does she go? The man living for years off the equity in his house, again no family, no income, no credit, where is he going to live. He could do a Short Sale but where does he go from there? I can't answer these questions.
All we can do is help people who can't pay for their houses but still have hope for their future. People who are ready to move on and make the best out of their situation. There I have been times when I have faced financial difficulties in my life. I just did the best with what I had. I always saw some hope in the future.
So, we did do an investigation of the causes of these 2 foreclosures and a quick financial analysis of both situations. Here is what we found;
See the Original Broadcast Here
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Lynda Clark, 1833 S Newkirk St, Philadelphia, PA 19145
Lynda Clark purchased her three bedroom, 1120sf townhouse for $66,000 in March of 2002. At that time she took a 75/15 conventional first/ ARM 2nd mortgage. She did a cash out refi in March of 2006 and pocketed about $30,000. It was at or around that time when Lynda lost her job.
With no income, her savings gone and her car repossessed Lynda could not make her monthly mortgage payments. The foreclosure action was commenced by Household Finance Consumer Discount Company on October 30, 2008. Not being found by process servers and failing to appear for all scheduled hearings Lynda's home was Sold by the Philadelphia County Sheriff on August 4, 2009. The ejectment case began on February 5, 2010. Again Lynda was not found by process servers. It was while making a second effort to serve notice of the ejectment case that her body was found.
After reviewing comparable Sold Properties and inspecting the exterior of Lynda's home, PhillyShortSale411.com has estimated the value of the property to be $120,000.
Market Value $120,000.
Mortgage Judgment $101,251.
Car Loan Judgment $ 7,760.
Closing Costs $ 7,200.
Net Proceeds $ 3,789.
Had Lynda sold the property she would have paid off all of her recorded judgments, avoided foreclosure and had a fresh start. In this case the primary cause of the foreclosure was unemployment not the financing of the property. Her mortgage was probably a fully-qualified Prime conventional.
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Gregory Bellows, 4320 Mitchell Street, Philadelphia, PA 19128. The Bellows home was first purchased by Gregory's father, Rex, and mother, Dorothy, in 1958. Rex died in 1998. In 2001 Dorothy was unable to pay taxes and insurance on the property and secured a line of credit for $8,000. Dorothy died June 10, 2001. On November 12, 2002 Gregory did a cash out refi for $25,000 while paying off the line of credit. This is when the debt on the property began to grow. By November 14, 2006, Gregory had refinanced the property 6 times. The final refi was for $219,100.
After reviewing comparable Sold Properties and inspecting the exterior of the subject property, PhillyShortSale411.com has estimated the value of Gregory's home to be $210,000.
Market Value $210,000.
Mortgage Judgment $247,052 .
Other Judgment $ 13,193.
Closing Costs $ 16,800.
Deficiency $ 67,045.
If he had done a short sale he could have paid off all of his debt and walked away from the property. Looking at the file it is clear that Gregory was living off the equity in the property after his mother died. The cause of this foreclosure was bad financial planning and the easy availability of credit, during those years, for non income qualified borrowers. The mortgage was most likely an Alt-A or Sub-Prime Conventional.
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May they Rest In Peace.
We have included with this story a copy of the YouTube Video of our investigation. If you are viewing a re-post of this blog and the video doesn't show up go to http://www.phillyshortsale411.com/video-blog/ and check out Mar 31, 2010.
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