There is a very real side to the foreclosure crisis that our entire nation is facing.  Does anyone care about the silent victims of the mortgage meltdown?  Do we think about who occupied the bedrooms that are being abandoned and auctioned off as if they were some unknown baseball player's rookie card?  Well, I do!  There is a side to me that knows first-hand what it feels like to loose the only bedroom that I ever knew.  There is a side to me that knows what the heartache, fear, confusion, and isolation feels like when a family looses their home to foreclosure.  At the age of eight my family home was taken in the foreclosure process. 

In 1986 a huge winter storm hit the greater Sacramento area and caused a substantial flood.  For over forty-eight hours there was four feet of water in my childhood home.  We are not talking about tap water, this water was bad water.  Needless to say the magnitude of damage that resulted from this storm was great.  So great that my family was unable to manage it.  Within months we lost our house to foreclosure.  This was the only house that I ever knew.  I had celebrated birthdays, holidays, groundings, loss of teeth, first days of schools, the loss of pets, and all of my daily routines in this house.  This was my foundation.  When we lost our house my foundation was rocked.  I am writing from the emotional point of view because these emotions are very real.  I am now thirty years old with a family of my own and the experience of losing my childhood home to foreclosure is still very real to me.  I am reminded of the ramifications of this experience every time I watch the news and see the daily real estate market update, listen to National Public Radio as I am driving with my children, or go to work. 

This may be our reality today but we need to remember the human aspect of this national, nearly global crisis.  The children are the silent victims in this mess.  While showing bank-owned properties I dreaded opening bedroom doors because when I did I saw the paint, wallpaper, growth charts, abandoned stuffed animals and toys, that told the story of some child's first years of life.  I challenge my colleagues, I almost beg you to remember the human side of the foreclosure process.  Yes, some of your clients, maybe even you, may "score" a killer deal on an REO but in order for the deal to even be available to you, someone's dreams had to be shattered. 

If we all consider the humanity that runs through all of us, perhaps we will be more of a support system for our clients facing the nightmare of foreclosure.  While we are lending our shoulders and our hearts to the property owners, let us also remember the children that are forced to deal with a very grown-up circumstance at such young ages.  Let us all take a moment and consider what the children need from the family Realtor.... 

- Heidi Rothery   

Rothery Home Team